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The Battalion
iiesday • September 16, 1997
ON
Plane losses precede Air Force anniversary
Military crash
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Air
force, celebrating its 50th anniver-
iary, was bruised by the spectacular
oss of an F-l 17A stealth fighter at a
Maryland air show and the mysteri-
ius disappearance of one of its long-
aulC-141 transports.
The crash of a Navy jet in the
’ersian Gulf brought to 10 the
lumber of servicemen presumed
ost in U.S. military air accidents in
two-day span.
Aviation experts noted say there
ras no apparent connection be-
ween the three weekend incidents
iven the disparate type of aircraft
nd geographic separation.
But the coincidence of timing
ame as the Air Force sought to
lerald its successes in the kickoff
if its 50th anniversary celebration
/londay.
Defense Secretary William Cohen
iaid tribute to the pilot of the F-l 17
ut did not mention the other inci-
lents as he addressed the Air Force
ssociation, a booster club.
He said Maj. Bryan Knight dis-
layed “courage and competence”
nd “helped divert a much larger dis-
ster" Sunday by steering his fighter
t away from heavily populated ar-
as outside Baltimore, Md.
The secretary said video replays
low Knight waited “until the final
loment” to eject, something Cohen
ailed “a compliment to the kind of
ourage and dedication that is ex
isted day in and day out by men
nd women in the Air Force adl over
le world.”
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I GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) —
During his two weeks lost in the
* Ravens^y™ National Forest, 50-year-
|d mathematician David Vetter-
o-minute gani|in had plenty of time to think
the past.” >out how he might have done
m s gave up b ings differently.
He should have taken the CB ra-
o his father offered. He should
ve packed a lighter or fresh
atches that wouldn’t fizzle out.
should have brought a better
ap and food that wouldn’t spoil.
Soaked from a night of rain,
ngry and without the strength
even lift his hiking stick, Vetter-
iiker is
bund after
wo weeks
n forest
kle kick return
that can’t I
e slower pace
f returns to
yards in kickoi
turns to tin
r announced
ver necessary
ims. That mean
1 rotate start;:,
inie Marts, Jot
arron Worthac
rverage team j n j ust j ce p t walking, eventually
ns iding a logging road.
Oilers had Job Q n Sunday afternoon, he spied
noring their spt ie pickup truck of Dan Speelman,
he earned a tri] ^ was a uncertain of where
lor his work. , was himself after a morning of
he Raiders, are )w hunting for deer with his 10-
ped up to fill® l ar . old S on.
“He was walking along the road
ie staiteis I ^ saw m ve hicle and started
ngei players i l av j n g ^ arms ” Speelman said
[onday. “He’s a real tall slender
Ity and he looked pretty bedrag-
Jed. When I stopped, he just said,
, . ©h, thank God, thank God.”’
i s mi mg I „ ave me sandwiches and
m img Sl| b Lt coffee, exactly what I needed,”
an/'^said Martl” erlein said -J 1 was sufferinghy-
teran who brof? 16 ^ at that point.
cia j teams f 0 | Speelman drove Vetterlein to a
n undrafted frei n g er station, where he ate a big
pwl of soup, called his parents,
nt into their lb M was checked out by emer-
y The most sen Jnc y medical technicians, who
> Pro Bowl safef renounced him fit.
who has a frac j Vetterlein said he lost the trail
rm on the second day of what was
shop’s availabil jFPPOsed to be a three-day hike
will depend o#d depended solely on his com
be feels and lii:P : ‘ss until he found a logging road,
iplint. |r s way was blocked by deep
r Derek Russell >rges, steep slopes and impene-
collarbone Julf able brush.
d play. | Beans that he had stored in
- lastic bags spoiled. He ate huck-
pp berries and some other food that
yOII SpOi ie had brought along,
been to the po l [ “The things that saved me were
lose dozen cornmeal muffins I
lade before the trip and my father
3ceived ovatiot aying me some salmon jerky,”
it Camden Yaii stterlein said. “It was too salty to
eammates. Wilt at the beginning but saved me
plate in the fir 1 the end.”
Hood and cheerf About five days into his ordeal,
is the song, “Yo helicopter flew over at treetop
ion” played ov< !ve l to pick up a searcher who had
ss system. kn injured, but Vetterlein could-
mdout by Ma bget the pilot’s attention through
Armando Benin le trees. He tied his red shirt to his
md ahead in it diking stick and waved it at three
immonds hit If bnes that flew overhead, but no
ie bottom haifo f n e seemed to notice.
During his ordeal, he thought of
worked the nini P w he would never be able to tell
is professor he had solved the
roblem he had been working on,
nd how he would go to church
ivery Sunday if he ever got home.
| "Towards the end there, it was just
pray, pray, pray,” Vetterlein said.
ssive years
The 53 remaining F-l 17 stealth
fighters were grounded as officials
investigated the mishap. Meanwhile,
the Pentagon was probing the mys
terious Saturday disappearance —
and possible midair collision—of an
Air Force C-141 cargo plane with a
German air force plane off the coast
of Africa. Nine Americans and 24
Germans were feared dead.
In the third incident, a Navy F-A-
18 fighter crashed Sunday in Oman,
killing the pilot.
The F-l 17 garnered fame with its
night-time bombing runs on Bagh
dad during the Persian GulfWar.
Sen. John Warner, R-Va., said
Monday that he was introducing leg
islation that would prohibit the use
of F-l 17 fighters and B-2 bombers at
air shows.
Cohen responded that it would
be best to await the formal outcome
of the Air Force investigation.
“I don’t think we should ever rule
out any aircraft participating in
shows. It could happen to any other
type of aircraft that we have as well.
Let’s wait and see what the facts
show,” Cohen said.
Pentagon officials argue that tax
payers are the beneficiaries of such
shows, because they allow the mili
tary to display how the defense dol
lar is being spent. As well, the shows
are major recruiting tools for the all
volunteer force.
Warner, a senior member of the
Senate Armed Services Committee,
said the cost is just too high, assert
ing the taxpayer pays $100 million a
No survivors were found at the Ute
where U.S. and German military
planes are believed to have collided
and plummeted into the ocean.
Tupolev TU-154
Wingspan
Length
Height
123 feet, 2 1/2 inches
(37.55 m)
157 feet, 1 3/4 inches
(47.90 m)
37 feet, 4 3/4 inches
(11.40 m)
C-141 Starlifter
Hi
si
JT
• ! *
160 feet
(48.5 m)
168 feet, 4 inches
(51 m)
39 feet, 3 inches
(11.9 m)
Source: Jane’s All the World’s Aircraft,
United States Airforce
Wingspan
Length
Height
Sign your first
book deal.
Contracts for the 1998 Aggieland
available now in 004 Reed McDonald.
Don’t let your organization be left out!
are
copy for the F-l 17.
“We only have 53 left and they
are needed for special missions in
the national security interests of
this country, and I just do not be
lieve that type of asset can be put
at this type of risk,” the senator
said on the Senate floor.
The B-2, which was built to use
nuclear wapons and evade the
radar of the former Soviet Union,
cost $2 billion a plane, making it
the most expensive aircraft ever
built. It recently has been outfitted
to conduct long-range conven
tional bombing runs.
“I feel it is a matter of principle
that this nation cannot subject that
costly an aircraft, one that is essential
to the performance of a very special
ized mission, in this type of circum
stance,” Warner said.
Military seals off jet crash site
MIDDLE RIVER, Md. (AP) — Citing national securi
ty, military police kept nine families from returning to
their homes Monday, seized photographers’ film and
cordoned off the site of a stealth fighter crash as they
searched for pieces of an aircraft whose very existence
was once a state secret.
The clamp down in this quiet waterfront neighbor
hood began almost immediately after the F-117A jet
went down during an air show performance Sunday,
crashing into a house and causing six minor injuries on
the ground.
“There was military everywhere. This road was full,
the sky was loaded. I tell you it was something,” said
Paul Canatella, standing in his driveway less than a 100
yards from the mangled canopy, which was watched by
two armed military guards.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Canatella said. “You
name it they were here.”
Three blocks of the Baltimore suburb were quickly
evacuated and military troops moved in to scour the area
for pieces of the $45 million, black, bat-winged plane.
"It is a secret aircraft, obviously we want to protect it
the best way we can,” said Capt. Drew Sullins, a Mary
land National Guard spokesman.
