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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