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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (May 20, 1987)
^ lSt 'ftlrillyB” ' 1 ' i il "' lli ^ol. 82 No. 155 CISPS 045360 6 pages College Station, Texas Wednesday, May 20, 1987 •‘fore 11 1 ■■■■"■" —■ 1 ■■ ■ 1 ' ' ■ i ss ihaniiH ■ream com ''tiling els 11 tliai won' ■at ion turn < and 1 Andaya 1 , , ' t ' each oil up in a 'ip bettvr, Lady Tn. Reagan alerts forces Iraqi bombing Death toll climbs to 37 aboard USS Stark hen [C[HvASHINGTON (AP) — Presi- eir firsi delt Reagan declared Tuesday that o gurur U.S. military forces have been told to "dlfend yourselves” as the death toll c. n | u || f froi i the Iraqi attack on a Navy frig- (I m,|r|n ate mounted to 37. ^Reagan, in a speech to graduating U'pLiu higli school seniors f rom the Chatta- liink she nojbga, Tenn., area said “this tragedy i .illnlIr tnijst never happen again,” and De- „iij on feme Secretary Caspar W. Wein- i W | H . N berger acknowledged that “we don’t iiliisdmi knpw why” the USS Stark did not re in.,,, | )t ,| turn lire on the Iraqi warplane that , l( |, attfecked it in the Persian Gulf , c it ((iiiioH u an interx iew with Chattanooga , || 1( ., aria newspapers, Reagan said the administration is waiting to find out why the guided-missile frigate didn’t return fire at the Iraqi missile-firing plane in the 60 to 90 seconds that would have allowed such a response. “What we’re waiting to find out now is what exactly was the situation on the ship and the attitude, and why they . . . hadn’t prepared,” Rea gan said. He noted that “general quarters hadn’t been sounded, as it might be, if a hostile plane were coming into the area.” The president, however, did say the United States “had a very ful some apology” from President Sad dam Hussein of Iraq. Four Texans among survivors aboard attacked U.S. ship /ant itnwMAP) — An El Paso man was c. I h among 21 sailors injured when an know ■■(ji jet attacked the USS Stark in ■ Persian Gulf, and at least three ex plan ^Ber Texans who were crew mem- e’ve btci.B-s escaped without injury, their ii ■ fan iiies said Tuesday. tale winy Beaman James Randall “Randy” c kiln Wheeler, 26, suffered burns over 35 ^^Hcent of his body, but was in good •lie's sill! condition Tuesday, said his mother, the Jan Wheeler of El Paso, coyei all ■Winner's Mate Nick Andrew lining Norfleet and Petty Officer First te.ini i Class Julio Gonzalez were on the able-bodied list, their mothers said, in «c while Chief Petty Officer Larence iiies .ii», Barrow was “alive and well,” his wife said ¥ , he Stark, part of a U.S. naval force in the gulf , was hit Sunday by one — possibly two — French- tnide Exocet missiles while on rou tine patrol about 85 miles northeast of Bahrain. ■Thirty-seven sailors were killed arid another 21 were injured, offi cials said. The White House and Pentagon said the Iraqi attack was in advertent but unexplained, ^■tnmelda Barrow of Jacksonville, FI; , said a Navy officer informed hei Tuesday morning that her hus- ■id, whose parents live in Hous- :or, was OK. ■Of course, I was ecstatic,” she kI. “The Navy has been wonderful tcjall of us wives and families.” ■She said she was grateful for the interest from her husband’s home Stlte. ■Barrow’s parents, Larence and Beity, left Monday for the ship’s h|me port in Mayport, Fla., to be wih their daughter-in-law and four grandchildren. Betty Barrow said she and her husband understood the dangers faced by U.S. servicemen overseas. “A man in the military, and then going to the Mideast, yes, you have fear for him,” Barrow’s mother said. “It's not a conscious fear that you keep in your mind all the time, but it’s always there.” Jean Brown of Conroe, who was informed late Monday that her son, Nick Norfleet, was all right, said she wanted to call him. “Just knowing he’s on that (able- bodied list) is what counts,” she said. “Now' I want to hear his voice.” Lucita Gonzalez of San Antonio said she learned Monday that her son, a 29-year-old radio operator on his first tour of duty aboard the Stark, was safe. Gonzalez said her son’s wife and three children live in the Mayport area. His youngest child was born af ter he went to sea, she said. Jan Wheeler said she first learned at about 5 p.m. Sunday that her son was on the ship attacked by the Ira qis. Another son called and told her. “About 11 p.m. (Sunday) some one from the American embassy (in Bahrain) called and told me that Randy might be alive,” she said. “I spent the rest of the night worrying and wondering.” On Monday morning, a U.S. Navy of ficial called to say her son was in good condition in a Bahrain hospi tal, she said. “When I heard that I began to watch the televsion,” she said. “There he was lying on a hospital bed. The television cameras took the picture of just one sailor and it was him.” “The whole thing, the course of the plane coming down that coast was the course that’s taken by Iraqi planes all the time, and they’re never . . . we’ve never considered them hostile at all,” Reagan said. “They’ve never been in any way hostile. And this was at night, of course, so they never had any visual sight of the tar get. They fired that missile by ra dar.” “We’re going to do what has to be done to keep the Persian Gulf open. It’s international waters. No country there has a right to try and close it off and take it for itself. And the vil lain in the piece really is Iran. And so they’re delighted with what has just happened.” Rear Adm. Harold J. Bernsen, speaking to reporters in Bahrain, said the Stark had about a minute’s warning that an Iraqi warplane had turned on its weapons radar and had locked in on the frigate. But based on preliminary reports, the admiral said, there was “no indication” to the crew that a missile had been launched. Reagan said, “Our ships are de ployed in the gulf in order to protect U.S. interests and maintain free ac cess and maintain freedom of nav igation and access to the area’s oil supplies. It is a vital mission, but our ships need to protect themselves and they will.” From now on, the president said, “if aircraft approach any of our ships in a way that appears hostile, there is one order of battle.” “Defend yourselves,” he said. “De fend American lives.” In fast-moving developments as the nation’s capital reacted to the heaviest loss of American lives since the bombing of U.S. Marine bar racks in Beirut, Lebanon: • Senate Republican leader Bob Dole of Kansas questioned the policy that has sent American ships into the Iran-Iraq war. “We need to rethink exactly what it is we are doing in the Persian Gulf,” he said. “What are our goals? What is our strategy? What are the risks? And how much cost are we willing to pay?” • The State Department said it was willing to join with Iraq in con ducting a joint investigation into the attack on the Stark. • The administration said that despite the Iraqi attack on an Ameri can frigate, “general agreement” has been reached with Kuwait to put American flags and American cap tains aboard Kuwaiti oil tankers op erating in the gulf. The purpose is to protect the shipping lanes of the Straits of Hormuz. Photo by Robert IV. Rizzo Just Hangin’ Around Physical plant paint shop workers Virgil Hartfield, work was started about three months ago after wa- left, and Terry Perry continue waterproofing ter from rain began getting inside the building and work on the brick exterior of the Pavilion. The caused damage to carpeting. Daring man uses flying machine in escape from Czech homeland RODING, West Germany (AP) — An engineer from Czechoslovakia escaped to the West in a motorized hang glider after eluding two air force jets and landed in a forest just as his homemade aircraft ran out of gas, police said Tuesday. The 39-year-old man, considered “an aeronautical whiz,” spent several years building the glider, a Bavarian police spokesman said. The engineer reached West Ger man airspace Monday night ahead of two Czechoslovakian air force jets that had tried to intercept him, the spokesman said. In keeping with West German custom, the escapee’s name was not released. The police spokesman, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the flight began Monday at dusk in Do- mazlice, Czechoslovakia, 10 miles from the Bavarian border. Two patrolling military jets spotted the pilot as he neared the wooded boundary at Folmava and turned around to pursue him, the spokesman said. The pilot passed over the border seconds later and the two jets pulled up and retreated without violating West German airspace, he said. The engineer flew a total of 30 miles in one hour before running out of gas and landing safely in the Bavarian Forest outside Roding at 8:30 p.m., police said. Roding is 125 miles northeast of Munich* and 18 miles f rom the Czech border. The pilot told Bavarian authori ties he left because he “generally was dissatisfied with the Communist sys tem,” the spokesman said. The engineer had fitted a small motor to the hang glider to give it more speed, the policeman said. The aircraft appeared to be a conventio nal hang glider attached to a three wheeled cart and powered by a small motor with a propeller at the rear. West Germany routinely grants residence to any refugee arriving from the East Bloc. Czechoslovakians and East Ger mans periodically climb border fences to reach West Germany, but airborne escapes are rare. ouse passes bill limiting abortions >f ‘viable’ fetuses ■ AUSTIN (AP) — The House : g;ive final approval to an abortion regulation bill Tuesday, while an ahti-abortion group released a •fiini showing doctors dismember- ‘/a-month-old fetus. ■ The bill, which would prohibit ■portions after a fetus is “viable,” now goes to the Senate, where a j Similar measure is pending. ■ Several senators have threat- ^Bied to filibuster against it. Sen. ^Braig Washington, D-Houston, ^■tid he plans to “talk for two ^»ys” if the House version is ^Brought up for a vote. B “I think it’s particularly ironic 4 that Sen. Washington would use . tme filibuster tactic on this issue, ^fccause it will do nothing if it is ^Biccessful but clearly thwart the will of the majority of the Sen- aie,” said Richard Land, who is jpov. Bill Clements’ moral issues ■dviser. “Filibusters were used in the Jnited States Senate in previous [generations to thwart the clear Biajority of the Senate’s will on Bvil rights for blacks," Land said. “This is a civil rights bill for un- gbom babies." Mark Fury, spokesman for the Texas Right to Life Committee, laid the film “Eclipse Of Reason” was released in Texas on Tuesday dn an attempt to “shift the focus from individuals in the House and Senate to the issue at hand.” The 26-minute film will be shown in New Orleans at the Na tional Right to Life Committee convention during mid-June, Fury said. The film is a sequel to the con troversial “Silent Scream,” which showed the abortion of a fetus 12- to 14-weeks-old, he said. It begins with an introduction by Charlton Fleston, who says the news media has not done its job in informing the public about abor tion. “The press and television tells us more about heart surgery than