Texas Af>M - - V •
The Battalion
U 83 Mo. 26 GSPS 045360 10 pages
College Station, Texas
Monday, October 6, 1986
Regents’ committee OKs merit-raise policy
By Sondra Pickard
Senior Staff Writer
The Texas A&M Board of Regents’ Bud
gets and Planning Committee on Saturday
approved a new 1987 employee salary pol
icy since the Legislature appropriated no
funds for salary increases for faculty or
other university employees.
A bill passed by the Legislature in its sec-
B ond special session canceled the 3 percent
across-the-board increases first mandated
- for non-faculty personnel, but will allow
agencies and institutions to grant merit sal
ary increases “to employees whose job per
formance and productivity is consistently
above that normally expected or required.’’
Under the new policy, since no funds
were appropriated specifically for salary in
creases, the ability to award merit increases
may vary among institutions and agencies.
But each institution and agency can use
available funding to the extent possible to
reward and retain its best people.
The salaries in the updated fiscal year
1987 budgets will be revised so that those
who were hired on or after Sept. 1, 1986,
will continue to be paid at the agreed hiring
rate. Also, those who were promoted on or
after that date will continue to be paid at
the agreed promotion rate.
Chancellor Perry Adkisson presented
figures to board members showing a 6.9
percent decrease — about f 18 million — in
the available System general revenue fund
as a result of the budget cuts. The Universi
ty’s portion of the fund was reduced by 5.9
percent, or $8.7 million, leaving A&M’s
portion at just over $139.2 million.
“We’ll be able to manage all of these re
ductions without any major losses of per
sonnel,” Adkisson said.
Regent John Mobley said special provi
sions in the appropriations bill provide
greater flexibility for transfer of funds be
tween programs within college and univer
sity systems and require that all salary ad
justments be made on a merit basis.
The additional salary funds appropri
ated during the Legislature’s regular ses
sion for the current fiscal year reverted to
the general fund, he said. Therefore, salary
increases must come from existing funds
and savings from the previous year. The
Legislature allowed each component of the
System to carry forward these funds, Mob
ley said.
“The Legislature has not mandated sal
ary increases,” he said, “nor have they pro
vided appropriations for raises, even on a
merit basis.
“On the other hand, the bill did clearly
provide that merit increases could be given.
Once again, a dollar saved through efficien
cies is a dollar that we can spend on salary
increases.”
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A Man And His Horse
Mike Farlow, a member of Parson’s Mounted Cav
alry, gets ready to ride at the U.S. Mounted Cav-
Photo by Tom Own bey
airy Association’s annual convention this weekend
in San Antonio. See story and photos, page 5.
Soviets tow nuclear sub;
fire appears to be out
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Soviet
nuclear-powered submarine
crippled by fire began moving slowly
again on its own power Sunday in
the Atlantic, then hooked up a line
to a sister vessel that towed it away
from the U.S. coast, the Pentagon
said.
The fire that killed three crew
men Friday appeared to be out as
the ailing vessel carrying ballistic
missiles limped away to the north
east from its sentry post east of Ber
muda, Pentagon spokesman Maj.
Larry Icenogle said.
The sub began moving early Sun
day afternoon under its own power
at two nautical miles per hour, Ice
nogle said. But a little more than
four hours later, around 5 p.m.
EDT, he reported, “the Soviet sub is
under tow by the Soviet merchant
vessel Krasnogvardeysk.”
A Pentagon official, who asked
not to be quoted by name, said ear
lier that many of the sub’s crew were
evacuated to nearby Soviet merchant
ships.
“As near as we can tell, the fire has
been extinguished,” the source said.
The sub normally carries about
120 people, and a Pentagon official
said, “We know they have taken a lot
of them (the crew) off, but we don’t
have a precise number.”
U.S. P-3 Orion reconnaissance
planes, which have been flying over
the sub 552 miles east of Bermuda
through the weekend, reported that
smoke stopped spewing from the
vessel Sunday morning. No person
nel were observed on the deck of the
sub, Icenogle said.
President Reagan, who learned of
the fire Saturday in a message from
Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, of
fered the U.S. government’s assis
tance, but the White House said
Sunday that the Soviets have not
asked for help.