Film was confiscated from members of the media,
including Associated Press photographer Roberto
Borea, who had chartered a boat to take him to the
neighborhood.
“As soon as we stepped on shore, the military was
there and that was it,” Borea said. “Had I chosen not
to surrender my equipment, I would have been tak
en into custody.”
Sullins said pool photographers were later allowed
on the scene for a few minutes Monday under tight mil
itary supervision.
The boomerang-shaped F-117A Nighthawk uses
special design and materials to avoid enemy radar. Dur
ing much of the 1980s, it was so secret the military did
n’t acknowledge its existence.
It was used in the GulfWar against heavily defended
Iraqi targets because of its strange shape, tight con
struction and special surface paint, to evade radar and
radar-guided missiles.
Amateur video of Sunday’s crash showed a piece of
the aircraft, apparently from the tail or a wing, flying off
before the wedge-shaped jet went down in a slow spin
as the pilot ejected safely.
Retired bomber pilot Norman Mack said he called
the military to come retrieve the first two pieces he saw
fall off the plane; they landed in shallow water behind
his house. Mack said several boats showed up and offi
cials called his daughter later asking permission to re
trieve a smaller piece of debris from her boat.
Emma Wetzelberger, a clerk at Wilson Point Liquors
near the airport, said dozens of diners at the restaurant
she was in Sunday night couldn’t return in the boats
they had used to get there because the military had
closed down the Middle River.
AGGIE RING ORDERS
THE ASSOCIATION OF FORMER STUDENTS
CLAYTON W. WILLIAMS, JR. ALUMNI CENTER
DEADLINE: SEPTEMBER 17, 1997
Undergraduate Student Requirements:
1. You must be a degree seeking student and have a total of 95 undergraduate credit hours reflect
ed on the Texas A&M University Student Information Management System. (A passed course,
which is repeated and passed, cannot count as additional credit hours.)
2. 30 undergraduate credit hours must have been completed in residence at Texas A&M
University, providing that prior to January 1,1994, you were registered at Texas A&M University
and successfully completed a fall/spring semester or summer term (I and II or 10 weeks) as
a full-time student in good standing (as defined in the University catalog).
60 undergraduate credit hours must have been completed in residence at Texas A&M
University if your first semester at Texas A&M University was January 1994 or thereafter, or if
you do not qualify under the successful semester requirement. Should your degree be con
ferred with less than 60 undergraduate resident credits, this requirement will be waived after
your degree is posted on the Student Information Management System.
3. You must have a 2J) cumulative GPR at Texas A&M University.
4. You must be in good standing with the University, including no registration or transcript blocks
for past due fees, loans, parking tickets, returned checks, etc.
Graduate Student Requirements
If you are a December 1997 degree candidate and you do not have an Aggie ring from a
prior degree, you may place an order after you meet the following requirements:
1. Your degree is conferred and posted on the Texas A&M University Student Information
Management System; and
2. You are in good standing with the University, including no registration or transcript blocks for
past due fees, loans, parking tickets, returned checks, etc.
If you have completed all of your degree requirements and can obtain a “Letter of Completion"
from the Office of Graduate Studies, the original letter of completion, with the seal, may be
presented to the Ring Office in lieu of your degree being posted.
Procedure To Order A Rina:
1. If you meet all of the above requirements and you wish to receive your ring on November 13,1997,
you must visit the Ring Office no later than Wednesday. September 17,1997 to complete the appli
cation for eligibility verification.
2. If your application is approved, you must return and pay in full by cash, check, money order, or your
personal Discover, Visa or Mastercard (with your name imprinted) no later than Friday, September
19,1997.
Men’s 10K-$294.00
Women’s 10K - $171.00
14K - $399.00
14K - $197.00
Add $8.00 for Class of '96 or before.
The ring delivery date is November 13, 1997.
<8>
Motorola is
instrumental in the
development of some
of today’s hottest
software technology,
as well as the
advancement of some
of the brightest minds
in the industry.
On September 16th,
you’ll have the chance
to meet with company
representatives at the
On-Campus Career
Fair.
l/l/e invite you to stop
by and explore the
opportunities that await
you in the fields of
Software Engineering
and Development,
Information Systems
and Product Support.
See You There!
www.mot.com/UR
Creating a diverse workforce through equal opportunity. MIF IDIV.