The Des Moines Register from Des Moines, Iowa • Page 2

2A THE PES MOINES REGISTER Wednesday, September 19, 1990 RANDY EVANS, Iowa mws editor, 51S-284-8065 DATEL1IIE lOVA Sinatra to bring his oP blue eyes to Ames 65 Iowa reservists activated for crisis; destination unknown WW Steve White, one of the concert's promoters and owner of the Music Circuit record stores, said, "Ames has established Itself as a major entertainment venue." Partly because of its being managed by a large entertainment promoter like the Chicago-based Odgen Allied, the ISU Center has been able to get big names, White said. Abo, by handling the large concerts successfully, Iowa State has proved its ability to draw and handle crowds of tens of thousands of people. Bavery was notified late Monday that the unit would be activated. Most members were notified Tuesday morning. As members of the detachment manned busy telephones and watched themselves on the local news Tuesday night, Bavery set out for Muscatine to find a reservist officials hadn't been able to reach throughout the day.

"That's mainly what we're doing right now, making sure they've been notified," Bavery said. Bavery said he just might take his duck call with him, although there's likely not a chapter of Ducks Unlimited in Saudi Arabia. "I'm going to miss my first duck season in 20 years," Bavery said. The Davenport detachment's activation is believed to be the second time Iowa reservists have been called up for the gulf crisis, which began Aug. 2 when Iraq invaded and occupied Kuwait.

On Aug. 25 the 67-mem-ber 4249th U.S. Port Security detachment, based in Pocahontas, became the first to be alerted for mobilization. The unit, which includes members from Iowa, South Dakota and Minnesota, was sent to provide port security in Wilmington, N.C., but has since been split up and sent both to Newport News, and Charleston, S.C. President Bush ordered the call-up of reserves, the first since the Vietnam War, in response to the Iraqi invasion.

Activated units may be mobilized for 90 days, and Bush has the option to extend the activation another 90 days beyond that. D.n. fans braved elements to hear The Voice in 1941 By ANNE CAROTHERS-KAY and WALT SHOTWELL Raalitar Stall WrHwt Before he was 01' Blue Eyes, he was The Voice, and hundreds of teen-agers stood in stormy weather to get a glimpse of Frank Sinatra performing in Des Moines. That was at the Tromar Ballroom in 1941. Forty-nine years later, Sinatra is returning to Iowa to perform, this time at Hilton Coliseum in Ames on Nov.

3. To those who remember it, Sinatra's Tromar concert was the state's musical event of 1941. The man who had thousands of young women swooning and squealing before any of the Beatles were toilet trained was wildly popular by the time of his Des Moines appearance. Added to the Sinatra attraction was the fact that he was performing with Tommy Dorsey and his band. Ford Roberts, host of the "Saturday with Roberts" Big Band musical program on Des Moines' KRNT radio every Saturday, remembered being one of the young people who flocked to the Tromar, even though he didn't have the price of admission.

Roberts and hundreds of others who couldn't afford tickets crowded around the ballroom, which was one of the largest in the state. Many tried to slip through the building's windows. Roberts said the young fans congregated outside during a fierce storm, and were so determined that the management eventually opened the doors and let everyone In. Hysteria and adoration were the norm at Sinatra concerts. What started as a publicity stunt with young women who were hired to swoon during the crooner's early concerts turned into a nationwide phenomenon.

A 1943 newspaper article reported that "trained nurses have to be on the premises in any theater where he appears, to soothe the hysterical." FT 3 By VERONICA FOWLER TM RhMWi Arntt RurMV Frank Sinatra, still going strong at 73, will play at Ames' Hilton Coliseum Nov. 3. Sinatra is the latest performer in an increasingly long list of big names coming to the Iowa State University Center these days, following such acts as Paul McCartney, the Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton. It will be a rare upper Midwest performance for Sinatra, concert officials said, and like McCartney, he is expected to draw fans from several states. Tickets will go on sale in Iowa, Minnesota and Nebraska Saturday.

Although Sinatra certainly isn't to the taste of many younger music fans, concert organizers and Sinatra fans are optimistic that even those in their 20s will turn out for the concert. In fact, they said, it might be a concert where grandparents take along their grandchildren. "It's not so much a matter of his being a singer as it Is of his being a legend," said Al "Rocky" Rockwell, a public announcer with KRNT Radio in Des Moines for more than 20 years starting in 1948. "He is a literal legend. I'm trying to think of someone to compare him with and I can't" Younger people are attracted to Sinatra because of his legend status, Rockwell said.

"You're going to have a crowd anywhere from 30 to 90," Rockwell said. "For instance, my daughter she's 36, and she and her husband have every tape the guy ever made." The concert will be at Hilton Coliseum, and 10,000 to 14,000 seats are expected to be available, said Jeanne Hartig, marketing director for the ISU Center. It will be held in the round, and although the program is still up in the air, concert officials expect Sinatra to do many of his oldest and most popular songs sprinkled with some newer tunes. Activists tally Iowa doctors' oxcoss charges By TOM CARNEY Rtalitar Stiff Wrtttr Iowa doctors billed Medicare pa tients $28 million last year in what are called excess charges, according to a study released by two citizens groups. The report was prepared by the Citizens Fund of Washington, D.C., and was distributed by Iowa Citizen Action Network and the Iowa State Council of Senior Citizens.

Medicare, the government health Insurance program for the elderly and disabled, covers only a portion of medical bills, and the program re quires participants to pay 20 percent of the amount covered by Medicare. Those fees, called co-payments, to taled $63 million, the study said. But Iowans had to pay 44 percent more in doctors' fees because the physicians charged more than Medi care will cover. Jack Seeber, the president of the senior citizens council, said doctors who charge more than the amount Medicare will pay are a serious threat to the financial and health se curity of the nation's elderly res! dents. "The trade-off for doctors' wealth should not be to jeopardize seniors' health," he said.

The study said that only 44 percent of Iowa's doctors had agreed not to limit their charges to the amount Medicare would cover. Officials of the Iowa Medical Soci ety said, however, that the percent age represents only those Iowa doctors who are considered "participating" Medicare physicians. Those physicians are ones who agree in annual contracts to accept Medi care's payments, plus the deductibles and co-payments made by the patients, as payment In full for their Medicare patients. Non-participating doctors are free to charge more, or less, than the amount covered by Medicare and the co-payments. More than 75 percent of Iowa ,500 doctors belong to a voluntary organization called Medicare Partners.

The participants agree to ac cept Medicare payment, plus deductibles and co-payments, as full payment for patients who meet age and income guidelines. The Citizens Fund report, based on data from the U.S. Health Care Financing Administration, says the average amount lowa doctors charged over the amount Medicare paid in 1989 was $22.85 per procedure. That added charge was on top of an average co-payment of $17.14. The consumer groups advocate re quiring doctors to accept as full payment the amounts covered by Medicare and by the patients' co-payments, as some states now do.

Eldon Huston, the medical soci ety's executive vice president, said the doctors group opposes forcing physicians to accept Medicare payments. In rural areas especially, he said, Medicare payments do no more than cover i pverhead. More tickets, for example, were sold for the Rolling Stones in Ames than were sold for the Stones In Kan sas City or St. Louis. Concert organizers "have started to closely monitor the Ames area" after the success of previous concerts, White said.

Tickets will cost $32.75 and 20.25, not including various service char ges, for the 8 p.m. concert. They will be available at Ticketmaster Ticket centers, including those at Younkers stores and the Music Circuit and the ISU Center Box Office in Ames. taw port. Four others stayed in the Council Bluffs home.

Five of the children were adopted by separate families. Jones-Dressier thinks all ended up in Iowa. The sixth, Florence, was claimed by her birth mother, who returned to the Council Bluffs home to get the youngsters about four years after the children first were put there. By then only Florence was still there. Jones-Dressier was adopted by Wendell and Helen Jones of Jamaica.

She married and moved to Oregon. Jones-Dressler's search for her brothers and sisters turned up all but Thomas. Last March five of the six gathered in Arkansas for a reunion. A local television station did a feature on the reunion and a local reporter tipped "Unsolved Mysteries" about the story. Filming was done this past July at locations in Nebraska and Iowa.

Now the five, Jones-Dressier, of Oregon; Bell, of Ruthven; Florence Taylor, 53, of Siloam Spring, Delbert Heck, 58, of Jay, and James Heck 55, of Gentry, hope they can find brother Tommy. Jones-Dressier said she has a hunch Thomas was adopted by a family in northern or western Iowa. "I think he's alive. It's possible he doesn't know he's adopted," she said. "This Is our best shot." Housing agency to meet The Iowa Association of Homes for 'the Aging will meet today and Thurs-day at the Hotel Fort Des Moines.

Sit By PATRICK BEACH RMlitar Stiff Writer About 65 Davenport members of a Peoria, Army reserve transportation unit will be called to active duty Thursday. The 724th Transportation Unit will report to the Peoria headquarters, then to Fort Sheridan, 111., where the unit's parent brigade is based. A military spokeswoman said Tuesday night lt wasn't known if the unit would be sent to Saudi Arabia or would remain in the United States for the duration of its three-month activation period. The 724th is a medium truck transportation unit and hauls fuel or water in tanker trucks. The unit has approximately 190 members, including those in the Davenport detachment.

Transportation units frequently have been sent to Saudi Arabia during the Persian Gulf crisis, but Capt. Mary Haston-Hilger, public affairs officer for the 425th Transportation Brigade in Fort Sheridan, said only the Army knows where the unit will be sent. In Davenport, reservists were making arrangements for their impending absence and tracking down remaining members of the unit, said Lt. Floyd Bavery, the detachment's platoon leader. Bavery, who lives in Savannah, 111., said the members live roughly within a 100-mile radius of the Quad Cities.

"We've got meat cutters, teachers, just about everything," Bavery said. Officials at Fort Sheridan said the Davenport detachment has about 65 members, but Bavery said he didn't know the exact number. DOUO WELLSTht Raglllar Ray planning a conference on health care By TOM CARNEY RMlitar Stall Wrltar Former Iowa Gov. Robert Ray, who heads Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa, is trying to organize an Iowa Leadership Conference on Health Care, a state version of the national group he helped lead in the late 1980s. Blues spokeswoman Sheri Vohs said the effort, which is only in "ex- i ploratory stages," is meant to exam ine problems of the state's healthcare system and offer solutions.

"We haven't agreed on exactly what our purpose will be," she said. However, the group will follow a process similar to that of the national conference, she said. Ray was co-chairman of the National Leadership Commission on Health Care, which met for several years beginning in 1986 to analyze the nation's health-care system, including issues of costs, access and quality, and make proposals to improve it Among its proposals was the provision of universal access to health care at some basic level, regardless of income; expansion of the insurance system by encouraging all employers to provide it; and exposure of hidden costs of paying for indigent health care, spreading those costs among those who can afford to pay. Vohs said the Iowa group has met only once, on Aug. 31, with about 15 people attending I 1 i ti nil -i 'i-l-nt TriiiiUntiniJ If, ROBERT RAY Kansan nabbed at festival gets two-year sentence TM RHlitar't tawa Ntwi Wrvka BOONE, IA.

Harry Lee Hayes, 37, of Hiawatha, arrested during a raid by law officers Aug. 26 at the Midwest Men's Festival near Boone, has been sentenced to two years in prison for indecent contact with a child, Boone County Attorney Steven J. ueth said Tuesday. Hayes originally was charged with second-degree sexual abuse, but Oeth said the charge was reduced to lasclv ious acts with a child after he re viewed records of the case. Hayes pleaded guilty to indecent contact as a result of plea negotiations, he said, Hayes was accused of having con tact with a 9-year-old boy at the homosexual festival attended by some 90 men.

Independence husband's manslaughter trial ends Tlx Rtglitar'l lowi Nwi Strvlci INDEPENDENCE, IA. The trial of an Independence man charged In the death of his wife ended Tuesday Jimmy Torres, 30, Is charged with aggravated misdemeanor involun tary manslaughter in the Feb. 3 death of his wife, Brenda, who bled to death after her inner thigh suffered a deep cut from glass from a broken lamp Buchanan County Attorney Allen Vander Hart contended the death was the result of an argument during which Torres swept the lamp off a table. Torres argued his wife fell on the lamp by accident. The case was tried before District Associate Judge Joseph Moothart.

Iowa Falls police charge 5 with making; false report TM Riffitar'l few Ntwi Sanrtca IOWA FALLS, IA Five people were charged with making a false report after Iowa Falls police searched for a man they believed had drowned Monday night. Mark Peter Pjermagel, 20, of Iowa Falls was charged with several traf fic violations after police saw his car backing off a bridge on U.S. Highway 65. Police followed and tried to stop Pjermagel's vehicle but when the car stopped, Pjermagel got out and began running. Police searched the Iowa River for Pjermagel after two witnesses said they had seen a man jump a fence and then heard a splash.

About noon Pjermagel turned himself In at the police station. Charged with making a false report were the other occupants of the car: Crystal Ochs, 19, of Chelsea; Craig Kurtenback, 20, of Lawler; Chris Muller, 20, of Griswold; Jeff Vse-tecka, 19, of Fort Atkinson; and Mike St. Gean, 21, address unknown. Centerville man, 69, gets probation for two deaths Tht RMlitar't ttwi NiWt Smrtct CENTERVILLE, IA. A Centerville man was given five years' probation Monday for each of two counts pf vehicular homicide.

William Norfleet, 69, pleaded guilty last month In the deaths of Helen Thompkins and her grandson, Anthony Thompkins, In a Jan. 13 accident near Centerville. Appanoose County Attorney Mark Kruse said the parents of Anthony Thompkins thought sentencing Norfleet to prison would be Inappropriate because of the man's age and health. Fire truck tips over on way to salvage yard TM RwhtWi kwa Nwi nkt WATERLOO, IA. A Waterloo fire truck was heavily damaged when It overturned on a rain-slicked street while en route to an emergency call Tuesday morning.

Fire Chief Stan Stapella said the pumper truck driven by firefighter Dave Murray was called to a report of heavy smoke at a salvage yard here about 9 a.m. and was rounding a curve when it tipped over. No charges have been filed, but police are continuing to Investigate, Stapella said. Officer crashes patrol car while giving driving lesson TM RtttotWs tewa Nm Scrvtc BURLINGTON, IA. A Burlington police officer crashed his patrol early Tuesday while demonstrating driving techniques.

Lt. Joe Stewart wasn't hurt in the 'crash, which occurred while he was holding a training session for the 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. shift, Chief Wendell Patton said. Stewart was trying to demonstrate that high-speed driving isn't always necessary to obtain quick response times and "decided to do an example," Patton said.

Stewart then lost control of the squad car and hit a telephone pole. High and dry Members of a preschool class at Westminster Presby- morning in a hallway as they look down into a parking terian Church In Des Moines keep under cover Tuesday lot, trying to spy their rides home after school. Siblings hope TV show will help in locating estranged brother Americans view Saddam as perfect bad guy By VERONICA FOWLER 01 Th Rwlitar'i Amu Bureau Saddam Hussein is turning into the man we love to hate. Replacing popular bad guys of the past the Ayatollah Khomeini, Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini Saddam is serving as a convenient outlet for American rage about everything from the budget deficit to our failures in fighting drugs, Iowa experts say. Targets of Saddam have been blasted with paint pellets.

Radio disc jockeys are twisting the words of popular songs into anti-Saddam lyrics. And that most reliable monitor of public opinion, the printed T-shirt, is providing a whole crop of unflattering pictures and catchy phrases designed to give Saddam his verbal comeuppance. Steffen Schmidt, an Iowa State University professor of political science, says that these shots, both figurative and literal, have a purpose. "If you're going to inflict pain and humiliation on someone, you have to dehumanize them, because if you look at them as human beings, then it's going to get too intellectually compli-' cated," said Schmidt. Soothes Consciences By viewing Saddam as insane or monstrous, Schmidt said, Americans can soothe their consciences about the military action taken against him and Iraq.

National leaders understand this and often encourage people to view enemies as less than human. When former President Ronald Reagan or-: dered a bombing raid of Libya, for example, he referred to Moammar Gadhafi as a mad dog, Schmidt said. At least as far back as World War Schmidt said, Americans were presented with unflattering images of German Kaiser Wilhelm II. "There was an awful lot of anti-German feeling, and the kaiser was really demon-ized to the point of having fangs and everything else." On the other hand, said Schmidt, "Saddam is the perfect guy to hate." A leader who has used poison gas on his own people "you don't have to stretch your imagination to dislike him." Lets People Participate Saddam-bashins also allows people to feel that they can do something about a situation about which they feel frustrated. like the tension In the Persian Gulf.

"People don't have an opportunity, directly, to participate in policy and policy-making," Schmidt said. If they bash Saddam, "people get a sense that at least they have been able to do something active." But whether the anti-Saddam senti ment is healthy is questionable. David Rosenthal, director of the University of Iowa's Family Stress Clinic, says he thinks the anger at Saddam "has a lot of inherent rac- By GENE RAFFENSPERGER Rtglitw Stall Wrttar Five brothers and sisters who were separated and scattered are looking for a sixth family member, a brother who may be living in Iowa. rivKiimatxinii Jamaica I iL oeyono weir con- iDesmoines trol scattered the six siblings. Five 6 Mill" have been found and have held a re union.

The sixth is a brother who would now be 48. The story will be told on the television program "Unsolved Mysteries," which airs on NBC Sept. 26. "I'm really excited about this. I'm hopeful that the airing of this show will bring out something about our brother Tommy," said Doresa Jones- Dressier, 46, who now lives in Boring, but who lived from Infancy through high school graduation at Jamaica in Guthrie County.

Jones-Dressier said she has a sister, Sally Bell, 50, of Ruthven. These two women and their two brothers and a sister want to find Thomas Marshal Heck, the only one of the six Heck children of Council Bluffs who has not been located. He was adopted as a 4-year-old, said Jones-Dressier, to Thomas will have a different last name today. She sketched this background of the family in a telephone interview from her Oregon borne: The Heck family lived in Council Bluffs. The parents, Delbert and Maude, divorced and in 1)44 the six children ended up In a place in Council Bluffs known as the Christian Chil-drens' Home.

Two of the boys, Delbert and James, were sent to the Iowa Annie Wittenmver Home in Daven-.