Tass, the official Soviet news
agency, reported that fire broke out
on the sub 620 miles northeast of
Bermuda. The announcement said
three people were killed but there
was no danger of nuclear explosion
or radiation contamination.
The Pentagon official said it ap
peared most of the crew on the sub,
which normally carries 120 people,
had been moved.
“We know they have taken a lot of
them off, but we don’t have a precise
number,” the source said.
The ship is a Yankee-class subma
rine, which according to Jane’s
Fighting Ships, is an old-class sub
marine that first appeared in the
mid-1960s, capable of carrying 16
missiles. Each ship has two nuclear
reactors to drive two steam turbines.
Secretary of State George Shultz,
appearing on ABC’s “This Week
with David Brinkley,” said that the
information received from U.S.
planes flying overhead indicates that
“there’s no additional radioactivity
in the atmosphere.”
Tests to determine whether any
radioactivity is in the water have not
been concluded, according to Mi-
See Submarine, page 10
Plane crashed with cargo
of explosives, officials say
Shultz’s statements show change
in U.S. policy on disinformation
WASHINGTON (AP) — More than any of its pre
decessors, the Reagan administration has sought to
portray the Soviet Union as a nation intent on under
cutting the United States through dissemination of
false information.
Thus, reporters and analysts were surprised last
week when Secretary of State George P. Shultz said
leaked disinformation is an appropriate tactic if it ad
vances the administration’s foreign policy goals.
The issue came to a head after the Washington Post
reported Thursday that the administration had ap
proved a “disinformation program” six weeks ago to
weaken Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi politically
and make him think the United States may launch a
military attack.
of a reporter at a
that the Post article
Shultz disputed the sugge
Thursday night news confere
constituted a serious charge.
“If I were a private citizen . . . and I read that my
government was trying to confuse somebody who was
conducting terrorist acts and murdering Americans,
I’d say, ‘Gee, I hope it’s true,’ ” he said.
While both Shultz and President Reagan agreed that
no false stories were planted in the American press,
Shultz’s defense of the general concept of disinforma
tion contrasted sharply with previous administration
statements on the subject.
The administration has issued over the years several
See Disinformation, page 10
SAN ANTONIO (AP) — The ci
vilian cargo plane that crashed be
tween two buildings at Kelly Air
Force Base and killed its three-man
crew was carrying explosives, Penta
gon officials said.
The Lockheed Hercules L-100
crashed before dawn Saturday, bur
sting into flames and forcing the
evacuation of six workers in one of
the buildings.
Pentagon spokeswoman Elaine
Mares said the plane was carrying
rocket motors and detonating de
vices considered “Class B” explo
sives, the San Antonio Light re
ported Sunday.
“Thank goodness it happened on
a weekend,” base spokeswoman
Phoebe Brown said. “There weren’t
many people at work. But I’m sorry
it turned out the way it did.”
The plane apparently had just
taken off, but lost power, Brown
said. It landed between the base op
erations building and a maintenance
hangar, which it hit, and narrowly
missed a dormitory where about 270
base employees were sleeping,
Brown said.
Witnesses told the San Antonio
Light that several smaller explosions
were heard after the initial impact.
Debris was scattered across a 200-
yard area around the runway and
left only the tail section intact.
The cause of the crash is being in
vestigated by National Transporta
tion Safety Board officials.
The plane was operated by Mi
ami-based Southern Transport Inc.,
which has a contract with the Air
Force. It was bound for Warner-Ro-
bins, Ga.
Southern Air Transport spokes
man Bill Kress in Miami identified
the dead as the pilot, Capt. Peter
Sammet, 52, of San Rafael, Calif.,
the co-pilot, 1st Officer Phillip De-
Witness says collision
sounded like thunder
SAN ANTONIO (AP) — It
was shortly after 4 a.m. when Air
man Eric Spellman was suddenly
awakened by what he thought
was a clap of thunder.
“Then some kid came running
around the hall saying some
plane had crashed,” the airman
said.
Just outside his dormitory win
dow, an explosives-ladden cargo
plane had just failed to complete
a takeoff, smashing into a hangar
across the street from Spellman’s
living quarters.
Spellman said as he and about
270 occupants filed out of Build
ing 1650, he could see orange
flames leaping 50 feet into the
night sky.
