nale
Weather
Tuesday will be partly cloudy, high
in the 90s, low in the 70s
— National Weather Service
New York wins
East conference championship
clinched, 94-90 over Indiana
Page 3
Fight against tyranny
Editorial: D-Day allowed the United States to
show the world that aggression and tyranny
would not be tolerated. Page 5
THE
MONDAY
June 6, 1994
Vol. 98, No. 151 (6 pages)
‘Serving Texas A&Msince 1893
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NEWS
A&M professor dies
in house fire
A Texas A&M University professor
died Thursday in a house fire in
College Station. Dr. Lee Northcliffe, a
professor of physics, was killed by
smoke inhalation while he slept.
Lt. Eric Hurt, of the College Station
Fire Department, said the fire had
apparently started in Northcliffe’s
living room. Though the fire was
quickly put out, smoke had already
filled the house.
Campus to observe
Allied invasion
A celebration to remember the D-
Day invasion of Normandy will be
held today at 2 p.m. in the Sam
Houston Sanders Corps of Cadets
Center.
"Remembering D-Day: 50th
Anniversary” will feature exhibits,
videotapes, personal remembrances
and reflections by faculty.
Dr. Paul van Riper, professor
emeritus of political science, will
speak on the implications of D-Day,
and Dr. Joseph Dawson, associate
professor of history, will speak about
“Rudder’s Rangers," an elite unit that
was led by James Earl Rudder, who
later served as A&M president.
Margaret Rudder, his widow, will
also reflect on the events of D-Day.
Associate vice
chancellor named
Ana “Cha” Guzman, program
director for the Texas Alliances for
Minority Participation program and
associate professor of education at
Texas A&M University-Kingsville, has
been appointed associate vice
chancellor for academic support
programs for the Texas A&M
University System.
Guzman will assist the System's
seven universities and eight agencies
in developing and coordinating
academic support programs and
collaborative faculty, staff and student
relationships.
One of her areas of interest will be
to help ease the transition for
students going from undergraduate to
graduate school. She will also assist
the universities in developing
programs to enhance student
recruitment and retention.
Texas may become
gambling state
DALLAS (AP) — Some gambling
experts say it’s just a matter of time
before Texas joins 21 other states
with some form of casino gambling.
Texas already sponsors bingo,
lotteries and pari-mutuel betting. Bills
permitting floating casinos are
expected to be filed in next year’s
legislative session.
In a debate sure to be repeated
next year in Texas, casino operators
and university researchers from
around the country debated exactly
what gambling means in America.
Speakers at the last week’s
International Conference on Gambling
and Risk-Taking in Las Vegas split on
whether gambling is a panacea or a
passing fancy. They also argued over
whether state-sponsored gambling
helps turn people into compulsive
gamblers.
Researchers at the conference,
which ended Friday, said gambling is
one of the nation’s fastest-growing
industries, and that Texas may add to
that growth.
Texas Gov. Ann Richards has said
that if casinos are legalized, she
wants them land-based with
accompanying tourist attractions.
No lotto winner
picked Saturday
No tickets correctly matched all six
numbers drawn Saturday night for the
twice-weekly Lotto Texas game, state
lottery officials said.
The numbers drawn Saturday
night from a field of 50 were: 16-30-
20-36-7-10.
Lottery officials estimate the
jackpot for Wednesday night’s game
will be $10 million.
Today's iB.
, .
Classifieds
4
Comics
6
Mail Call
6
Opinion
5
Sports
3
Sources: West Point Atlas of American Wars 1900-1953, France Magazine, Atlas of World War II, Triumph and Tragedy
AP/Carl Fox
Rudder
General plays
pivotal part
By James Bernsen
The Battalion
“No soldier in my command has ever been wished a
more difficult task than that which befell the 34-year-
old commander of this provincial ranger force.”
Gen. Omar Bradley said these words about then Lt.
