'■November
MONDAY
November 13, 2000
Volume 107 ~ Issue 57
12 pages
mg up air
ecutivecjiri • t*
prisoner or
ar speaks
iid they iej. XT
bu waicL' n • •
r tat captivity
ohavetc;* •
v Bmariano Castillo
'Urroundl[:Ht' Battalion
shouldgei- lVeteran's Day holds a special mean-
B for Texas A&M student Steven
" willhaonzales. In March 1999, as a U.S.
cized CdlBny Specialist, Gonzales was one of
e (argeslflihfee American soldiers captured by
y is exyrngoslav forces outside of Skopje, the
id to be- Vlacedonian capital.
bemeastBGonzales, along with Sergeants
breaksali^P 168 Stone and Andrew Ramirez, sub-
Bjuently spent 32 days in a Belgrade
it 9 a m ! son as a prisoner of war (POW).
a , id ■“After this | POW | experience. |Vet-
Bn’s Day ] is very special to me in the
||Bise that maybe I have a little bit of
I Bling of some of the older veterans
~ Bt I've seen and admired as I’ve
Brief'grown up,” Gonzales said.
- u / BGonzales, a junior mechanical en-
™Beering major, shared his experience
)d S §w th a group of students from Oak-
wood Intermediate School at Corps
■omeof pjL a Friday afternoon.
! ~ a ™ ai l He told the students how terrified he
etote'Teh immediately after being captured
:hetheo';: an( j h ow h e was treated by the Yu-
whohamgoslav soldiers. The three were treated
i of the?.harshly at first, he recalled, and meals
le streets were skimpy at best,
ercity’sm? Curious students pried deeper into
1 bricksr^Gonzales’ month in the prison: “What
tor of p:: was.the best food they gave you?” a
ia. Se. : student asked.
lorousbrit' I “Beans, I remember, was one of the
i breetflfbest meals I had,” Gonzales said,
j, His presentation was the conclusion
that waif t0 a day-long program for the students
rt andcai; P ul on by Silver Wings and Arnold Air
a said. Societ y-
A Members of these A&M organiza
tions taught the children about flag eti-
gi/ette, traditions and gave them a tour
'Vnce we got to the
The
ike
wti
prison and realized
that we may have
to endure for a long
time in solitude, we
all fell hack on cer
tain things to keep
our hopes up”
— Steven Gonzales
U.S. Army specialist and a junior
mechanical engineering major
d deaf-
:ted tlie
re com-
ary ser-
i, found
eknew
As it
sening.
Aggie
who
nd it.
J
lu,
of the Corps of Cadets Center.
I Kallie Pence, 10, an Oakwood stu-
Bnt, said she gained deeper' apprecia
tion for veterans.
I “It took a lot of guts for people to go
out there and fight,” Pence said. “I ad-
iire the people who fought in wars.”
1 Since returning to A&M last
spring, Gonzales has spoken to vari
ous groups. He enjoys it, he said, be-
-ause “it’s a great opportunity to be in
)ublic and express my gratitude for
ill the support and to share a little bit
f my experience.”
I Gonzales, Stone and Ramirez were
)n a reconnaissance mission near the
Macedonian-Serbian border when they
lore ambushed.
I “We had about 20 Serbian soldiers
firing on us with automatic rifles,”
lonzales said.
H While their armored Humvee kept
toe soldiers from getting hit, the engine
block was damaged extensively.
I The captives spent the first week
fboded and handcuffed. Gonzales said
that in relative terms, arriving in prison
Was a step up — there was relief just to
have the freedom to move, even if con-
|ied to a cell.
I “Once we got to the prison and re
alized that we may have to endure for
along time in solitude, we all fell back
on certain things to keep our hopes up,”
Gonzales said. “I fell back on my reli-
lous upbringing, as well as my friends
and my family.
I “Knowing that my country was be
hind me, I think, was a key factor.”
Red Cross workers who visited as-
red them their situation was a big sto
ry in the United States, and that Presi
dent Clinton had made a statement to
;their captors regarding their health.
I More than a year since being re-
lt ed, Gonzales said he does not hold
a lot of bitterness toward his Yugoslav
“gap tors.
See POW on Page 2.
Push
Brad Snead, a junior international studies major does push-ups in the south end-
zone of Kyle Field before on Saturday. Fans showed up early to participate in
ESPN'S "College Gameday" broadcast at Kyle Field.
OU, ‘College Gameday’ bring
record crowd and 35-31 loss
By Jason Lincoln
The Battalion
The stage was similar to last year. The last
game of the season in Kyle Field, the largest
crowd ever to witness a football game in Texas.
The jets that roared over Kyle Field just before
kickoff and the return of an Aggie ring lost by
a fallen Aggie echoed the last game in 1999,
when the memory of the Bonfire collapse oc
cupied as much of the Aggies’ minds as the
game against rival Texas.
Even the result was nearly the same. But in
stead of the Aggies coming up with a four-point
upset over No. 5 Texas, it was No. 1 Oklahoma
edging out the Aggies for the first time in Kyle
Field since 1903 by a four point margin, 35-31.
Everything about Saturday’s match up
against the Sooners was oversized, and it was
not just limited to the nation’s top-ranked team
that took the field.
For the first time ever, ESPN’s “College
Gameday” broadcast live from College Station
in preparation for the biggest game of the year.
The event drew thousands of A&M and
OU fans to the stadium more than two hours
prior to kickoff to watch the trio of college
football analysts make predictions about the
week’s games.
But the scene had just begun as the A&M
campus warmed up for the game to come to
Kyle Field in two decades.
Prior to the game, an Aggie Ring found at
the Battle of the Bulge in World War II was re
turned to the family of Medal of Honor Recip
ient 1 st Lt. Turney W. Leonard. A group of
fighter jets streaked over the stadium in honor
of Veterans Day.
By the time the game was in full swing, Kyle
Field had filled to a record crowd of 87,188, ex
ceeding last year’s record set against Texas for
the largest crowd ever to see a football game in
the state.
The Aggie crowd was Marooned Out for the
second time this season, as it attempted to help
the football team pull off yet another upset
against a Top 10 opponent. During the last Ma-
See Gameday on Page 2.
Gore, Bush
dash on votes
Florida counties
struggle with count
DELAND, Fla. (AP) — In Volusia
County, several dozen election work
ers began counting 184,019 ballots by
. hand Sunday in a bleary-eyed task that
will require 14-hour shifts over at least
two days.
“We don’t need to remind you of the
importance of what’s going on here,”
organizer Roy Schliecher told the elec
tion workers before they began. “The
eyes of the country are on Volusia
County today.”
They also are fixed firmly on Palm
Beach and Broward counties, two De
mocratic strongholds that plan hand
counts this week, unless a federal judge
on Monday grants a Republican request
to block the manual recounts.
The two counties, along with Miami-
Dade, account for about 1.5 million
votes cast in the presidential election.
With the presidential election hing
ing on Florida’s 25 electoral votes, Re
publicans and Democrats battled coun
ty by county over where there should be
further recounts and how they should be
conducted. Among developments:
• Democrats added Osceola County
to their list of hand recount requests.
The Osceola canvassing board, com
prised of two Republicans and one De
mocrat, meets Monday to weigh it. A1
Gore had a small lead over George W.
Bush in the 54,000-plus votes cast. His
panic voters alleged they were required
to produce two forms of identification
when only one was required. The cen
tral Florida county has a large Puerto Ri
can community.
• Palm Beach County early Sunday
awarded 36 more votes to Gore and
took three away from Bush following a
machine count of all 531 precincts. The
county, on a 2-1 vote, ordered a manu
al recount of all 425,000 ballots cast.
Election officials meet Monday to de
cide how to proceed.
• Polk County election officials to
day plan to certify new vote totals that
would give Bush an additional 104
votes and seven to Gore. The votes
turned up in a machine rescanning of
ballots in dozens of precincts.
• Broward County plans to begin a
hand recount of about 6,000 ballots in
three precincts today.. If major prob
lems are found, authorities will consid
er a full hand count of all precincts.
Republicans move
to impound votes
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) —
With George W. Bush clinging to a 17-
vote lead over A1 Gore in New Mexico,
state Republican Party attorneys are re
questing that state police impound ear
ly-voting and absentee ballots from
Tuesday’s election in case of a chal
lenge or recount.
Police seized ballots in six counties
during the weekend under orders from
two state District Court judges. The
counties comprise two judicial districts.
GOP officials say impoundment peti
tions will be filed in all 13 New Mexi
co judicial districts.
Under state law, either party may re
quest impoundment. It is up to a judge
to decide whether to grant the request.
Once an impoundment order is issued,
state police take possession of ballots
from the county clerk.
“We want to preserve all the ballots
to see if anybody on either side wants to
ask for a recount,” GOP attorney Mick
ey Barnett said Sunday.
“There’s no allegation whatsoever in
this impoundment issue that there’s any
fraud or anything. I think it’s much
more pro-forma than suspicion. I’djust
like to know two weeks from now, if
something does happen, that they (the
ballots) are all there.”
The state Democratic Party planned
a news conference Sunday to ask that
the state GOP withdraw it is impound
ment requests.