“It was just all over the place, a
bunch of black smoke,” Spellman
said.
The plane had clipped Build
ing 1610 — base operations —
and then slammed into a mainte
nance hangar on Kelly Air Force
Base.
Witnesses leaving their rooms
said they heard several explosions
after the initial collision.
Firefighters at a station adja
cent to the hangar quickly arrived
at the scene and began hosing
down the burning wreckage.
Cenzo, 31, of Stow, Ohio, and flight
engineer Leon Mulcahey, 60, of Sac
ramento, Calif.
Kress said this is the first major ac
cident in the 39-year history of the
company, which transports only
cargo, not military personnel.
He said the plane was one of 12
recently leased from Trans-Amer
ica, an Oakland, Calif.-based airline.
The four-engine turboprop,
which is the civilian version of the
military C-130, is worth about $7.75
million, Kress said, and had gone
through an intensive inspection be
fore being flown by Southern Air.
The plane missed about 20 differ
ent fighter aircraft but heavily dam
aged two fighter planes owned by
the Honduran government that
were undergoing repairs by a pri
vate contractor in the maintenance
hangar, Kelly officials said.
The Honduran fighter planes
were not destroyed, but damage esti
mates were not available.
The flight was part of LOGAIR, a
network of civilian planes that do
contract work for the Air Force.
The Kelly airfield is one of five re
gional logistics centers around the
nation that keep the Air Force sup
plied with spare parts and maintain
aircraft and jets.
Thousands of aircraft use the air
field to shuttle parts to other logistics
centers and bases, and giant C-5
cargo planes and other aircraft fly in
daily for routine maintenance work.
A&M faculty, staff praise pilot missing after crash
By Janet Wynne
Reporter
Several members of the campus
community spoke with high regard
last week for Marine 1st Lt. Charles
Kelly Castleberry, former com
mander of the Texas A&M Corps of
Cadets, as they recalled his career
here.
The Coast Guard on Thursday
suspended the search for Castle
berry, Class of’82, and Maj. Christo-
her J. Brammer. The two Marines
ave been missing since their F-4
Phantom jet collided with another
fighter off the coast of Georgia Sept.
23.
Col. James Woodall, commandant
of the Corps during Castleberry’s ca
reer here, called him an “outstand
ing young man.”
“Kelly and I talked daily when he
was the Corps commander,” Wood-
all said. “We were very close. He had
a great sense of humor, and every
thing else you’d want in a young
man. He was a good student, a good
cadet, a good commander — a good
person.”
Castleberry graduated cum laude
from A&M in May 1982 with a bach
elor’s degree in agronomy. He was
the recipient of the prestigious
Brown-Rudder Award, presented
each spring to a graduating senior
who has excelled in both academics
and leadership. The recipient of the
award is chosen by faculty and stu
dents.
Lt. Col. Donald J. Johnson, assis
tant commandant of the Corps, re
called that Castleberry originally
hadn’t planned to join the Corps.
But at summer orientation, Castle
berry learned that if he joined the
Corps he’d be guaranteed on-cam-
pus housing, so he signed up, John
son said.
Sometime before his junior year,
Castleberry decided he wanted to be
an officer in the Marines and be
come a pilot, Johnson said.
Johnson described Castleberry as
an outstanding man — both person
able and thoughtful.
, Dr. Murray Milford, agronomy
E rofessor, recalled having Castle-
erry in class.
“I thought the world of Kelly,”
Milford said. “I knew him from his
first days here until the day he grad
uated. This situation (the plane colli
sion) is very sad.
“He was a truly exceptional man.
He was very popular with the other
students, and always at, or near, the
top of the class. He was the type of
student you wish you had 99 percent
of rather than one percent.”
Dr. Carolyn Adair, director of stu
dent activities, said, “Kelly was a
wonderful young man — very active
and always anxious to plan things.”
Lt. Gen. Ormond Simpson said he
had great admiration for Castle
berry.
“He was extremely competent in
the Corps at A&M,” Simpson said.
“Everybody knew when Kelly was
around. He was quiet, but forceful.
Kelly didn’t make waves, but he al
ways got his point across and things
got accomplished.
“Kelly was one of the best and the
brightest. As far as potential goes, he
was in the top 1 percent.”