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The Battalion
Serving the University community
Vol. 76 No. 190 USPS 045360 28 Pages In 2 Sections
College Station, Texas
Wednesday, August 31, 1983 i
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United Press International
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Chal-
nger’s astronauts launched a multi-
lurpose Indian satellite today to fill a
rap in that nation’s long distance tele
phone and television systems and
naintain an around-the-clock cyclone
atch.
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Guion Bluford, America’s first
ity shm * n space, sent the boxy satellite
pe bensi P' nn * n g hke a top out of the space
reighter’s cargo bay at 3:49 a.m.
IDT as the shuttle swept 184 miles
iver India on its 18th orbit.
■ M It was the sixth satellite launched
T jHBrom a shuttle in N ASA’s effort to use
he ships to replace unmanned
—ockets
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’ FIRST
was operating the space medicine
machine to separate living pituitary
gland and kidney cells for study back
on Earth.
Bluford, commander Richard
Truly, co-pilot Daniel Brandenstein,
Dale Gardner and Dr. William
Thornton then moved their 219,000-
und ship above and behind the
atellite before its own rocket fired to
5 lush it toward a 23,000-mile-high
™ )rbit.
The astronauts were concentrat-
ng on commercial jobs during their
cond day in orbit — earning NASA
|14 million by launching the satellite
and running a biological processor
for an aerospace company. Gardner
Successful placement of the $50
million Insat-IB satellite in the prop
er path at sunrise over India today by
the “Eight Team” as NASA calls
them, was crucial because a twin
failed last September when a naviga
tion sensor mistook the moon for the
India leased some communica
tions channels for interim service
from a Soviet satellite but that agree
ment ends next week. The new
spacecraft, which carries an $8 mil
lion insurance premium, is expected
to begin service in mid-October.
The satellite is equipped to relay
8,000 simultaneous long distance
telephone calls and to beam social and
educational television programming
directly to 100,000 antennas placed in
rural communities across the country
of 613 million people.
The Indian government hopes the
satellite will turn out to be a lifesaver
for the cycloneprone eastern coastal
areas. The spacecraft will be able to
send disaster warnings to 100 stations
in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu
states.
staff photo by Guy Hood
Fountain duel
Brad Myers, left, a junior computer science major from
Austin, and Kelly Fergason, a sophomore electrical
engineering major from Whitney, stage a fencing
exhibition by Rudder fountain Tuesday afternoon. The
two were promoting the Texas A&M Fencing Club.
They also performed in the Memorial Student Center.
. t Vest Point graduate wanted to be his own boss
Ex-Green Beret finds a home teaching at A&M
by Rusty Roberts
Battalion Reporter
A 34-year-old former West Pointer and ex-
Green Beret is teaching political science at
I'exas A&M because he says found army life
too structured.”
Assistant Professor William West joined the
82nd Airborne Division after graduating
om West Point because he wanted to be his
own boss. He said he chose the 82nd because it
nked highest in the chain of command.
“I thought getting into the 82nd would be a
;ood ‘ticket to punch’,” West said, “but I really
ated the tremendous demands placed on my
me.”
West was a platoon leader at Fort Bragg,
N.C., for two years of his four-year obligation.
He said his own self-discipline was what
helped him survive those two years.
“I thought West Point was a great teacher
of discipline and structure,” he said. “But the
Army was too structured. It took my identity
and made me feel like a cog in a
achine.
“I wanted the Army as a career, but there’s
no way I could have been happy in such a
structured atmosphere.
“I’m not at all bitter about changing my
career ambitions or regretful of the time I
spent at the academy or in the military be
cause West Point taught me how to think and
the army taught me how to discipline my life.”
But after two years with the 82nd Airborne,
West decided he no longer wanted an Army
career and joined the Green Berets to fill his
remaining two years with a little excitement.
“I knew the Green Berets did interesting
things and I wanted to have some fun and still
be challenged,” West said.
Rock climbing in Utah and skiing in Monta
na were fun, he said, but parachuting into
pitch black darkness was more than challeng
ing. It was crazy.
He grinned as he told about a parachute
drop that turned into a circus of sorts.
“I was the last one out of the plane one
night on a training mission,” he said, “and I
couldn’t see what was below me. Suddenly, I
jerked to a halt and realized I was stuck in a
tree. I could see two other men on top of a tin
barn and a third soaking in a pigpen.
“I knew immediately that this wasn’t the
open pasture we were supposed to land in.
“After a minute or so, three farmers hur
riedly piled out of a pick-up and cut me down.
I laughed thinking that Green Berets are sup
posed to rescue the natives, not be rescued by
them.”
West said helping other people is a primary
goal in his life.
“I think I give good advice when colleagues
and students approach me with a problem,”
West said.
He said he likes to think most problems are
easy to solve, but said circumstances can arise
making solutions more difficult. West said he
always has been willing to work with those
“gray area problems.”
“My best friend at West Point couldn’t
understand this,” he said. “If another cadet
even vaguely violated the honor code (Don’t
lie, cheat, steal or tolerate those who do), he’d
simply turn their ass in. Period.
“He wouldn’t listen to explanations from
anyone, not even from me. However; he was
still my friend, hardheaded or not,” West said.
West takes pride in his friendships, just as
he prides himself as an interesting teacher.
“I consider myself a good scholar,” he said.
“I’ll go that extra yard in both teaching and
research to do the best job possible.”
