—,Mom making calls
1 Son delayed
I shape,”
elephone
‘w York,
ming for
e directly
handling
ay. They
)ortive all
the 60-
h opened
deludes a
stay and
tokesman
The long,
gram in-
id medic-
•inpatient
to a year
i Alcoho-
a similar
nation.
United Press International
SAN ANTONIO — A deter-
nined mother’s telephone calls
o the While House, 5th Army
leadquarters, Gov. Mark
Write, two congressmen and a
enator have produced some
ympathy, but little hope of get-
ngher soldier son home in time
jr Christmas.
Patricia Garza said Tuesday
ther son, Pfc. Steven Garza,
9,and about 300 other U.S. ser-
icemen in Korea probably lost
heir chance to spend Ghristmas
(home because their commer-
ialairline flight was canceled.
Garza’s flight plans now call
orhim to be home Dec. 28, but
dsmother said that was not soon
nough and there was no
uarantee he will make it then.
The young soldier’s problem
egan"when his tour of duty,
cheduled to end in early
lovember, was extended for 30
days for lack of replacements.
He was supposed to fly home
Dec. 9 with 300 other service
men, but the flight was canceled.
“The Army is saying it cannot
charter another commercial
flight,” Mrs. Garza said. ‘‘I
asked, ‘why don’t you call the Air
Force? Aren’t you guys on the
same side?”’
Mrs. Garza said she called
Gov. White, 5th Army Head
quarters, the White House, U.S.
Sen. John Tower, R-Texas; U.S.
Rep. Tom Loeffler, R-Texas;
and U.S. Rep. Henry Gonzalez,
D-Texas.
The governor’s people were
“out to lunch,” she said, and the
While House said an inquiry
would take eight to 10 days.
Tower’s office, which did not
know the senator’s immediate
Wednesday, December 14, 1983/The Battalion/Page 11
abroad
whereabouts, said there was no
thing the Army could do.
“The secretaries in the offices
were very nice but not very
effective,” Mrs. Garza said.
But Gonzalez, who does not
represent the woman’s district,
offered his assistance.
“It could be a curtailment in
the services provided to active
servicemen and that would be
deplorable,” Gonzalez said.
“There’s no reason otherwise
why the young man couldn’t be
flown back. I’m going to try to
insist that, insofar as possible,
they provide military transpor
tation.”
Meanwhile, Garza is on stand
by travel, and his superiors want
him to return to work while he
awaits a flight from Korea.
New soil tester invented
United Press International
LUBBOGK — A soil chem
ist tinkering with items found
around his house and lab has
created a simple soil testing
machine that performs tasks
done by mass-produced tes
ters costing thousands of dol
lars.
Extension service chemist
Dale Pennington, 44, has built
a miniature assembly line that
shakes, moves and tests soil
samples contained in small
cups. It has been used to test
for nitrogen nitrate since May,
and he plans to build three
more machines to test for
three more chemicals.
A modified hedge trimmer
mechanism does the shaking;
a chain about the size of a
small combine chain holds
and moves the cups in a lop
sided circle around several
controls including timers and
a priniout of th<=» results.
The electrical contraption
is run by a motor that used to
drive a ballroom light, he said.
Pennington originally had
fruit jar lids holding the cups
on the chain, but they have
been replaced with more
sophisticated-looking steel
rings.
A lift device he designed
while a Texas A&M student
13 years ago is a key part of the
machine, which some lab
workers have dubbed “the
beast,” but which he calls
La’Sas for Lubbock Auto
mated Soil Analysis System.
The lift lowers a probe into
each cup at the proper time.
The cup contains a farmer’s
soil sample suspended in a li
quid. The probe tests the sam
ple for the amount of a parti
cular chemical.
“As far as I know this is the
first system in the United
States,” Pennington said dur
ing a recent interview. Other
labs use machines that cost be
tween $25,000 and $40,000,
or else have employees do the
task manually.
“At two minutes a sample
and 240 samples you get a lit
tle bit tired and bored,” Pen
nington said of the manual
method. “This equipment eli
minates the boring process
and gains time because sam-
f )les can be tested during
unch and coffee breaks.”
Calling necessity the
mother of invention, he said
the automation also freed lab
employees to do other types of
tests while hastening the test
ing of samples submitted by
farmers from 102 Texas
counties.
The lab receives up to
4,000 samples a month during
its peak time of January and
February. Farmers now re
ceive their test results about a
week after the lab receives the
sample, but Pennington said
he wanted to cut that to three
days.
“With a controlled system
like this, our tests will become
more accurate,” Pennington
said, adding that progress
eventually would include four
machines tied into a $10,000
computer system.
But he said he had to gen
erate more money before he
could afford to buy the link to
connect the computer system
with his machines. Then all a
lab employee will have to do is
load and unload the machine.
“I am going to contact
some foundations to see if I
can get a one-time grant,” he
said.
Pennington said he had
started the process of getting a
patent for his machine.
fit’s first
‘lion, the
n an edit-
>e facility,
r
Patrols
search
for boat
ian
blic. It
if attacks^
d represetb
opmenuke
United Press International
GALVESTON — Coast
uard patrol boats searched
Tuesday for two people last seen
dinging to a capsized boat 200
ards off the south jetty in Gal-
eston Bay.
“A boat came by from out
;ws agencJliere saying a boat had capsized
esday tldj nd that a shrimp boat was out
Jan mtl/ here trying to help two people
nthe capsized boat,” said Coast
aretosem 1 '“ard Petty Officer John Dec.
a pretextfj W L ere n u ot sure . , t t ^ were
piracies ad P u ^ 1 t T t ° sh ? re or lf they re out
non andik ' ere -Wf re hoping the shrimp
i said oat did bring them ashore, hut
■harged f 1 ew i s h e d th e y would tell us ab-
itbassy,jf l it -” Dec saul
to imprai
the atm mere was no sign ot the pa
hen the Coast Guard reached
many nttii ^overturned 18-foot pleasure
runt\ n;:' O' 3 * 1
ths,” Griffi
he rubbki
“We
themJ
complelfc
group, li
esponsibl
same grat
it previoi
at the Uf
triers ao
jraveL
Cordicill y in eites
you to attend their
Open House
celebrating their
Grand ()petiitig
Tuesday. Decetnher 20. 1082
from 2 p.tn. until 4 p.tti.
~()~ r Texas At e.. Suite 1218
Drawing for free Mexico trip!
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THRU Saturday, 12/17/83
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