The Battalion
Vol. 92 No. 28 (10 pages) “Serving Texas A&M Since 1893” Wednesday, October 7, 1992
Perot launches first television ad
Perot
By GARY P. CARROLL
City Editor of THE BATTALION
Ross Perot brought his inde
pendent bid for the presidency to
the network airwaves Tuesday
night with a 30-minute commer
cial to inform Americans of issues,
he said, they should know about.
Perot blamed Republicans and
Democrats for dodging issues and
blaming each other for the the
lackluster economic performance,
and said that neither side will
stand up and take responsibility
for the country's $4.1 trillion debt.
"We got into trickle-down eco
nomics, but it didn't trickle
down," Perot said.
There's been an enormous
growth in the national debt over
the past 12 years with a steady de
cline in the gross national product
and if this continues, Perot said,
America will be in "deep
voodoo." Perot said the govern
ment does not know the country
is in a recession.
"It's like when Marie An
toinette said 'Let them eat cake,'
— she probably didn't know they
didn't have any cake," Perot said.
Perot showed charts that
tracked a steady decline of em
ployees' payroll, corporate pro
duction and consumer spending
in America.
Foreign countries are capitaliz
ing on a weak American dollar by
flooding the American market
with their products, Perot said.
Americans, he said, buy fore.gn
products that quickly devalje,
and the American dollar increases
in value in foreign banks.
"A Japanese businessman told
me that in Japan, they look ten
years into the future and in Amer
ica we look ten minutes into the
future. Tomorrow belongs to
those who invest in the future,"
Perot said, explaining that numer
ous European countries use,
among other things, a gasoline tax
to invest in their futures.
Lou Zaeske, a local Perot vol
unteer, said Perot's message came
across well, and the commercial
was well-researched and sounded
presidential.
"It was frank and factual — the
kind of sobering message our
leaders should be telling us," Za
eske said.
And more importantly, he said,
Perot talked to the citizens in their
language.
Perot said he holds the solution
for many of America's problems
— which he will be addressing in
future telecasts, but those solu
tions would not come without
some sacrifices that most Ameri
cans would be willing to make.
"Maybe a short-term tax in
crease with an adjustment in the
future ... or maybe unions need
to stop pushing for higher pay,"
Zaeske said. "Corporate manage
ment can't pull down these astro
nomical salaries and perks."
Zaeske also commented on Per
ot's charge that there is too much
government in America.
Perot's charts showed that
there are more government work
ers in America than there are
manufacturers.
"We must be a manufacturing
superpower," Perot said.
Zaeske reiterated that point
and said that there is too much
governmental control in America,
and both of the other candidates
(George Bush and Bill Clinton) are
career politicians.
"Both of them made govern
ment service a career," Zaeske
said. "We don't need this many
federal employees."
Perot ended his presentation by
telling viewers they should "pick
a president (they) believe can get
the job done .. ."
"I was impressed with his
frankness, clarity and sincerity,"
Zaeske said. "Americans are go
ing to have to wake up if they
want a future for their children."
First-Time Aggie Contact Team
Organization helps students
adjust to college experiences
By TANYA WILLIAMS
Reporter of THE BA TTA LION
In an attempt to further welcome new students to
the University, the Department of Student Services
and the Aggie Orientation Leader Program began
their annual F.A.C.T calling drive this week.
F.A.C.T, which stands for First-Time Aggie Con
tact Team, is a three-week calling program where
student leaders, faculty and other volunteers call
new students to see how they are adjusting to college
life. The callers will be based in the Student Services
Building from Oct. 5 to Oct. 22, Monday through
Thursday.
The calls are strategically timed at this time, after
the first round of tests, so that students can get help
if needed. Callers will be giving referrals for acade
mic and general counseling, as well as listings for
colleges and majors.
The program began in 1987 when Dr. John
Koldus, vice president for student services, request
ed a program be developed to help the campus re
tain its friendliness.