He said creating a good atmosphere is very
important to teaching, but each class has its
own personality and teachers must work with
in the temperment of the class.
West said he’ll even tolerate a class clown if
it fits the personality of the class.
“I have a black digital watch with four red
buttons on either side that looks like some
thing out of Buck Rogers,” he said, “and at
times students interrupt class and ask ques
tions about it.
“A young lady asked what functions the
watch could perform so I explained that it was
a stop watch and alarm clock. But before I
could finish, another student butted in and
m
ostages freed in
none killed in five
Tehran,
-day seige
United Press International
Four hijackers holding an Air
‘ France jetliner freed all their 15
Postages at Tehran Airport to
day, ending the five-day drama,
an official at the airport said.
“The hostages are well but
they have been taken to a hospit
al for a check-up,” the official,
eached by telephone from Lon
don, said.
The airport official said all
four hijackers surrendered to
police. But the French news re
ports said one of the hijackers
insisted, at least temporarily on
staying in the Boeing 727 that
was hijacked Saturday over
Europe.
The official said he did not
know if the hijackers had won
concessions but a French repor
ter at the scene said the Iranian
government apparently prom
ised the four Arabic speaking
gunmen political asylum.
Before releasing their hos
tages the four had threatened to
kill them if France did not pull
out its troops from Chad and
Lebanon and stop providing
Iraq with credits for buying
French fighters jets.
The hijackers Tuesday night
threatened to force the jetliner
into the air and blow it up over
Iraq with their 15 hostages
aboard, but Iranian authorities
denied the pilot takeoff permis
sion and blocked the runway.
At the same time, the hijack
ers offered to trade hostages for
French Charge d’Affaires Jean
Perrin. It was not immediately
clear if the flight crew would be
included in a swap and there was
no immediate word from the
French government.
inside
Around town 8
Classified 10
Local 3
Opinions 2
Sports 17
State 5
forecast
Today will be partly cloudy and
hot with a high in the mid 90s.
Winds will be from the southwest
from 5 to 10 miles per hour.
Tonight will be fair and warm with
lows in the mid 70s. Southerly
winds will be from 5 to 10 mph.
Tomorrow will be partly cloudy
with a 40 percent chance of show
ers. The high will be in the mid 90s
with winds light and variable.
U.S. military force
to stay in Lebanon
United Press International
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — Pres
ident Reagan plans no changes in the
current size and role of America’s
1,200-man military force in Lebanon
despite the death of two Marines in
Beirut fighting.
White House spokesman Larry
Speakes told reporters Monday that
Reagan, acting on the advice of his
top-level aides, decided there will be
no adjustments in the status, numbers
or responsibility of the Marines in the
four-nation peacekeeping force in
Lebanon.
“The key element of the U.S. poli
cy continues to be support of the
Lebanese government,” Speakes said.
The recommendations were made
by a special crisis group, headed by
Vice President George Bush, after a
meeting in Washington Monday.
Speakes said Reagan agreed with
suggestions that there be no change in
U.S. participation in the peace
keeping force that also includes
French, Italian and British troops.
At the same time, the Bush panel
directed a review of the War Powers
Act to ensure the administration is
complying with provisions requiring
regular reports to Congress whenev
er American troops are deployed.
Reagan called the families of the
two dead Marines to express his con
dolences.
staff photo by John Makely
Time for a facelift
The Academic Building’s exterior restoration is
progressing slowly but surely. This worker is shown
sanding down the stone near the top of the structure.
The restoration project is scheduled to be completed in
September of 1984.
asked if it could defrost a turkey he had sitting
at home.”
West said such outbreaks help loosen class
structure and allow him to be natural when he
teaches. A comfortably structured atmos
phere is how West said he likes to teach and do
research.
“At A&M, I can choose which books I teach
from and which subjects I research,” he said.
West said Texas A&M gives him the free
time he needs to be his own individual and not
a cog in a machine.
“I have ample free time to do as much
research as I want to do,” he said. “This way I
can be thorough enough to compete with
other scholars who also are trying to publish
articles on the same subject.”
West has been successful already in pub
lishing material he has researched. All five
articles he has submitted have been published
and he now is working on his first book, which
deals with regulatory agencies.
Struggle
develops
in Israel
United Press International
JERUSALEM — A power struggle
developed today between Foreign
Minister Yitzhak Shamir and Deputy
Prime Minister David Levy over who
will succeed Menachem Begin as
prime minister of Israel.
The succession battle began Tues
day after Begin affirmed his Sunday
decision to resign despite entreaties
by his Likud coalition executive com
mittee.
“I cannot continue. I cannot go
on,” one participant at the meeting
.quoted the 70-year-old prime minis
ter as saying.
Begin looked frail as he left the
emergency meeting and was driven
off in a bulletproof limousine. Sup
porters chanted for him to retract his
decision.
The Israeli leader did agree to de
lay handing in his official resignation
letter, in order to give his Likud coali
tion time to build a government be
fore he steps down and to deprive the
opposition Labor Party of a chance at
leadership.
The first step in building a govern
ment is to have his Herut Party pick a
successor — but a struggle immedi
ately broke out Tuesday between par
ty leaders Shamir and Levy, two of
Begin s closest partners.
The eight Cabinet ministers be-;
longing to Herut, including Levy and
Shamir, met through the afternoon
and into the evening but failed to de
cide on a successor.