The Pantagraph from Bloomington, Illinois • Page 2

A2 THE PANTAGRAPH, Sunday, May 31. 1987 Mock funeral of teen a hard-hitting lesson on drinking and driving V'! A iV Grizzle emphasized the group is not trying to draw notoriety to themselves, but to what they are doing. "We are using the tapes as a learning tool," he said. "Not only will it help us to learn Biblical doctrine, but we can use the tapes to help other youth groups." The funeral takes place at Kibler-Smith Memorial Home, 1104 N. Main Bloomington.

Tearful mourners file past the casket, while the body, played by 14-year-old Travis Escoubas, is perfectly still. Escoubas, a freshman at Bloomington High School, got the part of the corpse, he said, because "no one else wanted to do it." Escoubas said he thinks if people want to learn from what is being shown, they should get something out of it. Following the funeral, a hearse led a procession of cars to Park Hill Cemetery for burial. Wiersbe said they hope to have a 13-week series of films to present to Sunday school classes and other churches. Twelve tapes will be made available to youth groups or churches in tiie Bloomington-Normal area free.

Anyone outside the area who would like to use them need only pay for postage. Those interested in using a tape should contact the church office. By CATHERINE NICKOLAS Pantagraph staff "Today as we are gathered," said the minister, "we reflect on the good times we had with our friend." It sounded like a typical eulogy at a typical funeral, but when it was over the deceased got up and walked away. For this was a mock funeral of a boy killed by a drunken driver, with members of the College Park Christian Youth Group and some parents as actors. The group of Junior high and high school-age students is under the direction of Richard Wiersbe, associate minister, and Ed Grizzle, youth sponsor, both of College Park Christian Church.

The scene is set: A husband and wife go away for a weekend. Their son takes advantage of the situation to have a party. Because of drinking and driving, he kills a good friend of the family, tearing apart both families. The group has been filming scenes of a party, a crash, and a funeral centering on drinking and driving, with forgiveness as the focal point. Yesterday, they were taping the funeral segment.

"The main purpose of the taping is to present Biblical doctrines such as grace, love and forgiveness to the kids," Wiersbe said. it gets them involved." i iT ifY" i i- iii nrmr i n- i --tf-- iitii uiiir nin- The PntagrphSTEVE SMEDLEY High stepper An entrant in the Corn Belt competition at the McLean Charity Horse Show rode an American Saddle-bred horse in the County Fairgrounds yesterday afternoon. three gaited youth class Checks made for funding to relocate airport Researcher: UFO's pilots examined Bloomington-Normal Airport Relocation Advisory Committee. The committee was formed to investigate the feasibility of expansion as well as relocation and building a regional airport. The congressman said money for another airport would have to come from the governor and the Illinois Division of Aeronautics.

A relocated or regional airport plan has to be developed at the local level and then taken to the state before a decision is made whether to pay for the project. The Illinois Department of Transportation announced this week its $50.4 million fiscal 1988 airport program, including $1.15 million for the Twin City airport this year. The state is spending $256 million over five years, with nearly $10 million set aside for Bloomington-Normal. By EMILIE KREBS Pantagraph staff Bloomington Mayor Jesse Smart is sending letters to area congressmen asking if there is money available to relocate the Bloomington-Normal Airport. "If there's money to do it, then let's know it now.

If it's out of the question, tell us now because we've got to get all the pieces of the puzzle together," Smart said after learning that the state is allocating nearly $10 million to the airport over five years for expansion, including construction of a north-south runway. The mayor said there's a large contingent of people in the community who do not want to see the airport expand because that would mean it will stay where it is for at least 15 to 20 years. If there's federal money available to relocate, Smart said he wants to. know about it now before expansion starts. That way a logical choice can be made to either build a runway or relocate.

If the choice is to expand, the community should support airport officials and use federal and state money to get the job done as quickly as possible, he said. However, a spokeswoman in the office of U.S. Rep. Edward Madigan, R-Lincoln, said it's pot a question of whether federal money is available because the state would decide whether a project is feasible. Earlier this year, Madigan said much the same thing while meeting with members of the By Scripps Howard The bodies of four aliens from a crashed flying saucer were recovered 40 years ago, according to a government "document" obtained by a British researcher recently.

A bitter debate is now likely to develop among UFO experts over the existence of a mysterious committee, code-named Majestic-12, which is supposed to have examined the aliens. The top-secret briefing paper claims that then-CIA Director Adm. Roscoe Hillenhoetter reported that "although these creatures are humanlike in appearance, the biological and evolutionary processes responsible for their development has apparently been quite different from those observed or postulated in homo sapiens." The document, which The London Observer obtained from Timothy Good, Britain's leading UFO researcher, purports to be a briefing paper for President Eisenhower on Operation Majestic-12, also known as MJ-12. Good, in his book "Above Top Secret: The Worldwide UFO Cover-up," to be published this year, claims that MJ-12 was a committee of senior U.S. officials which investigated and then covered up news of flying saucer crashes.

"I obtained the document two months ago from a reliable American source who has close connections with the intelligence community. I am convinced of its authenticity," Good said yesterday. UFO writer Barry Greenwood, however, has suggested that the document is just a sophisticated fraud. "There are some things that look wrong with the White House memo, for example it is unsigned. It is just possible that it was manufactured by someone wanting to prove the existence of MJ-12 and then inserted into Air Force Intelligence records which had recently been opened up to the public," he said.

"The hoaxer could then have ordered a copy from the National Archives which would carry the official declassification stamp. MJ-12 may well have existed, but more research is needed to authenticate the documents." The Eisenhower briefing paper, dated Nov. 18, 1952, claims that the MJ-12 committee had been formed by his predecessor, President Truman, on Sept. 24, 1947, as "a top secret research and developmentintelligence operation re sponsible directly and only to the president of the United States." The 12 members of the group are said to have included Hillenhoetter, Defense Secretary James Forrestal, Air Force Gen. Nathan Twining, leading U.S.

atom bomb scientist Dr. Vannevar Bush, biophysicist Dr. Detlev Bronk, and astronomer Dr. Donald Menzel. All 12 are now dead, and none of them ever spoke publicly about the recovery of aliens.

The document reports that on June 24, 1947, "disc-shaped aircraft" were sighted in the United States. "Little was learned about the objects until a local rancher reported that one had crashed in a remote region of New Mexico located approximately 75 miles northwest of Roswell Army Base (now Walker Field). "On July 7, 1947, a secret operation was begun to assure recovery of the wreckage of this object for scientific study. During the course of this operation, aerial reconnaissance discovered that four small human-like beings had apparently ejected from the craft at some point before it exploded. These had fallen to earth about two miles east of the wreckage site.

"All four were dead and badly decomposed due to action by predators and exposure to the elements during the approximately one week time which had elsapsed before their discovery," the Eisenhower briefing paper claimed. "A covert analytical effort by Gen. Twining and Dr. Bushacting on the direct orders of the President resulted in a preliminary consensus (Sept. 19, 1947) that the disc was most likely a short-range reconnaisance craft a similar analysis of the four dead occupants was arranged by Dd.

Bronk. "Dr. Bronk's team has suggested the term 'Extra-terrestrial Biological or be adopted as the standard term of reference for these creatures until such time as a more definitive designation can be agreed upon. "Implications for national security are of continuing importance in that the motives and ultimate intentions of these visitors remain completely unknown." On Saturday an Air Force spokesman denied any knowledge of MJ-12 and said that investigations into UFOs had ended in 1969. for burns on leg 196 Mobil-Land.

Police said Ridgeway was with three other youths and the youths told police some gasoline got spilled and was accidentally ignited by a cigarette. Falwell predicts summer solvency for PTL ministry By Associated Press The Rev. Jerry Falwell predicts the debt-ridden PTL ministry will be on its feet by the end of the summer, and PTL founder Jim Bakker, who left after admitting to adultery, says he wants to resume preaching. Also, a Florida tax appraiser says Bakker's former top assistant, Richard Dortch, should be investigated for receiving a resident's property tax break on two Florida homes while actually living in North Carolina. In California, Bakker's wife, Tammy Faye, returning from a trip to Tijuana, Mexico, was briefly detained at the border by U.S.

Customs agents late Friday when computer files listed her rental car as stolen. The California Highway Patrol was called in, and was told by Budget Rent A Car officials that the listing was a mistake, police spokesmen said. PTL officials say it is about $70 million in debt, but Falwell said Friday the ministry has raised more than $6 million in the last 11 days to make its payroll and begin paying debts. He said he hoped PTL donors would raise that to $10 million by Tuesday when May receipts are counted. "That would at least start getting us out of the intensive care unit," he said in Grapevine, Texas, at a meeting of his conservative political action group Liberty Federation.

He predicted the ministry would be on its feet by summer's end. The Pantagraph Published daily and Sunday by Evergreen Communications 301 W. Washington Bloomington, IL 61701. Second-class postage paid at Bloomington, IL (USPS 144760) TELEPHONE (309) Home delivery Classified ads 827-7323 128-6633 NEWSROOM Jan Dennis, asst. man.

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We am make the hardest day of your life a little easier AMERICANA Healthcare Center 10 Broadway, Normal, II, 452-4 4)6 7, in hospital i A 7-year-old boy was in fair con- dition last night at St. Joseph's Hos- pital Medical Center after he was burned Friday night, reports said. I- John Robert Ridge way, of 141 Mobil-Land, sustained second-degree burns on his leg while at.