they do about abortion,” Fleston says in the film. The viewer is shown a fetus through a fetoscope, a fiber-optic instrument inserted into the mother’s uterus to observe the child. The film narrator, Dr. Ber nard Nathanson, who also wrote "Silent Scream,” says, “This child will be destroyed before your eyes.” Pam Fridrich, executive direc tor of Texas Abortion Rights Ac tion League, who also watched the film, said, “ ‘The Silent Scream’ was discredited for being a phony film with photographic tricks in it. . . . This one is just an other more emotional piece of propaganda.” Repeated, drastic mood swings may indicate common disorder By Kellie Copeland ' Reporter “I felt nothing, or I felt every thing. When I was on a high, I was king of the world. On the downside, I was unable to function.” These are the words of a Texas A&M student who has a bipolar dis order — more commonly known as manic depression. Peter Ostwald, a psychiatrist at the LIniversity of California at San Fran cisco medical center, defines bipolar disorders as mood abnormalities marked by severe depression and the slowing of behavior at one pole and excessive feelings of joy, accom panied by the acceleration of thought and behavior at the other. Depression is characterized by the loss of interest in almost all usual ac tivities and pastimes, according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, a classification system of mental disorders pub lished by the American Psychiatric Association. Insomnia, low energy levels, feel ings of inadequacy, lack of concen tration, social withdrawal, a pessi mistic attitude and crying are other characteristics of depression. The manic, by contrast, exudes an infectious gaiety with laughter, ex pansive gestures and occasional statements which leave no doubt that the individual believes life is worth living. However, irritability often is very near the manic’s surface. Eddie Vela, a graduate psychol ogy student at A&M, says, “Bipolar disorders were previously assumed to be rare. But recent evidence sug gests that, among college students, the disorder may be relatively com mon." Joe, not his real name, discovered he was manic-depressive after seek ing treatment from the student counseling service offered on cam pus. “I’ve always been moody,” he ex plains, “but I had no idea that I really had a problem until a year ago. Sometimes I would have such great highs and feel so peaceful. But those moods began to happen less often. The rest of the time, I felt like I was dead inside. “My soul felt black — I lost all in terest in life. I didn’t feel like doing anything. “I really tried to hide it, but my friends and teachers began to notice something was wrong. I knew I was depressed, but 1 couldn’t shake it. And then I began to think about sui cide.” Fortunately, he says, one of his friends persuaded him to visit the student counseling service, which put him on medication to straighten the arc of his mood swings. “I still don’t see the world like most people do,” he says, “but I’m a lot better now.” Joe is one of the more lucky of about two million Americans who suffer from bipolar disorders be cause he was able to receive treat ment and now leads a fairly normal life. Vela says many people don’t get help because they resist the idea that they are ill. Other people resist help because they don’t like the idea of being on medication. Ann Schumann-Ousley, market ing director of Greenleaf Hospital in Bryan, says students are sometimes reluctant to seek help because of the stigma attached to mental illness. “But they should know that it is extremely common to seek counsel ing,” Schumann-Ousley says. “Men tal illness is not a problem of will or failure of self-control, but it is a medical condition like heart disease or high blood pressure.” Mary Crockett, professor of psy chological nursing at the University of Texas at Austin, says that, because the illness is really clue to a chemical imbalance, therapy alone isn’t effec tive treatment. Out of every 100 people in Amer ica who suffer from bipolar disor ders, Crockett says, 85 percent can be helped through a combination of therapy and medication — usually li thium — but the remaining 15 per cent get worse. The most common complications of manic depression are substance abuse and the consequences of ac tions resulting from impaired judge ment, such as financial losses and il legal activities, she says. Substance abuse is particularly common as a result of self-treatment with sedatives and alcohol during the depressed periods and the self- indulgent use of stimulants and psy- chadelics during the manic periods. The most serious consequence, however, is suicide. “One in six manic-depressives will commit suicide if left untreated,” Crockett says. Like Joe, Dian Cox-Leighton also has been diagnosed as a manic-de pressive, but Cox-Leighton, who is a counselor at a manic depression sup port group near Austin, doesn’t take lithium for her illness. “I used to take lithium,” Cox- Leighton says, “but I stopped be cause of some minor side effects connected with it.” Tremors or shaking, urinary tract infections, dehydration and drowsi ness are some common side effects of lithium. “I struggle with my disorder, but I’m coping and Tm happy," Cox- Leighton says. What more could I ask?" Cox-Leighton says she needs an active life or she would be self-de structive. “I’m a driven person, but as long as I direct my energies in a positive way, Tm all right,” she says. “Manic depression has become the fashiona- See Manic depression, page 6