Col. James Earl Rudder, who on June
6, 1944, led a detachment of 225 men
to Pointe du Hoc where, under heavy
fire, they scaled 100-foot cliffs to knock
out several German heavy guns,
which, trained on Omaha and Utah
beaches, may have defeated the
largest invasion in world history.
Joe Fenton, Class of ’58 and curator
of the Sam Houston Sanders Corps of
Cadets Center, said the invasion of
Normandy was a turning point in his
tory, and Rudder, Class of ’32, played
a crucial role in the invasion. Rudder
served as president of A&M from 1959 until his death in
1970.
“The cliffs at Pointe du Hoc were steep, treacherous,
and rocks crumbled and bombs jarred large boulders
loose,” Fenton said. “Plus, there were Germans shoot
ing down at them.”
Margaret Rudder said her husband didn’t like to talk
about the attack.
“He lost so many men, it just hurt him to talk about
it,” she said. “I think he was modest about his role.”
After a 30-minute bombardment of the area by the
Battleship Texas, the Second and Fifth Ranger Battal
ions were to scale the cliffs from their landing craft and
seize the strategic point.
However, due to a guide’s navigational error, they
were 38 minutes late in arriving at Pointe du Hoc. In
that time, the Germans had re-fortified their positions
and dawn had come, making the mission seem impossi
ble, Mrs. Rudder said.
Grappling hooks connected to ladders were fired from
Please see Rudder/Page 4
Rudder
Normandy invasion changed outlook of WWM
By James Bernsen
The Battalion
On June 6, 1944, 160,000 soldiers of
the United States, Britain, Canada,
France, Poland, Norway and other Al
lied nations took part in the largest in
vasion in the history of the world.
In his book, “D-Day, June 6, 1944:
The Climactic Battle of World War II,”
historian Stephen Ambrose said the op
eration that took place 50 years ago
may have determined the entire course
of the war.
Adolf Hitler, who had over-extended
himself in the war against the Soviet
Union, wanted to persuade Joseph
Stalin that the German Army was ca
pable of inflicting heavy casualties on it
so that Stalin would seek a truce, Am
brose said.
"At A&M, the entire Class of '44 volunteered. There was a
feeling that there was a job to be done, and they were the
best trained to do it."
—Joe Fenton, curator of Sanders Corps of Cadets Center
“To do that, he needed more fighting
men and machines,” he said. “To get
them he had to strip his western front.
To do that, he had to hurl the forthcom
ing invasion back into the sea. That’s
why D-Day was critical.”
Dr. Joseph Dawson, director of the
Military Studies Institute at Texas
A&M, said that, had the invasion been
unsuccessful, the Allies would have
tried again, but another attempt would
have taken months to organize.
“If it hadn’t worked, they would have
to go back to the drawing boards,” he
said. “The Germans could have further
developed their missiles and fired them
at the large groups of massed ships. If
the attack had been held a year later,
they also would have access to larger
numbers of the jet fighters which they
were developing.”
R. F. Franz of Bryan, who was in
Baby died of suffocation,
DA to pursue charges
New curbside recycling program to begin
the Signal Corps, part of the Army Air
Corps, landed at Normandy several
days after the invasion.
“The beach was still littered,” he
said. “Shells were still landing, and
lots of ships were sunk.
“I saw the realities of the hedge rows
and how many dead soldiers hadn’t
been picked up,” he said. “Then I real
ized what we had gotten into.”
Margaret Adams of Bryan enlisted
at the same time as her boyfriend (now
her husband), and was sent to Europe;
he was sent to the Pacific.
“We had an idea that we’d join up
and be together like in the movies,” she
said, “but it didn’t happen.”
At the time of D-Day, Adams was a
Please see D-Day/Page 4
By James Bernsen
The Battalion
The district attorney’s office
will present charges to a grand
jury in the case of a 21-year-old
Texas A&M University student
whose newborn baby was discov
ered dead March 25 in a Mosher
Hall garbage chute.
