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VERY
The Batta on
Serving the University community
pol 78 No. 67 USPS 0453110 10 pages
College Station, Texas
Tuesday, December 6,1983
yrians warned
)f self-defense
United Press International
JASHINGTON — Secretary of
f George Shultz, repeatedly warn-
Syria that “we will defend
elves,” declared Monday that
ricaand its allies will persevere in
i Lebanon peace-keeping mis-
[he Middle East is now tormented
[“great points of tension,” but the
led States will keep its Marines in
linon, he said.
jiultz, who leaves before dawn lo
an an eight-day trip to Western
J >e and North Africa, told a
ed State Department news con-
Ince following attacks on U.S.
|nes in the multinational force
.S. Navy aircraft, “We will de-
J ourselves.”
■Ije repeated this phrase emphatic-
everal times in his answer to qus-
here’s no change anticipated” in
[ole of the Marines, White House
sman Larry Speakes also said,
ng, “No action under the war
rs act is necessary”,
here’s no plan for them (the
nes) to go to a combat role,”
kes said.
cakes said a warning to Syria to
ain from further attacks” on
rican spy planes was included in
:er sent to the United Nations,
!lp.
which emphasized that Sunday’s U.S.
raid on Syrian positions in Lebanon
was a single “measure taken in self-
defense in response to Syrian attacks
on unarmed U.S. reconnaissance
flights.”
He said the U.S. surveillance flights
pinpointing Syrian positions will con
tinue, and the letter told Syria to “re
frain from further attacks” on the
American aircraft.
“They flew yesterday” to assess
damage by U.S. strikes, he said, but
none were ordered Monday.
“We will respond if attacked and we
will continue (reconnaissance
flights),” Speakes said.
Two U.S. light bombers were shot
down during the weekend raid laun
ched by 28 American attack jets,
which knocked out Syrian anti
aircraft and missile placements.
“The Syrians tell us one airman has
died and one is being held,” Speakes
said. He said the letter asks the Sy
rians to return the airmen lost in the
raid.
The air strikes were the biggest
conducted by the United States since
the Vietnam war and the downing of
an A-6E and an A-7E marked the first
American combat losses of fixed-wing
aircraft since that conflict.
Early Monday Syrian Ambassador
Rafic Jouejati defended his country’s
attempts to bring down the surveill
ance flights, saying the flights jeopar
dized Syrian troops.
Jouejati said the body of the airman
killed in Sunday’s raid would be re
turned through the U.S. Embassy in
Damascus, but that the airman taken
prisoner, identifed as Lt. Robert
Goodman, will not be returned “until
the end of the war.”
Speakes said the government was
in contact with Damascus regarding
the lost airmen but would not go into
details.
Eight Marines were killed and two
wounded in shelling on the Beirut air
port Sunday 11 hours after U.S. fight
er planes bombed Syrian mountain
positions.
The White House spokesman de
fended the propriety of the U.S. re
connaissance flights, saying they were
undertaken “after an all-out assault
on the Marines some months ago.
Our objective was to protect the
Marines.”
The Pentagon reported Monday
that analysis showed three major Sy
rian positions were hit and almost all
the specific targets were either des
troyed or damaged in the attack.
Speakes said the United States is in
Lebanon “for the purpose of restor
ing the sovereignty of Lebanon. Our
purpose is to see that that happens .
and to protect our Marines.”
ix of 8 Marines killed
fere reported off-duty
fA
United Press International
EIRUT —- On the dusty peri-
er of Beirut airport, six off-duty
Marines settled in to sleep in the
|ty of their reinforced bunker,
n they heard the sound of battle,
went to help four friends,
t was a fatal mistake,
heir tiny outpost took a direct hit
m a mortar shell Sunday night,
ing eight of them. Two others,
llycut by shrapnel but not critically
ured, were being flown back Mon-
to the United States,
iood men moved out of protec-
unkers and into a fighting posi-
L They felt it was the thing to do,
I don’t fault ‘em. I wish now they
n't,” said their battalion comman-
1 Lt. Col. Ray Smith, his hands
ing slightly.
jn the Marine base Monday, the
earth diggers from the new
Sine unit, which arrived two weeks
in Lebanon from Grenada, con-
led to deepen bunkers. Teams of
Marines worked under the sun filling
sandbags.
“We were very fortunate to take as
many rounds as we did and not have
more casualties than we had,” Smith
said. “If it hadn’t been for a lucky hit
we would probably have had no
casualties.”
