Page 12/The Battalion/Wednesday, April 20, 1988
MSC JORDAN INSTITUTE for
INTERNATIONAL AWARENESS
COMMITTEE MEETING
Wednesday - April 20,1988
302 Rudder 7:00 p.m.
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Office located in 223G MSC
Committee Meetings every other Wednesday
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Oil rig worker says Iranians were
going to kill anything that moved
Rooty Tooty $2 49
2 eggs, 2 pancakes, 2 sausage, 2 bacon
good Won.-Fri. Anytime
HOUSTON (AP) — A former '
Odessa man who wAs working on a
Persian Gulf drilling rig, targeted by
Iranian gunboats, said the attackers
“were going to kill anything that
moved.”
Bob Jackson said the Monday at
tack was clearly in retaliation for the
U.S. assault earlier on two Iranian
platforms.
“I saw these gunboats about a
half-mile away attack this tanker,”
Jackson told the Houston Chronicle
from his home in Abu Dhabi.
“One of the small gunboats shot
three or four rockets into the tank
er,” he said. “It was cut in half.”
The boats then went toward an
Iranian-controlled island in the gulf
about 10 to 15 miles away, he said.
“I kept scanning over the horizon
and looking that none came back be
fore we all went back to work,” said
Jackson, 55, who retired after 28
years with Houston-based Cameron
Iron Works and now works as a con
sultant for the United Arab Emi
rates’ government-owned petroleum
company.
“We’re out there trying to make a
living, that’s all,” he said.
“Then I saw a white wake coming
over the horizon, and I could tell it
“T/ieu they started machine-gunning us. They would
rake the deck, trying to kill people. ”
— Bob Jackson, worker on attacked oil rig
in Persian Gull
was the gunboats coming back,” he
said.
It looked like they were returning
to fire at the tanker, but they made
an abrupt 90-degree turn toward the
rig, Jackson said.
“They stopped maybe 200 yards
away, and they just looked at us,” he
said. “Then they turned, and I said,
’Boy, this is it.’ ”
By turning, the gunboat was able
to point its rockets at the rig, whose
platform is about 80 feet above wa
ter.
The gunboat fired 10 or 12 rock
ets at the rig’s legs, hoping to blow
one apart to topple the rig, Jackson
said.
“They hit us (with rockets) six or
seven or eight or 10 times,” he said.
“When they hit the rig, it bounced
me off the floor about two feet.”
But none of the rig’s legs toppled.
“Then they started machine-gun
ning us,” Jackson said. “They would
rake the deck, trying to kill people."
As the gunboats circled the rig.
Firing at those on the platform. Jack-
son said, the crew would run to the
opposite side.
The U.S. Navy was alerted, but
Jackson said he never saw any U.S.
ships and did not know whether they
may have caused the Iranians to
withdraw.
The Iranians seemed to lighten
their machine gun firing when char
tered helicopters flew to the rig and
evacuated the personnel, Jackson
said.
“I think they were there to kill all
of us," he said. “They were going to
kill anything that moved. There
were having fun, like children.
“They were there to hurt people;
they were there to sink something,”
Jackson said, adding that thel>j
boats split an oil tanker ini
rockets before attacking tliet
legged jackup rig Scan
aged by Houston-based Scat
ling Co. Ltd.
Marty du Broc, operatic®-
ager for the company, saidtk>;
owned by a Liberian firm anil) |
staffed by U.S. workers.
About 70 people, indue
Americans, were on board*
attack occurred.
h
“It was a miracle of God if; BP re
one was injured,” du Brocsaid t * ial
I h -.ml tii*)se working(ot® r
Drilling are from Great Britan ^ir! 1
Zealand, India and Pakistan.
“Everybody was very ludv J 110 !
son said. “I got a little wet ouriB ,te
but I did not go into the
fhat’s the last thing you wau^
1 le said he is in no hurrvtoi
to the rig as long as the
mains the Iranians willlaundiu
attack.
“I’m not going back-m
next few days, anyway,''
said.
