The Battalion
Monday 'July H195^
News
Briefs
l! B 8 11 1
McVeigh conspiracy
trial gets underway
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A grand
jury investigating allegations of a larg
er conspiracy and government
coverup in the Oklahoma City bomb
ing will hear testimony from witness
es who say they saw Timothy McVeigh
with others the morning of the attack.
Among those subpoenaed to tes
tify Monday is Kyle Hunt, a banker
who has said he saw a Ryder truck
followed by a light-colored sedan dri
ven by McVeigh near the Alfred P Mur-
rah Federal Building about 30 min
utes before the explosion. Hunt has
said two passengers were in the car.
State Rep. Charles Key and Glenn
Wilburn, an Oklahoma City accountant
who lost two grandsons in the blast,
believe that others besides Timothy
McVeigh and Terry Nichols participated
in the April 19, 1995, bombing that
killed 168 people. They also allege
agents of the federal Bureau of Alco
hol, Tobacco and Firearms had prior
knowledge of a bombing plot.
Federal officials have said they doubt
a larger conspiracy and vehemently deny
any foreknowledge of the attack.
Team reprograms
Pathfinder computer
LOS ANGELES (AP) — NASA scien
tists trying to eliminate a software bug
that briefly disconnected Pathfinder
from Earth have reprogrammed the
spacecraft’s computer in hopes of
avoiding a similar glitch.
The NASA team determined that a
system overload caused the space
craft’s computer to reset last week,
which left the team unable to commu
nicate with the craft for a short time.
Over the weekend, the team re
programmed Pathfinder to keep
working if similar problems recur un
less the problems persist. The
change should prevent the team
from losing contact with Pathfinder
in the event of future overloads.
“What we’ve done is set a parameter
(telling it) don’t reset if you have prob
lems, the first time,” said Brian Muirhead,
project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion
Laboratory in suburban Pasadena.
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Investigators will
attempt to recreat
Flight 800 events
Board says chance ofanotk
Boeing 747 explosion is s
WASHINGTON (AP) —The chance of anotherds
ly Boeing 747 explosion could be reduced evenbei
test flights are completed to determine what ignited! jT]
center fuel tank on TWA Flight 800, a top aviation
vestigator said Sunday.
"On a short term, they could take what was averts )u ,
situation, which is the daily flights of 747s, andelimim
even this remote possibility of explosive vapors," saidj
Hall, chair of the National Transportation Safety Boai
The NTSB has recommended either adding cooli,,
to 747s or monitoring temperatures inside fueltanksi
avoid accidents like the deadly explosion of flights
shortly alloi it loti Now York for I ’aris a year ago.
I
Pure Refreshment
Force
Continued from Page 1
Boykin also said Bruce encouraged
recruits to attend religious services
and was kind to them.
“He was just a good man,” he said.
Leonard received a Medal of
Honor posthumously for bravery
under enemy fire in a battle at
Kommerscheidt, Germany in No
vember 1944.
Boykin said Capt. Marion C. Pugh,
Leonard’s company commander and
Class of’41, said that Leonard was the
bravest man he ever saw.
Dorm 7 is named after Leonard.
Although Boykin never met
Leonard, he said that Leonard is re
membered as a great leader.
"He (Leonard) was active, forceful
and had all the leadership qualities
Photograph: Rony Angkriwan
Nikki Rhame, 12, takes a break from the heat at the softball state championships
at Central Park in College Station Sunday afternoon.
you could ever find,” he said.
Joe Fenton, curator of the Sam
Houston Corps of Cadets Center, said
the light armor of the vehicles and
their speeds of 40-60 mph made
them faster than the German tanks.
“They (the tanks) were very mo
bile,” he said, “and they would hide in
a position where they could ambush
the German tanks.”
The tanks used in the Force were
four different half-track vehicles: the
M-3, with a 75-mm gun; the M-10,
with a naval 3-inch gun; the M-18,
with a 76-mm gun; and the M-36, with
a 90-mm gun.
Fenton said that although the tanks
on the Tank Destroyer Force were
technologically advanced for the time,
Leonard and Bruce used the weapons
successfully.
“[They were] very brave, coura
geous, fantastic leaders and skilled in
their field of being able to fight battles
with unconventional types of things,”
he said.
On the monument at Fort Sill, the
names of the eight Medal of Honor
winners (including Leonard) are dis
played with the names of the three
men who created the Force: Lt. Gen.
Bruce; Gen. George C. Marshall, the
Army chief of staff; and Lt. Gen. Leslie
J. McNair, the Army ground force
commander.
The Tank Destroyer Society was
formed Nov. 8, 1995, in Georgia.
Boykin and French said the Society
aims to get the Force the recognition
and honor it deserves.
A monument at Fort Hood was
erected in 1983 honoring the founders
of the Tank Destroyer Force.
One national monument and
twenty Battalion monuments are at
Fort Knox, Ky.
Our agency takes very
seriously our responsibility^
the eyes and ears of the American
people at an accident site.”
Jim Hall
NTSB Chair
But the agency has complained that the FederalAra
tion Administration has been too slow to implementpie
ventive measures.
“Our agency takes very seriously our responsibility!
the eyes and ears of the American people at an acciden
site,” Hall said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.”
Though 747s have flown millions of flights, the NTSBlia
investigated only two explosions in the center fuel tanks-
llight 800 and a plane in the Philippines that ex]
the ground. In both cases, the weather was hotandtlii
plane’s engines had been operating for some time.
Investigators will conduct 10 test flights thisweel
from JohnF. Kennedy International Airport witha/T
similar to the one used in flight 800, Hall said,
will try to recreate conditions that led flight 800 toes
plode in a fireball, killing all 230 people aboard.
The aircraft has been set up with monitors to exa:
ine six scenarios that could have led to the explosion, K'
said. Four involve mechanical problems, and two oM
could have been intentional. I
Microsoft Corp. chair tops Forbes’ list of billionaires
Weather Outlook
NEWYORK (AP) — Microsoft Corp. chair Bill Gates
topped Forbes magazine’s list of the world’s top bil
lionaires for the third straight year, and he’s pulling
away from the pack as his software empire rides the
stock market’s record-setting wave.
Gates’ net worth doubled to $36.4 billion over the past
year. That put him nearly $9 billion ahead of the second-
place Walton family, the $27.6 billion heirs to the Wal-Mart
fortune, Forbes said in its 11th annu
al rankings, released Sunday.
Gates’ personal wealth has
swelled as investors more than dou- 1
bled the stock price of Microsoft,
whose Windows operating system is
the most popular for running per
sonal computer functions.
Forbes says in its July 28 issue that
it limited the list of billionaires this year
to the top 200 because the rapid rise of
the global economy and stock markets
has produced nearly 500 billionaires
worldwide. There were 447 on last year’s list and just 96
when the magazine started the rankings 10 years ago.
Wall Street’s bull market also helped American bil
lionaires double their spots in the top 10 ranking, with
six slots. Last year, Asians made up half the top 10 list
but this year only two were members: Hong Kong real
Gates
estate magnates Lee Shau Kee, No. 4 with $14.7 billion,
and the Kwok brothers, No. 8 at $12.3 billion.
Of the American entries, investor Warren Buffett was
No. 3 at $23.2 billion and Microsoft co-founder Paul
Allen stood at No. 6 with $14.1 billion.
The other Americans in the top 10 were the Haas
family of Levi Strauss, seventh with $12.3 billion, and
the Mars candy family, at No. 9 with $12 billion.
In fifth place were the Oeri, Hoffman and Sacher
families of Switzerland, heirs of the Swiss pharmaceu
tical group Roche, with $14.3 billion. Rounding out the
top 10 was the Quandt family of Germany, which owns
half of BMW and is worth $11.7 billion.
Yoshiaki Tsutsumi, the Japanese real estate and
transportation mogul who was once the world’s richest
businessman, slid to No. 22 from seventh last year as
his country’s property market continued to falter.
Hong Kong, which this month returned to Chinese
control after 156 years of British rule, placed seven bil
lionaires on the list, including Nina Wang, the world’s
second richest woman. Her net worth of $7 billion from
running the Chinachem real estate empire ranks sec
ond behind Liliane Bettencourt, the $8.4 billion heiress
to the L’Oreal cosmetics fortune.
Forbes provided a separate ranking of dictators and
royalty, excluding them from the global billionaires list
since they have no direct role in managing businesses.
WEDNESDAY
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
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Political Ethics and Open Government
A nonpartisan review- of Texas legislation
on finance reform, conflict-of-interest, and
open government.
Suzy Woodford, Executive Director
Common Cause of Texas
Wednesday, July 16, 1997
4:00 p.m. 230 MSC
FREE Admission
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The views expressed in this program do
not necessarily represent those of
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