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Volume 110 • Issue 47 • 10 pages
SPOfTfi! Reggie returns • Page 5
• Gruesome cases • Page 9
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A Texas A&M Tradition Since 1893
www.thebattaIion.net
Monday, November 3, 2003
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Reveille VI laid to rest
By Dan Orth
THE BATTALION
Reveille VI, the Texas A&M
mascot who witnessed the
Aggies’ first Big 12 football
championship and marched in
President George W. Bush’s
inauguration parade, was
buried yesterday at Kyle Field.
Reveille VI served as A&M's
first lady from Nov. 13, 1993 to
May 12, 2001. Due to failing
health, Reveille VI was eutha
nized on Oct. 18. An estimated
2,500 students and former stu
dents came to pay their respects
to her at the memorial service,
followed by her burial in the
Reveille graves area outside the
north end zone of Kyle Field.
Jeff Bailey and Mark Boynton,
former mascot corporals, said
Reveille VI represented A&M.
“She represented everything
good about A&M: loyalty, devo
tion and spirit,” Boynton said.
Boynton said the mascot
enjoyed attending many sport
ing events, visiting elementary
schools and going to Aggie
Mom’s Club meetings.
Boynton said Reveille VI loved
to live on campus and run
through residence halls.
“Like other Aggies. Reveille
VI would sleep during class,”
Boynton said.
Boynton said a professor
once asked him to make
Reveille bark so he would not
have to teach class that day.
Reveille retired after seven
and a half years of service as
her health declined. In 1996,
she was diagnosed with idio
pathic epilepsy and was later
diagnosed with arthritis.
The funeral service was led
by Corps of Cadet Company
E-2, which serves as the mas
cot company.
Dr. Charles Hall, Reveille’s
veterinarian and retirement
caretaker, had been sheltering
care of the mascot since her
retirement in 2001. Hall, who
has been the veterinarian for
Reveille IV, V and VI, received
a plaque from Company E-2
for his service and dedication
to Reveille VI.
“She was universally loved,”
Boynton said.
JP BEATO III • THE BATTALION
Above: Former Mascot Corporal junior Jordan Caddick, places a wreath of
roses on Reveille Vi's casket before the memorial service at Kyle Field Sunday
afternoon. Reveille was euthanized on Oct. 18, and had served as Texas A&M's
mascot for more than seven years. Above left: Six of Reveille Vi's former mas
cot corporals lower her casket in the gravesite area outside the north end zone
of Kyle Field following the memorial service on Sunday.
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JOSHUA HOBSON • THE BATTALION
Brittney Hartfield of Miami, Fla. signs the shirt of Phi Gamma Delta president
Chad Capps after the Kansas football game Saturday. Cancer patients from M.D.
Anderson Cancer Center were brought in to watch the game, get autographs
(rom the players and take their picture with head coach Dennis Franchione.
Aggies share ‘spirit’ with cancer patients
By Joaquin Salcedo
THE BATTALION
Twelve young cancer patients from M.D.
Anderson Cancer Center in Houston left
Aggieland Saturday with T-shirts signed by
Yell Leaders and footballs autographed by
the Texas A&M football team and coaches.
The patients, ranging from ages 8 to 18,
were the guests of honor at a special tailgate
party called Share the Spirit sponsored by
A&M fraternity Phi Gamma Delta (FIJI) at
Spence Park Saturday.
Eight-year-old Garret Stringer said he was
excited to be at A&M and watch the game.
“He couldn’t sleep last night he was so
excited,” said Don Stinger, Garret’s father.
“He was really looking forward to this.”
The children, accompanied by parents,
friends and hospital staff, were picked up by
12 fraternity men ready to hand out individ
ual gift baskets filled with Aggie parapher
nalia. Arriving at Spence Park around 10:30
a.m., the rest of the fraternity members were
waiting for the children with food, drinks
and a full day of activities.
The group was introduced to Reveille VII
and to the Yell Leaders, who visited with the
children and signed their A&M T-shirts. The
Yell Leaders remained to watch the band
march into Kyle Field before the game.
At the game, the children had seats
assigned in the second deck student sec
tion. Most had never attended an A&M
football game and were anxious to experi
ence their first one.
Tianna Gale, one of the patients, said she
had fun even though it was hot outside.
“I knew we were going to win from the
start, so it was good,” Gale said. “I was
excited.”
After the game, the children were taken
to the locker room to meet and get auto
graphs from players and coaches. They were
also invited to head coach Dennis
Franchione’s office.
After visiting with the team, the tailgate
continued until about 6 p.m. when the group
was scheduled to depart for Houston.
