The Philadelphia Inquirer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 1

MEMORIAL DAY EDITION phillyfcom wiaYe, no. Ms. city suburb, Monday, May 31, 2010 Locally Owned Independent Since 2006 75 cents $1 in some locutions outside the metro Hrea 11 Ewer Miiii.j.miuii.iijp i I'i'i'mi A son sacnnce, Oil leak may last until late a journey of mercy August Leighton back in net Flyers defense must step up in Game 2. Sports, El. a I -ft.

The medical team had assembled to give Sal Corma the bad news. There was no way he could make the trip to Dover Air Force Base that night to receive his son's remains. Too dangerous, given his stroke the week before. Too stressful. Corma, Commentary 78, had been at Ma- 4 Hi 1 gee Rubin si e.

Iff I I I NJ. body likely that of Shore tourist It was found in Atlantic County, near where the apparent kidnap victim's car left the expressway. The White House warned that the disaster likely will continue until relief wells can be drilled. By Clifford Krauss, John M. Broder and Jackie Calmcs NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE HOUSTON The Obama administration scrambled to regroup Sunday after the failure of the latest attempt to kill the gushing oil well in the Gulf of Mexico.

But administration officials acknowledged the possibility that tens of thousands of gallons of oil might continue pouring into the gulf until August, when two relief wells are scheduled to be completed. "We are prepared for the worst," said Carol Browner, President Oba-ma's adviser on climate change and energy policy. "We have been prepared from the beginning." Even as the White House sought to demonstrate that it was taking a more direct hand in trying to solve the problem, senior officials acknowledged that the new technique BP will use to try to cap the leak severing the riser pipe and placing a containment dome over the cut riser could temporarily result in as much as 20 percent more oil pouring into the water during the three days to a week before the new device could be installed. "This is obviously a difficult situation," Browner said on NBC's Meet the Press onunday, "but it's important for people to understand that from the beginning, the government has been in charge." "We have been directing BP to take important steps," including the drilling of a second relief well, See SPILL on A5 Hospital for more than a month, learning how to get around after losing most of his right leg to diabetes. Twice complications had sent him back to a hospital.

"You can't tell me I can't see my own son," he replied. Alex Kobb, a physical-therapy team leader, stepped forward. Three times Kobb had worked with Corma. They'd bonded. He said he would do whatever it took.

"All he ever talked about was his son, how he was a West Point grad," Kobb said later, "how he was very proud." Sal and Trudy Corma had their only child together late in life. She was 43; he was a decade older. They named the boy Salvatore Simplicio Corma or Sal for short. In Italian, the name means "simple savior." From the start, the boy was a fighter a tiny, towheaded See CORMA on A6 LAURENCE KESTERSON Staff Photographer Trudy and Sal Corma of Gloucester County with a photo of their son, Army First Lt. Salvatore Corma III, who was killed in Afghanistan.

Fight to upgrade hero's medal By Edward Colimore INQUIRER STAFF WRITER Ron Castille will never forget his 23d birthday. "It changed my life," he said. On that hot March By Jacqueline L. Urgo and John P. Martin INQUIRER STAFF WRITERS HAMILTON TOWNSHIP, N.J.

Off a muddy, deeply rutted dirt lane to a hay field, a farmer making his early rounds Sunday discovered a body that may be the remains of a Hudson County tourist kidnapped from an Atlantic City casino garage more than a week ago. The likely remains of Martin Caballero, 47, a grocery store manager from North Bergen, were found around 6:30 a.m., Atlantic County Prosecutor Ted Housel said. He would not elaborate on why he could not confirm the body was Caballero's, but indicated that investigators needed scientific data from a military database not available until Tuesday because of the holiday weekend for a positive ID. The victim had served in the armed forces, he said. Calls Sunday to Caballero relatives were not returned.

Housel indicated that evidence at the scene made him "highly confident" that the remains were Caballero's. He would not say whether Caballero appeared to have been a random or targeted victim. Caballero vanished May 21 shortly after he arrived in Atlantic City around 10:30 p.m. with two carloads of relatives to celebrate his daughter's 22d birth-See BODY on A4 ftp i Mill Irillllin" 16 in 1967, Marine Lt. Castille was dodging automatic gunfire in a dried-up rice paddy at Due Pho, South Vietnam, when he was shot in the thigh and unable to move.

Just as his chances of survival seemed most hopeless and bullets kicked up the ground around him, Castille heard a voice: "I'm coming, lieutenant, I'm coming." J'- I Marine Sgt. Angel Mendez was awarded the Navy Cross. MICHAEL S. WIRTZ Staff Photographer In the 43 years since then, Castille's Ron Castille at thoughts have often returned to that day. Phila.

Vietnam He went on to become Philadelphia's Vets Memorial district attorney, served as a justice of in '88. "Angel the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, and is Mendez now chief justice. But he reminds others saved my life," See MENDE2 on A7 Castille says. Cpl. Angel Mendez, 20, crossed the open paddy, carried Castille though shot in the shoulder and was hoisting the officer over an earthen embankment to safety when he was mortally wounded.

West has high hopes for Afghan conference 'Explosive' weather mix is brewing La Nina paired with warm oceans may bring scorching heat and many hurricanes. By Anthony R. Wood INQUIRER STAFF WRITER On the threshold of summer, the record winter may have evaporated from the Philadelphia region's memory but not from the atmosphere's. Experts warn that winter's mischief has left the Atlantic Ocean in a dangerously warm state, and that the next few months may be stormy, destructive, and costly along the Atlantic and oil-blighted Gulf Coasts. It also may be quite hot around here.

Some forecasters think that as summer ripens, nature will turn up the heat in the East with considerably more vigor than last year, and the state of the ocean might make hot spells more oppressive. Summer temperature outlooks are perennially iffy, but the experts are far more confident about their take on the hurricane season. They say the Atlantic Basin, which includes the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, is about to have one of the busiest hurricane seasons ever. Odds are greater than usual, forecasters say, that New Jersey will take a significant hit from a hurricane. And even if hurricane winds and flooding rains spare the Shore and the rest of the region, they are likely to hit local taxpayers in the wallet anyway.

Of more than $50 billion spent on federal disaster aid from 2005 to 2008, more than 85 percent was necessitated by hurricanes, especially Katrina. The 2010 season also is See SUMMER on A7 The national peace council, or jirga, is "an opportunity to set the direction," one NATO official said. velopment in July and parliamentary elections in September. "This is a critical moment for this country to bring together all of the people of Afghanistan, their representatives, in an opportunity to set the direction forward and create a national consensus behind the overall approach to security, to development, to reconciliation," Sedwill said. See JIRGA on A7 peace council, called a jirga, even as many Afghans question whether those attending will truly represent the many factions in the country.

"This is a big week for Afghanistan," said Sedwill, who described the conference as "the first of a series of major political events that are going to set the agenda of 2010." The jirga will be followed by the Kabul Conference on economic de ByAlissaJ. Rubin NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE KABUL, Afghanistan Western leaders are banking on a national peace council set to begin Wednes-' day to start a new chapter in Afghanistan's political life, bringing the country together and strength ening President Hamid Kafzai, even as security deteriorated Sunday in several areas of the country. In a joint news conference, the NATO commander, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, and the senior civilian representative, Mark Sedwill, emphasized that the West supported the INSIDE TODAY'S INQUIRER HEALTH SCIENCE Ihnning hue and cry New research confirms that indoor tanning raises skin-cancer risk.

But salons say look at the actual numbers. CI. INDEX Comics Editorials A8 Obituaries B5 Express Lotteries Fl Movies Rally Ell SideShow C5 Television C5 BUSINESS Rielof the future Forklifts powered by hydrogen fuel cells are part of a move away from total dependence on fossil fuels. Dl. WEATHER High 91, Low 71 Hot and humid Monday with a chance of an afternoon thunderstorm.

Air quality: Moderate to unhealthy. Full report, B7. 1 IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIHII 2010 Philadelphia Newspapers LLC. Call 215-665-1234 or 1-600-222-2765 for home dell-very..