All day Sunday, the Marines had
been on their highest alert rating —
Condition 1 — virtually “leaning for
ward in their foxholes” in expectation
of an attack after the first U.S. bomb
ing run against the Syrian army,
according to Marine Commander
Brig. Gen. Jim Jov.
Night had fallen on the flat U.S.
base when a shootout between the
Lebanese army and rebel Moslem
militiamen spread to include Marine
positions on the airport perimeter.
“We took small arms fire as close as
100 meters — 23mm (antiaircraft)
fire — probably thousands of
rounds,” Smith said. “We took rocket-
propelled grenades and smaller
machine-gun fire from positions 200
to 700 meters away.”
At a position near a Lebanese army
outpost, a four-man Marine evening
watch entered the battle, responding
to fire coming from the east and
southeast. “We used everything we
had, artillery, naval gunfire, tanks,”
Smith said.
The six off-duty guards of the post
— a sniper team, reconnaisance men
and a machine-gun crew — soon left
their protective bunkers to join the
battle.
“They heard their buddies in trou
ble and went to help them,” one
Marine said.
“This position should probably not
have had more than four men on
top,” Joy said. “However, we were on
Condition 1, we were heavily en
gaged, the men up there were heavily
engaged.
“A 120mm mortar round hit on
top, and we lost eight very fine, young
Americans and two wounded in ac-_
tion.”
)uadriplegic wishes to die,
stifles in Superior Court
United Press International
IVERSIDE, Calif. — A quadriple-
who wants to starve herself to
ith with the cooperation of doctors
the courts said Monday she re-
its the publicity her case has gener-
‘ and wishes only to die in peace.
Si inside
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cleared
jury
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Elizabeth Bouvia, 26, handicapped
with cerebral palsy since birth, sought
a preliminary injunction in Superior
Court that would prevent doctors at
Riverside General Hospital from
force feeding her.
Conditions of the requested in-
Explosions
necessitate
evacuation
United Press International
HIGHLANDS — A wall of flames
leaping as high as 100 feet in the air
roared through a chemical plant, set
ting off explosions every few minutes
and prompting fire fighters to evacu
ate some 600 people, authorities said.
One fire fighter was injured fight
ing the huge blaze, which broke out
about 7:20 p.m. at Hi-Port Industries,
about 30 miles east of Houston, the
Department of Public Safety said.
Several firefighters were treated
for minor smoke inhalation at the
scene, but there were no reports of
any other serious injuries.
Richard Bosley, a fire fighter with
the Highlands Volunteer Fire De
partment, was listed in satisfactory
condition at Gulf Coast Hospital with
first-degree hot water burns on his
legs, a hospital spokeswoman said.
Fire fighters went door-to-door
and used a loud speaker to warn resi
dents in a 2-mile radius of the 8-acre
chemical facility to leave their homes.
See BLAZE page 8
junction stipulate that Bouvia be
given pain killers while she dies, that
hospital employees not be held liable
and that her death not be ruled
suicide, her attorney said.
Bouvia said she checked into the
hospital in September because she
had no where else to go and wanted to
be left alone to starve to death.
“Physically, I had no choice. I can
not do anything for myself,” Bouvia
testified under questioning by her
American Civil Liberties Union attor
ney, Andrew Roth.
“I believe I have fully weighed my
alternatives,” Bouvia said. “I’m fully
aware of the resources available to
me. I chose not use them.”
Roth asked if she realizes the con
sequences of the court order she
seeks.
“Ultimately it would be death,” she
replied.
She later added, “The only thing
that irritates me is the media coverage
and people trying to tell me my alter-
natives and ‘give me a second
chance.’”
Before Bouvia took the stand, a
county attorney insisted she should be
denied the right to refuse medical
care, saying that would amount to
court-sanctioned suicide.
“There can be no other definition,”
Riverside County Counsel Barbara
Milliken said. “Never can there be a
right in a civilized society to tell
others, over their moral objections, to
assist in a suicide.
“Certainly people die in a hospital,
but they die contrary to the efforts of
hospital staff.”
Dr. Richard Scott, also represent
ing Bouvia, said her wish to die does
not impose an immoral demand on
anyone else.
Silver Taps Tonight
Silver Taps will be tonight in honor of Jolie
Camille Mailhos. Mailhos, 22, a senior
marketing major from Bay City, died
Thanksgiving weekend in a plane wreck.
The Department of Student Affairs requests
that lights turned off at 10:20 p.m.
Professor is concerned
with senior grade policy
by Connie Hutterer
Battalion Reporter
“I have a little editorial this morning
before we begin,” Dr. Murray Milford
says to an auditorium full of students
in his soil science class.
He peers through his black horn-
rims, runs his hand across the flat top
of his crew cut, and launches into a
five-minute speech on “kill week.”
“The tradition of turning in senior
grades early ain’t what it used to be,”
Milford says. The faculty is “chapped”
about turning in grades the week be
fore classes end, he says, and even
though that procedure is not related to
the traditional finals exemption,
teachers relate the two. The tradition
is in danger, he says.
Milford suggests delaying gradua
tion for a week to relieve that last-
minute pressure. He asks his students
to see him after class if they have other
solutions he can give to the Faculty
Senate.
“Okay, so much for that...” Milford
closes his editorial, and class begins.
Milford is concerned about his gra
duating seniors — the ones who “come
unstuck” during that last week of clas
ses, who come to his office “shaking, at
the point of exhaustion,” and break
down. He wants his students to think
about the problem, so he gives them a
faculty member’s point of view.
Milford is concerned about all of his
students: graduating and graduated,
present and past.
Editorials are his trademark among
the agriculture majors, geology stu
dents, education majors and others
who take Agronomy 301, soil science.
Milford’s editorial may be a plug for
Silver Taps (he’s Class of ’55), a voter
registration drive, a Crime-Stoppers
report or his traditional 30-minute fin
al message on the world food supply.
“I try not to preach,” Milford says.
“I don’t tell them they should have the
same values I do, but I hope they do
have values and opinions, that they be
involved.”
Students say the editorials are the
best part of his class.
“1 don’t know if that’s a good sign on
my soil science or not,” he says wryly.
But Milford uses those occasional
lapses from scheduled lecture topics to
teach more than the potassium content
of soils, deficiency diseases in crops
and micro-nutrition.
“I want to leave students with a feel
ing of responsibility — that they can
make a difference in the world, that
the survival of mankind depends on
what they do,” he says.
“If anything will be done in the
world, individual people will do it,” he
says.
Milford makes an effort to learn ab
out the individuals in his class. Each
student fills out a card on the first day
of class, telling his name, major, tele
phone number, hometown, faculty
adviser, classification and number of
years at Texas A&M.
During the first week of labs, Mil
ford attends each lab session to photo
graph each student.
“You remember them better if you
take the pictures yourself,” he says.
The students’ cards and mug shots
go into a seating chart Milford uses for
the first part of the semester. When he
has learned the identity of each of his
150 students, the photos go to his
office. At the end of the semester, Mil
ford files the pictures according to
class, and files the cards alphabetically.
Thus, within an arm’s reach of the
telephone, Milford has a cross-
referenced file of every student he has
taught since 1973. Should any of those
students call for a reference or for
advice on a soil science problem, Mil
ford can look the student up by name,
then use the semester photo file to re
member the caller’s student days.
And, yes, he keeps the gradebooks
handy, too. As they chat, Milford re
freshes his memory.
“I do make an effort to know their
names while they’re in my class,” Mil
ford says, “but after 8,000 students,
you forget some.”
Milford’s value for the individual
also shows in his teaching methods.
Because attendance is not required,
he says, “...it gives me motivation to do
something worthwhile in class.”
But with about 150 students each
semester, Milford has learned that
some simply will not show up to class.
“Before the first day of class ends,
one or two or three students have de
cided ‘I don’t like this guy.’” he says. “If
I force them to come to class, it will just
increase their animosity to the subject
I’m trying to teach.
“You can do A work without going
to a single class. There are all kinds of
ways to learn the material.
“There are two, three, four ways to
learn each objective.”
A condensed version of each lecture
is available on tape in the audio
tutorial lab Milford has spent many
years setting up. Students can listen to
the tapes in 24 booths equipped with
tape players and slide projectors, or
they can bring in blank tapes and make
one-minute copies to study at home —
or to experiment with sleep learning.
Lab sessions and field trips also are
taped for students who must juggle
schedules or who simply feel the need
to take a nap and miss a lab.
Students must learn the material,
but they can do it in their own style.
“All that, and people still fail,” Mil
ford sighs. “You can lead a horse to
water, but you can’t make him drink.”
Milford may not require his stu
dents to attend classes, but he does
notice if a “regular” suddenly stops
coming, and he worries about those
who never show up. Once again, his
card file comes in handy: he calls the
student he is concerned about or talks
to the adviser.
One of Milford’s standard editorials
is about a student who stopped coming
to class a few years ago. He didn’t call
See MILFORD page 8