Autopsy results obtained by
the Bexar County Forensic Sci
ence Center showed the infant
died of asphyxia (suffocation.)
Bob Wiatt, director of Univer
sity Police Department, said the
death could have been caused by
a number of things.
“She could have been smoth
ered, died in the sack because of
a lack of air, or because of food
particles in the bag,” he said.
“The examiner probably won’t
release any more details until
the case is presented to the
grand jury.”
The body was discovered after
UPD received a report from St.
Joseph Hospital in Bryan of a
woman living in Mosher who ap
parently had a baby.
The woman denied having
ever been pregnant and said she
was “just ill,” Wiatt said.
Bill Turner, Brazos County
district attorney, said no date
has been set at this time for the
case to be presented to the grand
jury, but all the information per
taining to the case has already
been collected.
“This is not something that
happens everyday, and we’ve
moved very thoroughly and care
fully,” he said. “We’re going to
work with the defense attorney
on scheduling the case, so the
time is good for him.”
Turner said ample time will
be given to the defense to gather
witnesses.Turner said he cannot
speculate on the strengths of the
case, but said a variety of
charges will be examined.
“We will go through the whole
range of charges, from homicide
to injury to a child to even mur
der or capital murder,” he said.
Paramedics responded to an
emergency call concerning a
woman who was bleeding heavi
ly. The woman was rushed to
A.P. Beutel Health Center and
then to St. Joseph.
After a thorough search of the
building, the infant was discov
ered wrapped in bloody towels in
a trash bin on the second floor.
Because the woman was a resi
dent of the third floor of Mosher,
it is believed the baby had been
dropped down the chute.
The woman, whose name was
not released, has since returned
to her home in Rockwall, in the
Dallas area.
By Amanda Fowle
The Battalion
A new curbside recycling program begins to
day for single family homes and duplexes in
College Station.
Residents will separate garbage into bags
designated for clear, brown or green glass, alu
minum cans and newsprint.
The program will
also include
newsprint collected
on the Texas A&M
University campus.
Katie Gibson,
College Station re
cycling coordinator,
said there will be no
additional charge
for the curbside re
cycling service.
The City of College Station has been con
ducting two pilot programs since 1990.
In these programs, residents living west of
Texas Avenue have been allowed to combine all
of their recyclable garbage into one bag and the
city was responsible for separating it. Resi
dents living east of Texas Avenue, however,
have been separating their garbage into bags,
just as all College Station residents will do un
der the new program.
Jim Smith, College Station sanitation super
visor, said the city decided to have the resi
dents separate the goods themselves because it
cost less.
“We are trying to hold our costs down and
this system was much more cost effective,” he
said.
Texas Commercial Waste in Bryan contract
ed the city to collect the items and market
them for recycling.
Champion Recycling in Sheldon has agreed
to accept the newsprint picked up by Texas
Commercial Waste. Magazines and slicked pa
per will be mixed with newsprint.
Ron Schmidt, general manager for Texas
Commercial Waste, said the program will make
recycling easier for
the public.
Making it easy
Single family homes and
duplexes may combine
newspapers and
magazines in their bins.
“The public will
not have to sort the
newsprint them
selves,” he said,
“and this will divert
even more garbage
from the landfill.”
Smith said that
the pilot programs
have been successful.
About 10 percent of waste has been recycled
instead of going to the landfill, he said.
College Station hopes to expand curbside re
cycling to include apartments and multi-family
homes within the next year, Smith said.
Gibson said College Station residents shou ’ < 1
reuse the green bins that were used (• .
garbage pick-up.
“Residents may keep the old green bins for
use as a laundry basket, toy box, or storage
bin, or give it to a day care, school or student
that could reuse it,” she said. “Please don’t
throw it away.”
Sandra Tedrow, an administrative clerk
with the City of Bryan, said that Bryan has no
city recycling, but is investigating the possibili
ty of having drop-off recycling locations aroonrl
the city.