"He was concerned that as the campus started to
get larger, and enrollment went up, that we would
start to lose some of that 'howdyness' that gave us
the reputation of the friendliest campus in the U.S.,"
Bonne Bejarano-Sandars, coordinator for student life
orientation, said.
The committee reached 1,400 students during
1988, the year the program was implemented. Since
then, the calling drive has grown and last year the
contact team called 4,000 new students, 80 percent of
incoming students.
This year the program hopes to reach about 6,000
students, which would equal 100 percent of the en
tering students, both transfer and freshmen.
With the added help of faculty and staff calling in
their offices, the program will be able to reach their
goal.
"Staff and faculty members have the option of
calling from their offices or homes," Bejarano-San
dars said. "We realize that they may not be able to
get away for a couple of hours or want to spend time
with their family."
For those students that are not reached on the first
call, the contact team will call again.
"If we reach an answering machine, we leave a
message and will attempt to call the student at least
four times," Bejarano-Sandars said. "If we do not
reach the student, we still hope they feel they are
loved because we've called them four times."
Bejarano-Sandars said that radio station, Aggie 96
has been promoting the program to let students
know they will be receiving calls. She said that in
the past President Mobley has called students who
have hung up because they didn't believe it was him.
"This is a very unique program," Bejarano-San
dars said. "I can't think of any other school that does
it on the level that we do."
RICARDO GARCIA/The Battalion
Charles F. Dibrell, senior civil engineering needed for the success of his plane surveying
student from San Antonio, practices techniques class and his future career.
Former Vietnam POW tells torture tale
By JULIE CHELKOWSKI
Reporter of THE BATTALION
Vietnam War movies such as
"Apocalypse Now," "Full-Metal
Jacket" and "Platoon" have tried
to capture the painful and agoniz
ing experiences of victims of the
war fought in jungles of Southeast
Asia. But no story is as real as
that of a man who lived the night
mare as a prisoner of war.
Col. James Ray, Ret., develop
ment director in Texas A&M's
College of Architecture, spent
nearly seven years as a prisoner of
war and lives to tell about the tor
ture, attempted brain washing
and less than humane living con
ditions.
Ray was captured in May 1966
after his F-105 fighter-bomber was
shot down over northeastern
Vietnam.
He was constantly moved
around to avoid rescue missions
by U.S. soldiers. One of his more
frequented stops was a place he
called the "Hanoi Hilton."
Cells were small, hard and
dirty. On the average, they were
four-feet wide and about seven-
feet long. Some cells would have
a concrete bunk on the side of the
wall. At the foot of the bunk was
a concrete ridge made for a
foothold and an iron bar that
came across the top that could be
locked from the outside of the
cell.
Ray was kept in solitary con
finement for his first two months
and had no contact with anyone
except North Vietnamese guards
who tortured him.
The thin horizontal scars on
Ray's upper arms serve as a re
minder of the pain that accompa
nied one of the POW's most
feared forms of punishment —
rope torture.
A small diameter of frayed
hemp rope was used to wrap the
arms and elbows together until it
cut off circulation.
"They pulled the elbows until
they touched, if they could
touch," Ray said. "Well, I'm not
Photo courtesy of Col. James Ray
Col. James Ray, Ret. prepares to embark on a bombing mission
over northeastern Vietnam in May 1966. While on this mission,
Ray’s plane was shot down and he spent seven years as a prisoner
of war.
that limber and the pressure
caused shoulder separation. I
even had my collar-bone separate.
It feels like a knuckle popping
with a real sharp electric-type
pain.
"After about five to 10 min
utes, a certain amount of numb
ness would set in. Then after
about an hour, two hours, you
lose track of time, you're
wrestling with whether you
should give in or not."
The purpose of the rope torture
was to get the soldiers to sign a
war crimes document and give up
U.S. military information and se
crets, Ray said.
"They say things like 'you
talk, you write, you be polite,'" he
said. "If you say 'yes' they'll un
tie you and get you to write. But
by then your surface nerves are
dead and you don't feel any
thing."
