2 |ihe Battalion
STATE & LOCAL
londay, Octobers, 1989
bfjVictims of fishing boat explosion
'fljhonored; investigation continues
; Captain tells NTSB officials he didn’t know about gas pipeline
CAMERON, La. (AP) — Victims
untinial rom the fishing boat that exploded
e of tra( n the Gulf of Mexico were honored
a memorial service over the week-
:nd as an investigation into the mis-
lap continued.
More than 100 friends and rela-
ives of the victims of the North Um-
lyoneels jerland explosion attended the me-
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norial service Saturday after
icarchers found the last missing
rnnt «» rew member in a bunk aboard the
'' hip where 11 people died.
“At a time like this, we would all
ike to have answers,” said the Rev.
Marvin Miles, a pastor at Cameron's
Oak Grove Baptist Church, who
helped conduct the service. “We’ll
see something worthwhile out of the
worst of this situation. We’ve seen it
happen before.”
Meanwhile, the fishing boat’s cap
tain told investigators he didn’t
know his vessel was near a sub
merged natural gas pipeline.
Three men aboard the vessel were
hurt. The explosion Tuesday night
aboard the 160-foot North Umber-
land happened about a half-mile off
Sabine Pass.
Zapata Haynie Corp., which owns
the North Umberland, conducted
the memorial service.
Funeral services for two of the vic
tims, Bennie Crawford and Timmy
Lee Thomas, both of Lake Charles,
La., are scheduled for Monday.
Other services are pending, officials
at Combre Funeral Home of Lake
Charles said.
The 31-year-old captain, Darreyl
Wayne Gough, told National Trans
portation Safety Board investigators
that the crew was preparing to head
toward a school of fish to the east of
e area:
4gNet helps radio stations broadcast
1 consumer-based agricultural news
thanji
mit at ByTodd Swearingen
glessrfe
)f The Battalion Staff
u re-
tv are pr
kids’ed
It’s not a bird, it’s not a plane, and it’s not a farm
how! It’s the Consumer AgNet Radio Program,
rought to you by the Department of Agricultural
Communications at Texas A&M.
'g
w
payclieti
he edira
Communications Specialist Randy Lemmon said the
ictwork radio program is not a farm show, but instead
ocuses on consumer-based agricultural news. Lemmon
aid that radio stations do not cover agricultural news to
re extent that they did in the past and that gearing ag-
icultural news to the consumer allows him to reach a
531101 uufpi larger audience than traditional farm shows.
There are still some farm shows out there, but by
l^nd large they’re dying,” Lemmon said.
lion,
Lemmon produces the reports in long and short for-
nats to give stations flexibility in broadcasting them.
Several volunteer student reporters are used, Lemmon
aid, to provide a variety of voices and add a profes-
ional touch to the program. The news is presented so
hat the general auclience can understand how it will af-
ectthem at the grocery store or the shopping mall, he
aid.
“We also focus a lot on what we call high interest sub
jects — gardening and family related sciences (diet,
health and nutrition),” Lemmon said.
Most of the news stories concern research by the
Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, the Texas Ag
ricultural Extention Service, and the College of Agri
culture and Life Sciences, because these agencies have a
tremendous impact on people’s lives, he said.
Lemmon spent three-and-a-half years producing ra
dio and television programs for the Texas Farm Bu
reau before helping create AgNet just over a year ago,
and has watched it grow initially from about 70 stations
to 123 stations in Texas and Louisiana.
“We sent out the very first week of programming
Sept. 27, 1988,” Lemmon said.
“We really didn’t know what to expect — we thought
we had something that was good.
“Before we sent out the first week of programming,
we asked probably over 200 stations whether or not
they wanted to be a part of it.”
Lemmon said that the program has gained a good
reputation, and now stations are starting to contact him
requesting the program.
the accident site when the explosion
occurred.
Gough said he was backing up the
vessel in shallow water, with the
front of the ship facing shore, when
he felt a jolt.
“In the process of backing up, he
was pulling the boat ... to the right
and that’s when he struck the pipe
line,” NTSB member Lee Dickinson
said.
“There was a sudden stop and an
immediate boom. Immediately he
saw flames,” Dickinson said of the
captain, who was interviewed by
NTSB members Friday at his Sul
phur, La., home.
Gough jumped overboard, and
the captain recalled how a crew
member drowned in his arms as they
waited to be rescued, Dickinson said.
After spending about 30 minutes in
the water, he was rescued by a heli
copter. He was treated for shock at a
Beaumont hospital, then was re
leased.