“This was an amazing opportunity,” said
adolescent-young adult vocational counselor
See Spirit on page 2
I
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16 U.S. soldiers killed in helicopter crash
By Tini Tran
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
i FALLUJAH, Iraq — Targeting Americans with new audac-
[ity, insurgents hiding in a date palm grove shot down a Chinook
helicopter carrying dozens of soldiers heading for home leave
Sunday, killing 16 and wounding 20 in the deadliest strike
against U.S. forces since they invaded Iraq in March.
Witnesses said the attackers used missiles — a sign of the
increasing sophistication of Iraq’s elusive anti-U.S. fighters.
Three other Americans were killed in separate attacks
Sunday, including one 1st Armored Division soldier in
Baghdad and two U.S. civilians working for the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers in Fallujah. All three were victims of road
side bombs, the military said.
Sunday’s death toll was the highest for American troops
since March 23 — the first week of the invasion that ousted
Saddam Hussein — and the attack represented a major escala
tion in the campaign to drive the U.S.-led coalition out of the
country.
The giant helicopter was ferrying the soldiers on their way
for leave outside Iraq when two missiles streaked into the sky
and slammed into the rear of the aircraft, witnesses told The
Associated Press. It crashed in flames in farmers’ fields west of
Baghdad.
“It’s clearly a tragic day for America,” Defense Secretary
Donald H. Rumsfeld said in Washington. “In a long, hard war,
we’re going to have tragic days. But they’re necessary. They’re
part of a war that’s difficult and complicated.”
Like past attacks on U.S. forces and a string of suicide
bombings that killed dozens in Baghdad the past week, U.S.
coalition officials blamed either Saddam loyalists or foreign
fighters for the strike outside Fallujah, a center of Sunni
Muslim resistance to the U.S. occupation.
President Bush, who was at his Texas ranch Sunday, refused
to personally comment on the attacks. He spent the day out of
public view — a “down” day between campaign appearances
Saturday and Monday.
See Crash on page 2
Missile shoots down
U.S. helicopter
An attack by insurgents using a
shoulder-fired missile downed a
U.S. Chinook helicopter south of
Fallujah killing 15 soldiers and
wounding 21. It was the deadliest
single attack on American troops
since the start of war.
CH-47 Chinook
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SOURCES: Associated Press AP
FDA: Byproducts of cloned animals appear safe
FORT WORTH (AP) — Cattle are quietly
being cloned and sold for high prices as the live
stock industry anticipates government approval for
letting their offspring into the food chain, industry
officials said.
Meat or milk derived from healthy cloned farm
animals appears safe to eat, the Food and Drug
Administration said Friday in its first attempt at
assessing questions about the emerging technology.
The FDA is still trying to decide if cloned farm
animals will require government approval before
being sold as food. That decision is expected to
take another year.
The cattle industry has voluntarily agreed to
keep products from cloned animals out of the
food supply. But in the meantime, there already
are as many as 300 cloned bulls in existence, said
Lisa Dryer of Biotechnology Industry
Organization, a Washington lobbying group.
And an Austin-based biotech firm, ViaGen, said
Friday that a cow cloned from a prodigious produc
ing animal was auctioned for $170,000 in Iberia, Mo.
Some members of Texas’ cattle circles have
reservations about whether cloning is commercially
practical. The cost of a cloned calf currently is esti
mated at $19,000. And some cloned animals devel
op health problems.
“A lot of those cloned animals have not been as
high performance as the animals they’ve been cloned
from,” Ernie Davis, professor of livestock marketing
at Texas A&M University, told the Fort Worth Star-
Telegram. “I think the jury is still out on cloning.”
But others said they are ready to consider the tech
nology to enhance their breeding stock.
“Look at it this way. It’s like duplicating
Michael Jordan until you have five Michael
Jordans on a team,” said Donald Brown, who runs
the cattle-breeding program at his family’s
Throckmorton ranch. “Cloning takes breeding to a
whole new level.”
Memorial project
work advances
By Jacquelyn Spruce
THE BATTALION
Some of the largest pieces of stone in America
will arrive this month at Texas A&M to be used
as a part of the construction of the 1999 Aggie
Bonfire Memorial, said memorial designer Bob
Shemwell of Overland Partners, Inc.
The stones, shipped from China, weigh more
than 35,000 pounds each, and Shemwell said
they’re so big a saw had to be imported from Italy
to cut them.
“There wasn’t a saw big enough in the entire
See Memorial on page 2
BONFIRE MEMORIAL CONSTRUCTION |
C6nstrucfion , oftRe ,l Sonf!reTfemonaf7sTfn9enway^nS*i? l sclYe3u!ey
to be complete in one year.
• The 140-foot perimeter ring will be composed of 27 granite blocks
• A visitor center will provide shade and restroom facilities
• Construction is not expected to hinder traffic
• Parking lot 51 will be extended for memorial visitors' parking
CRACIE ARENAS • THE BATTALIOt
SOURCE : OVERLAND PARTNERS, INC. OF SAN ANTONIO,
TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY