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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 7, 1991)
/7,19s Hinds ■ Tour- laining MU at lor on >n Feb, and at urtney pointj Texas s froni South- ednes- or. ■d to a way to ie first behind iree 3- as lead Bears rrs’ 16 s four ites of y took left in surge Cam- n the rial 3- Texas t four i help inutes o had d 15 David n page rersoni landed ie. f Grots up full-, ay said rcruitec ton, re- k in tk of play-1 if quar- special t ow fve l is team | in bail terbad : a sud- it some it nont re field games k." I iller. a J m San :d help; player me ai ders, a Percv speed: /er in J. an,! at pla- he re- J WORLD and NATION 9 Thursday, February 7,1991 The Battalion Allied damage statements disagree WASHINGTON (AP) — Round- I the-clock bombing has seriously af- | flicted Iraq’s key Republican Guard, but it remains an “effective fighting I force,” Pentagon analysts said Wednesday. Congress was told a precise damage assessment is ham pered by the limits of satellite recon naissance. Only the most general damage es timates were available, leaving room for differences between Persian Gulf officers tending toward the more optimistic and Pentagon officials taking a more cautious view. “We’ve not annihilated any of their primary war-fighting capabili ties,” one senior military officer says. “It’s going to be a tough nut to crack.” In military parlance, the 150,000- member Guard constitutes Saddam Hussein’s “theater reserve,” a strong force located well behind front-line troops, to be swung into action as needed as a ground battle pro gresses. And since Guard units make up Iraq’s best-trained and best- equipped force, they are a crucial target before any ground campaign is launched. But assessments of the damage done by the air campaign to the units have been conflicting. In Saudi Arabia, Gen. Michel Ro- quejeoffre, commander of the French forces in Operation Desert Storm, was quoted as saying he be lieved allied air strikes had reduced Republican Guard effectiveness overall by about 30 percent. Another French official had said earlier he thought the Guard re mained about 95 percent intact, but Roquejeoffre said his assessment re ferred not simply to casualties among the Guard but to the overall impact on its supplies, weapons and command structure. Passengers recount stories of heroism, confusion LOS ANGELES (AP) — Tales of panic joined stories of heroics Wednesday from survivors of the flaming runway collision at Los An geles International Airport that killed 34 people, investigators said Wednesday. One passenger failed to open an emergency door and later two men scuffled over who would exit first as fire enveloped a US Air jetliner that hit a commuter plane, skidded down the runway and hit a building, said James Burnett of the National Transportation Safety Board. Investigators also reported that the co-pilot landing the USAir jet said he didn’t see the Skywest com muter plane on the runway until the jet had touched down. Thirty-four people died in Fri day’s collision between the USAir Boeing 737 and a Skywest Met- roliner turboprop commuter plane preparing for takeoff. Eight of the 67 survivors from the USAir jet re mained hospitalized. Federal investigators had com pleted interviews with 41 USAir pas sengers, Burnett said. Before Wednesday’s disclosures, interviews revealed heroics by passengers and flight attendants. “We’ve learned that at the right front door, the flight attendant there, who has fairly serious injuries, was able to open the door, (and) two other people went out that door fol lowed by the flight attendant,” Bur nett said Tuesday. Burnett said Wednesday the con troller who directed both planes onto Runway 24 Left had to deal with two other aircraft on the ground in the moments before the crash. After the crash, a woman seated next to the right wing exit failed to open the emergency door and cru cial moments were lost as the man seated behind her intervened to open it, he said. Burnett also said two men frantic to escape ran over another woman, then scuffled over who would get out of the burning jetliner first. At that point, a third man came over and stuffed one of the men out the door, he said. At least 21 passengers escaped through that exit, Burnett said. He didn’t know how much of a delay the scuffle may have caused. He didn’t identify any of the passengers. Hospitalized co-pilot David Kelly, who was flying the USAir jet carry ing 89 people, told investigators he didn’t see the Skywest plane until a moment after the nose of his jet touched down. “As the aircraft’s nose came down, he saw a red light, the tail of the air plane and his landing lights shining through the propellers,” Burnett said. “There was an explosion, a flash and then everything went dark.” Call Now For an Appointment! $3@ 00 ROUTINE CLEANING, X-RAYS and EXAM (Reg.$59 less $20 pretreatment cash discount) CarePlus^tfi Dental Centers Bryan Jim Arents, DDS Karen Arents, DDS 1103 E. Villa Maria 268-1407 College Station Dan Lawson, DDS 1712 S. W Parkway 696-9578 $ioo ENROLL NOW !! CEDAR STUDIES • Individuals 12 and older • Winter allergy symptoms or known Mountain Cedar allergic 1- week study: $lOO incentive for those who complete. 2- week study: SlOO plus $50 rapid enrollment bonus for first £25 who qualify and complete this study. Pauli Research International® Call Today 776-0400 Military officers at the Pentagon said that while hundreds of the force’s tanks and artillery pieces had been hit during the past three weeks, the force was well dispersed over hundreds of square miles. The Guard has had six months to beef up its supplies and remained dug in in a complex system of concrete bunkers. “The Guard has been seriously af fected, but they remain an effective fighting force,” said one senior mili tary officer with access to intelli gence reports of the progress of the war. Air Force officers have stated they hope to destroy 50 percent of Iraq’s forces before a ground offensive is launched. But officers from the Army and Marine Corps have rejected as over- optimistic any assessments that bombing is forcing Iraq’s top-line Less-senior military commanders forces to wilt. have been much more reluctant since that time to offer such detail, saying only that “significant” dam age has been inflicted by the round- the-clock pounding by allied war planes and B-52 bombers. “A pilot may claim to have put a hole in a tank, but it’s hard to assess exaedy what damage has been done” by photos, said an Army officer fa miliar with such reports. “An anti tank bullet of depleted uranium puts only a tiny hole in a tank, but it zooms around inside and cuts every body up. On the other hand, dam age could be done to the engine so that it looks like hell, but that can be easily replaced.” Last week, Desert Storm com mander Gen. H. Norman Schwarz kopf gave reporters precise figures for a 15-hour period in which 178 trucks, 55 artillery pieces and 52 tanks were destroyed or damaged. At the U.S. military briefing in Ri yadh on Wednesday, Marine Brig. Gen. Richard I. Neal said, “We’re dropping a lot of ordnance on the Republican Guard, not just to lower their morale but also to destroy their tanks, their artillery, their logistical sustainment capability, their built-up areas. We’re out there to destroy the Republican Guard.” But he declined to quantify the damage, saying only “I think we’re experiencing good success.” LADIES AND LORDS ^ AT TEXAS 707 where 5 or more Bridesmaids receive Special Discounts on each dress, EVERYDAY! 707 Texas Ave. • 764-8289 *Now taking orders for May & June weddings American Express Announces A Great New Travel Program Now students can get the Card and get 3 roundtrips on Continental Airlines, for only $129 or $189 each. There’s only one way to cover a lot of territory without spending a lot of money And that’s by getting the American Express® Card. 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