The captain’s navigation charts
were destroyed in the accident and it
was not known whether the pipeline
was marked on his charts, Dickinson
said. He said Gough told investiga
tors he didn’t know about the 16-
inch pipeline.
A spokesman for Natural Gas
Pipeline Co. of America, which in
stalled the pipeline in 1973, said the
line was reported to appropriate au
thorities at the time.
Two victims were discovered Fri
day by search aircraft near Sea Rim
State Park — about 10 miles from
the scene of the blast. Two bodies
were found Tuesday night, a third
was found on WednesHay and five
others were recovered Thursday
when investigators boarded the ship
for the first time.
All but one of those aboard the
ship were from Louisiana. The other
was from Port Arthur.
3
City Editor Fiona Soltes 845-3316
Texas man claims
government impeded
philanthropic efforts
WHITE SETTLEMENT (AP)
— A Texas man says he is ending
his 5-year, one-man battle against
hunger and death in Central
America because of what he
claims is persistent harassment
from the U.S. Government.
“They win, I quit. But the ba
bies die,” said Gary Bennett,
founder of Miskito Coast Child
Find, an organization that has
carried sick and homeless chil
dren out of war-torn Honduras
and Nicaragua and delivered
more than 30 tons of medicine
and clothing into Central Amer
ica since 1984.
Throughout his effort, Ben
nett said, officials of the U.S. Em
bassy in Honduras have accused
him of “baby stealing” and inves
tigated him on grounds he is not
from a licensed adoption agency.
An embassy spokesman told
the Fort Worth Star-Telegram it
did not harass Bennett’s organi
zation.
However, in processing visa re
quests that involved the adoption
of a non-American citizen, the
U.S. government must make sure
that adoption laws of the United
States and foreign countries are
complied with, to protect the in
terests of everyone concerned,
the spokesman said.
Honduras officials insist upon
children having birth certificates
before they may be taken from
the country, but Bertnett said
Honduras refuses to give birth
certificates to Nicaraguans.
Child Find was licensed with
the state of Texas until Sept. 15,
when Bennett allowed the license
to expire as part of dismantling
the organization.
“I’m just tired of fighting their
process,” Bennett said. “I have no
choice but to let the babies die.”
Bennett initially became in
volved in Central America as a
1 U I ' I . n >
mercenary of sorts. He taught
Fighting techniques to soldiers in
Nicaragua.
After several missions, he said,
he became interested in helping
people of Central America dis
placed by the war. His interest in
guns and grenades became sec
ondary to an interest in sick chil
dren and hungry families, he
said.
Bennett said his problems with
Honduras began when a baby he
was trying to help turned out to
be Nicaraguan instead of Hondu
ran. Bennett said the child’s
mother told him the child was
Honduran, lying to him because
she thought it would increase her
chances of getting help for her
baby.
Honduras officials accused
Bennett of falsifying papers.
Four children ranging in age
from seven months to two years
now are housed in Bennett’s
House of Love, as he unofficially
calls the building in Honduras
that is used for orphans until par
ents are found and paperwork
completed.
“Next week I have to go back
and close down the house and try
to find (the four children’s) mom
mas or try to find them another
home down there,” Bennett said.
One of Bennett’s five children
is one he adopted after finding
her near death in the Miskito
Coast, a 40-mile-wide, 225-mile
strip of shoreline in eastern Nica
ragua and Honduras.
“They can put me in jail for 20
years, but they still can’t find one
thing I’ve done,” Bennett told the
Star-Telegram. “We’ve got a lot
of babies and older people
healthy and happy that wouldn’t
have been before. And I’ve got a
dollar and a quarter in my
pocket.”
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Texas A&M Department of
Food Services
Ag CaFe
...located on the west side of campus,
first floor of the new Biochemistry/Biophysics Bldg.#61
OPEN
7:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Monday - Friday
$1.99 Breakfast Special served...7:00 a.m.-10:15 a.m.
A full line of other breakfast selections include:
WaffCes, (Panca/tes, homemade ‘Biscuits, (Pastries, ‘Eggs, Breaf^fast (Meats
and fresh fruit Bar (soCd By the ounce).
$3.49 Lunch Special served...10:30 a.m.- 2:00 p.m.
A full line of other lunch selections include:
(DeCi-Sandunches, (Pizzas, fast food Items, (HomestyCe Entrees and ‘Vegetables, Soup
and Salad Bar (sold By the ounce).
A variety of beverages and snack food items also available
throughout the day.
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