Even if Ray wanted to write, he
said it would have been almost
impossible after hours of rope tor
ture.
"All the skin on my elbows
and knuckles and hands was
gone," he said. "But I couldn't
feel it, all I could feel was the
deeper nerves along the bones. It
was like your bones were in
scalding water — real intense.
Your arms would swell up, turn a
reddish color, then a reddish-pur
ple and then a blue-black. In one
arm, there were drops of blood
coming out because of the pres
sure that built up.
"I wondered if it was really
worth it to hold out to the point
where I could be permanently
crippled," he said.
The pain made Ray delirious.
Once, he slammed his head on the
wall in an attempt to knock him
self out because the pain was too
extreme.
When he could take no more,
Ray said he would pretend to
give in and divulge unimportant
information.
He said he used the excuse that
it was only his first mission, there
fore he did not know much. But
in reality, it was his 13th mission.
"I tried to be as evasive as I
could," he said.
Besides the tortures, Ray said
the most frightening time he ex
perienced was in August 1967
when he and other prisoners were
moved to a pow’er plant to try to
prevent it from being bombed.
The site was bombed, but no one
was killed or seriously injured.
"We were at ground zero," he
said. " It was luck and the grace
of God that we survived that.
Fortunately, we were in a rein
forced, single-story building. We
were fortunate that no one was
killed or seriously injured, but the
potential was there. Other than
the times of torture, that was
about the scariest time that I had."
Ray and the others were
moved back to the "Hanoi
Hilton" and then to a camp in the
outskirts of Hanoi where their
hope for freedom was temporar-
See POW/Page 8
Families seek answers
to fates of U.S. soldiers
By JULIE CHELKOWSKI
Reporter of THE BATTALION
Almost 20 years have past
since the last American troops
were pulled out of Vietnam.
Since then, family members of
soldiers that are still missing have
demanded that they be accounted
for and are holding the govern
ment responsible.
The Senate Select Committee
on POW-MIA Affairs has tried to
answer some of the families' calls
by probing for a final accounting
of U.S. ser
vicemen left
behind in
1973 who
may still be
there.
Some peo
ple, such as
retired Col.
James Ray,
development
director in
A&M's Col
lege of Archi
tecture and
former pris
oner of war
have said the
issue is politi
cally motivated because it has
come out so close to the elections.
"It seems to me it's a big politi
cal thing to try to discredit the Re
publican administration just be
fore an election," Ray said. "I
think (Nixon) did as much as he
could. Congress tied his hands."
However, Dr. Ronald Hatchett,
director of the Texas A&M Mosh
er Institute for International Poli
cy Studies, does not agree.
"It's not politically motivated,"
Hatchett said. "It's a genuine
concern of the families of POWs
who believe the government
needs to do something to find out
what happened to their family
members.
"If they're not alive, they at
least want an accounting of
them."
Hatchett said there is informa
tion on at least 300 people who
"survived hostile actions."
However, Ray said the infor
mation is incomplete.
"There was speculation that we
didn't have a full accounting, but
no positive proof," he said. "Up
to this day there has never been a
positive confirmation of a single
live Ameri
can left over
there.
"There
was a lot of
speculation,
fabricated ev
idence and
photo-
graphs," he
said. "Even
with all of the
controversy,
there has
been not
demonstrable
proof."
Ray
agreed with
Dr. Henry Kissinger, former sec
retary of state under Nixon, in his
defense of the Nixon administra
tion's decision to negotiate a with
drawal from the war even though
the administration knew the list
of prisoners was incomplete.
"If people were left behind, I
agree with Dr. Kissinger that the
responsibility was with the North
Vietnamese for not living up to
the terms of the agreement," Ray
said.
Although the government
could have done more, Nixon was
See Family/Page 8
"It's not politically
motivated. It's a genuine
concern of the families
of POWs who believe
the government needs to
do something to find out
what happened to their
family members. "
- Dr. Ronald Hatchett,
director of the Texas A&M
Mosher Institute