Unofficial results show Bush with a
17-vote lead out of more than 571,000
ballots cast, but state election officials
said 370 “in-lieu-of ballots remained
uncounted Sunday.” Those ballots,
which are to be counted by Friday, go to
people who requested absentee ballots
but did not receive them. In-lieu-of bal
lots are checked against absentee ballots
and are counted only if there is not al
ready an absentee ballot for that voter.
The impoundment requests could
slow official election results because the
in-lieu-of ballots are among those that
would be seized by police, delaying
when they can be counted. Secretary of
State Denise Lamb said.
If the Gore or Bush campaign wants
a recount, it must be requested within six
days of the Nov. 28 official review of the
votes by the state canvassing board.
Lost Aggie Ring returned
to family of WWII soldier
By Noel Freeman
The Battalion
A piece of Aggie history has re
turned to Texas A&M after being
forgotten in Germany for 56 years.
Medal of Honor recipient 1 st Lt.
Turney W. Leonard’s Aggie Ring
came home in a private ceremony
held at the Sam Houston Sanders
Corps of Cadets Center on Satur
day. The ring was presented to Tur
ney W. Leonard’s only surviving
sibling, Mr. Douglas Leonard of
Dallas, by German Lt. Obit Volker
Lossner, who obtained the ring from
his father-in-law, Alfred Hutmach-
er. The ceremony was attended by
30 members of Turney W.
Leonard’s family, A&M officials
and representatives from the Corps
of Cadets.
Lossner said Hutmacher found
the ring after helping American
forces locate the graves of Ameri
cans killed during the Battle of the
Bulge and had virtually forgotten
about the ring’s existence until
Lossner expressed an interest in
the historical battle.
“You have to be interested in
historical things if you’re living
on the battlefield,” said Lossner,
whose home is located about
300 meters from the site where
the ring was found.
Lossner said he did not imme
diately understand the signifi
cance of the Aggie Ring, but he
knew it might be important to
someone, so he contacted U.S.
Army Col. Thomas Fosnacht to
STUART VILLANUEVA/The Battalion
.German officer, Lt. Obit Lossner, presents a member of the Leonard family
See Ring on Page 2. with the Aggie Ring of First Lt. Turner W. Leonard, who was killed in WWII.
B-CS community reflects on meaning, spirit of Bonfire
T his is the first in a week-long
series in memory of the 1999
Aggie Bonfire collapse. The series
will conclude Friday with a special
memorial section.
By Richard Bray
The Battalion
In a community of about 100,000, the ef
fects of the 1999 Aggie Bonfire Collapse
reached farther than the edges of the Texas
A&M campus.
Bryan-College Station community leaders
have shared in the adversity of the past year.
“As time has passed, the severity of the grief
has lessened for many outside of our commu
nity, but it remains very much a part of this
community’s identity,” said Bob Richers, asso
ciate pastor at First United Methodist Church.
To some community members, Bonfire
means as much as it does to Aggies. College
Station City Council member Ron Silvia said
the unity between the community and the Uni
versity was stronger after the Bonfire collapse.
“Bonfire is about as traditional to College
Station as it is to the University,” Silvia said.
“We’ve always been very, very close, and af
ter the tragedy last year, I think it brought us
even closer. We have the same type of com
mitment and passion for the Bonfire as a lot of
the ex-students.”
Students come to College Station for four
to five years and then usually leave the town.
However, B-CS residents remain despite the
coming and going of students. Some have
seen more than four or five Bonfires. Bonfire
had become a staple of this community. Col
lege Station Mayor Lynn Mcllhaney said the
Bonfire collapse was a difficult time for the
entire community, including non-Aggies.
“That was a very tragic time for the com
munity, for the families, for the University,”
she said. “It is always difficult when you deal
with a situation such as what we had a year
ago, and the community came together and
supported each other, supported the families,
supported the University. What I hope the
community remembers from that tragedy is
the outpouring of love and support and con
cern for everyone involved.”
As some Aggies awoke to the news that
Bonfire had fallen, local merchants assembled
on the polo fields — offering drinks, food and
shoulders to cry on.
“I can’t emphasize enough how much this
community was effected by this tragedy, as
witnessed by all of the things that happened
during the rescue effort: restaurants bringing
free food, hotels opening up their rooms free
of charge to the families, people sending
clothes over — anything they could do,” he
said. “This community is very close, not
only to the Aggie spirit, but especially to the
Bonfire.”
Mcllhaney said Bonfire and the Aggie spir
it still live on in the community.
“The meaning of Bonfire is still the same,”
she said. “I still believe the Aggie spirit is alive
See Bonfire on Page 2.