Du Broc said the rig has
site off Sharjah forabouttvo
The extent of damage
known.
fc
0
pf
Grumman Corp. could bring
up to 2,000 jobs to Houston
Hearing set
for city to lei
nuclear prop
foi
HOUSTON (AP) — Grumman
Corp. announced Tuesday it would
build a Southwest Regional Devel
opment and Production Center
here, bringing the city at least 1,000
new jobs in the next year.
The aircraft and aerospace com
pany, which already employs about
500 people in Houston, said the job
count could grow to 2,000 or more,
depending on the outcome of seve
ral NASA and Defense Department
programs.
“Grumman feels betting a large
part of our company future on
Houston is a good bet,” J.J. Busso-
lini, Grumman vice president for
business operations, said at a news
conference.
“We have identified Houston as
our next area of expansion,” Busso-
lini said. “We think we have an eco
nomic advantage here.”
Grumman, based in Bethpage,
N.Y., selected Houston from among
other potential sites in Pennsylvania,
North and South Carolina, Georgia
and Alabama, Bussolini said.
He said none of the new Houston
jobs would be the result of transfers
from other Grumman facilities.
Grumman, with annual sales of
more than $3.5 billion, employs
33,000 people worldwide.
An office building and several
other structures will be built on a 66-
acre parcel of land the company
leased last year from the city at ET-
lington Field, a former Air Force
base now owned by the city.
The land originally was ear
marked for Grumman’s civil space
unit for NASA space station work.
Grumman, however, lost the bid for
the job when NASA selected rival
McDonnell Douglas Corp.
The new project, which carries an
initial investment of $ 10 million over
the next two years, was the culmina
tion of efforts by officials of the
Houston Economic Development
Council.
“The loss of the space station con
tract was a serious setback to our cor
porate plan,” Bussolini said, adding
that Houston officials kept encour
aging the company to add to its pres
ence in the city.
“We wanted to assure them Hous
ton was very enthusiastic,” Mayor
Kathy Whitmire said.
Grumman said work in Houston
will include civil space programs,
manufacturing and development on
Air Force missile programs and en
gineering support for Grumman
programs throughout the country.
Bussolini said Grumman was con
vinced to select Houston because of
incentives to locate at Ellington
Field, a strong work ethic shown by
employees at its existing Houston
operations, an excellent pool of po
tential employees and cost savings
for construction and operations of
new facilities compared with other
parts of the country.
AUSTIN (AP) - A hearing
agreement to get Austin os
South Texas Nuclear Projtcl
been scheduled forjunfffl
Public Utility Commission
The hearing was set onH
by Administrative LawJudjt
Smith, who is presiding »i
case.
lo I
p t
,del)i
line
1 1
tl
Smith told participants ini ■
lat lie would make even acs 1
assure PUC action on theffi R
“The Grumman announcement is
further proof of Houston’s commit
ment to diversify," U.S. Rep. Mike
Andrews, whose district includes the
job site, said.
Lee Hogan, president of the
Houston Economic Development
Council, said T uesday’s announce
ment was the most tangible evidence
of the oil-dependent area's efforts to
get more involved in aircraft and
aerospace industries.
“We are now as interested in that
as the price of oil,” Hogan said.
by a Sept. 1 deadline.
The agreement, si
Austin and Houston ligte
Power Co. of ficials last raonil
the approval of the PlCai
federal Nuclear Regulaion
mission to become final.
The agreement calls fotlli
take over Austin's 400,0#H
share of the nuclear
Austin to obtain 400,000
capacity from the Limesiotc
generating plant, a lignite!
cility owned
County.
Austin also would receht;
mated $137.5 million ami
drop a 5-year-old lawsuii
11L&P, the project’spartnei
by HL&PinL
Few amnesty applicants accept
offer of free bus transportation
HARLINGEN (AP) — Few am
nesty applicants have responded to
an offer of free bus transportation to
the legalization center, and if
ridership doesn’t pick up, the stalled
ride program may have to be dis
mantled, an immigration official
said Tuesday.
Only four aliens showed up Tues
day for the 35-mile trip from McAl
len to the Immigration and Naturali
zation Service’s lower Rio Grande
Valley legalization center in Har
lingen, INS spokesman Virginia
Kice said.
there for some
tion,” Kice said.
type of transporta-
She said the bus trips were widely
publicized in the local Spanish me
dia.
Other publicity in the past two
months helped to more than qua
druple the response at the Har
lingen center, Kice said.
Jerry Sewell, INS district director
in Harlingen, said it is too early to
talk about discontinuing the ride
program.
“If we don’t get anybody on there,
we may have to take another look at
it,” Sewell said. “We’re not going to
waste taxpayers’ money if it’s not be
ing utilized.”
On Monday, the first day of the
ride program, only seven took the
90-mile trip from Rio Grande City
on the 47-seat bus chartered from
Valley Transit Co.
“I don’t know if they’re mistrust
ful,” Kice said. “Maybe they don’t
want to ride on a bus we’re sponsor
ing. I’m real disappointed.”
She said the program was started
after immigration lawyers reported
that a lack of transportation from
some of the more remote areas
might be keeping some people from
applying.
“I thought there was a need out
Those events included remote ra
dio broadcasts, a live three-hour
telethon, Boy Scouts distributing
INS fliers in neighborhoods and air
planes pulling banners advertising
the deadline.
With the May 4 deadline ap
proaching, applications at the Har
lingen center have jumped from 250
a week in January to more than
1,400 last week, she said.
But nationwide, the turnout is
lower than expected.
INS critics say the cost of applying
has hindered many applicants, who
are among the poorest people in the
nation. The agency charges $185 for
' adults, $50 for children, and a maxi
mum of $420 for an entire family.
“We can’t waive the fee, because
that is not in our power,” said Kice.
Another trip was planned for
Wednesday from Brownsville to
Harlingen, with repeat trips sched
uled from Rio Grande City, McAllen
and Brownsville next week. Total
cost of the bus program was about
$1,500.
“Two or three years from now, I
hate to look back and think 30 miles
came between someone and a
chance for U.S. citizenship,” Kice
said.
The one-time amnesty offer is
part of the Immigration Reform and
Control Act of 1986, which was de
signed to pay for itself through ap
plication fees.
An INS spokesman in Washing
ton said 1,581,593 had been proc
essed nationwide as of April 14.
pm
valu
and
Group scoll
for conviclir”
without tria
iea<
Rob
AUSTIN (A P)-The Slant
mission on Judicial Confc
Tuesday announcedaf
rimand of a Bell CountyjnJ
the peace who foundamaiil
w i t hou t conducting a trial
According to thecommij
defendant charged witln
derly conduct was brought
tice of the Peace Floyd IT
hell’s Belton courtroomoj
22, 1987. The man pleaded
cent, but Campbell iir
convicted him.
The judge, contactedW[cour
at his Belton office, didnti;I H
the commission’s account 1 ' fou
Tro
facts.
“That was an old boyii*
running down the hightOT
mph,” Campbell said.“TM
way patrolman, the depui'j
iff and the game warden'
head him off and
gunpoint to get himtostop
“He had several other
filed against him. HepW
to all the other charges: 1
this disorderly conductdT
took it on myself to f» urou t
guilty.” Ventic
ledi
“W
Al
“Truth and Torture in Sudan”
Former B.B.C. reporter and political prisoner Michael
Kilongson will present his story.
Tonight 7:00 pm
rm 230-231 MSC
Free Admission
Presented by AI-TAMU
Amnesty International - TAMU chapter is a non-parti
san, world-wide human rights organization that
seeks the release of “prisoners of conscience” and
an end to torture ot other cruel punishments.
For more informaton call Jill Natowitz 690-0909 or Steve Ridge 268-3223
UPA
University Pediatric Association
1328 Memorial Dr. • Bryan
Full Range of Medical Service
for College Students
including
Gynecological Services
(Dr Kathleen Rollins)
Call for appointment 776-4440 7 a.m.-7p in
extended hours for illnesses only
£
WilliamS. Conkling, M.D.,F.A.A.P.
Kenneth E. Matthews, M.D.,F.A.A.P
Jesse W. Parr, M.D.,F.A.A.P.
Kathleen H. Rollins, M
Robert H. Moore,
m.dJ u
Spark Some Interest!
Use the Battalion Classifieds. Call 84^1