Rapid City Journal from Rapid City, South Dakota • 9

Section ESS Inside: Obituaries B2 Marketplace B9-12 Local Sunday, April 1 7, 1 988 the Rapid City Journal Pressler tells of grim task if" I Hi A team from the U.S. Joint Casualty Resolution Center placed the boxes in caskets, and Army honor guards carried them aboard a C-141 transport. As Pressler stood by, he said, "You think of their families. You think of the people who died in this land who still haven't been laid to rest. You think of the men who did come home." The remains were first taken to Honolulu where specialists would verify identities.

The Vietnamese provided names for at least half of the 27 sets of mains. Pressler has seen the list, but said until identities were confirmed and next of kin notified, he couldn't reveal whether dead South Dakota servicemen were said to be included. Pressler, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, returned to Washington last Sunday from Vietnam. He had wanted to learn more about the Vietnamese government, the situation concerning 30,000 children fathered by Americans who served in Vietnam, and if U.S. servicemen were still being held prisoner in Southeast Asia.

The Defense Intelligence Agency, which said it couldn't prove or disprove the existence of American POWs in Southeast Asia, reported on Feb. 9 that 2,404 Americans were still listed as missing in action. With the return of the 27 additional remains, the was reduced to 2,377. "I came back pretty well convinced there are not any living prisoners of war that are being held against their will," Pressler said. Foreign Minister Nguyen Co Thach "explained that they absolutely were not holding any living prisoners." Economically, Vietnam "is a basket case," Pressler said.

"The country is short of food. It seems they have gone backward. It's the communist system. It's the wars." During the war, some Americans went to Hanoi to condemn U.S. involvement.

"I wish those Americans who supported the Viet Cong would go over there now for visits," Pressler said. They should see what they (communists) are like when they come into power, and what the results are." The nation is poverty-stricken, particularly in the north, he said, although "the economic minister said they don't have starvation yet." But Pressler said the only aid he would recommend for Vietnam would be food, properly distributed, perhaps through agencies such as Food for Peace, "but only after the MIA issue is completely resolved." He said, "We can't be responsible for the whole world. I wouldn't be in favor of any other type of aid. We have too big a budgetary deficit. I told (Vietnamese officials) those days are over, but I think they are hoping for that down the line." Pressler said he and other conservative American legislators believed the U.S.

had to use diplomatic channels to resolve its problems with Vietnam, including questions on MIAs, the Vietnamese occupation of Cambodia and emigration. But establishing diplomatic relations with Vietnam is "a long way off. We must have the MIA thing resolved. There's a belief in the minds of a lot of Americans that Vietnam has not played it straight." He said he supported a bill by Sen. John McCain, to create an American interests section in Vietnam as a first step toward full diplomatic ties.

Also, there should be a high-level policy review "to try to clear up the last remnants of the war" before President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev meet this summer, he said. Pressler said he would urge Reagan to raise the Vietnam question "because the Russians have got a lot of troops and personnel (in Vietnam) and have occupied Cam Ranh Bay. If they lowered their presence there, we'd have a better chance of solving the MIA question." I can understand that. I can't i tNHtt, 1.4 AHW XV -V t- mmmmmmmJ if? Sen. Larry Pressler inspects a water pump in a rural area near My Tho.

The pump was a 1960s Kohler brand that the United States made and distributed in Vietnam. (Photo courtesy Sen. Pressler) matriculate, graduate; amnesia cured academic You've heard the ad. Apparently Wes Samuelson did, too. He's a candidate in Ward 4 for the Rapid City Common Council.

Samuelson will face incumbent Harold Weiland in a runoff April 26. In a handwritten press release to the Rapid City Journal, Samuelson claimed he had a bachelor's degree in business administration from the prestigious University of Chicago. But Journal reporter Paulette Tobin discovered that the University of Chicago had no record that Samuelson was ever a student there, let alone a graduate. In fact, the school did not offer a bachelor's Fabricate, It was only a matter of time before a political candidate in Rapid City answered the following late-night television ad: "IT'S NEW! FROM BUNCO! Is that degree from Podunk University tarnishing your resume? Maybe you didn't graduate at Nq problem for the Bunco Bidenizer! Developed by Sen. Joe Biden and other leading politicians, the amazing Bidenizer matriculates, fabricates and graduates in seconds RIGHT BEFORE YOUR EYES! It really really works! Just slip that degree from Ball Peen State School of Bodywork into the Bidenizer and flip the switch.

In iciiiciiiuci iiic name ui mc v.uucgu attended either, which probably was a factor in the administration's decision not to give me a degree. Anyway, here's a household hint for those of you who can't remember where you graduated from college: Write the name of the school on a small piece of paper and slip ft in your wallet, along with your telephone credit card number and your automatic teller access code. And don't use initials. Sure, you know what they mean now. But in 10 years you'll look at that scrap of paper and say, "Honey, what the heck does UCLA stand for?" degree in business administration.

Asked about this, Samuelson said he attended extension classes at the University of Chicago and that he earned a degree from a correspondence school. University of Chicago officials confirmed that they offer open-enrollment, continuing education classes, for which complete records were not kept. These courses were offered mostly for personal enrichment, not degrees. When Tobin asked Samuelson to name the school which did award him a degree, he said he could not remember it. J8 a JJ Gordon Hanson Staff Writer The U.S.

senator from South Dakota stood at grim attention in the dark afternoon dampness at the Hanoi airport. A wave of emotions swept over him as the flag-draped caskets were slowly carried past. The last time Larry Pressler was in Vietnam, he was a young Army lieutenant. And the war raged. Now he was the senior American in a receiving ceremony.

He stood, hand over heart, as more remains of Americans who died in the Southeast Asian war were carried aboard the aircraft for the final trip home. "It's very emotional, something I'll remember all my life," Pressler said Wednesday. "It's a sad, eerie, sort of an experience." The April 6 ceremony marked the return from Vietnamese officials of the remains of 27 Americans, plus those of three others who appeared to be Caucasian. It was the largest such repatriation since American forces withdrew from South Vietnam on March 29, 1973. The Vietnamese brought the remains to Noi Bai Airport in plain wooden crates, each 2-feet-by-3-feet square.

There wasn't much to view some rusty military dog tags, "a few bones, or bones and a skull a gruesome business," Pressler said. Did you graduate in the bottom half of your law school class? Did you need that A in home ec to get your diploma? Not to worry! It's a snap with Transcript-o-matic. Simply pop an ordinary 2.1 gradepoint average into the honors program slot. Push the lever. Presto! You're on your way to the London School of Economics, Mr.

PHI BETA KAPPA! But that's not all. The first 5,000 callers will receive, at no extra cost, this handsome, diploma-like document identifying them as bona fide Road Scholars! To order, call challenge," said Meinhardt. Brown said the mining association had set up an office in Pierre to allow workers to examine the petitions. He said the association might prepare a court case "if indeed we find they are invalid." Brown said, "If that was the case, we could be looking at an election based on fraudulent petitions." In November, voters will be asked to consider a proposal requiring mining companies to reclaim surface mines to the original contours of the land. They also will be asked to require mining companies to pay more in severance taxes to provide money for reclamation and cleanup.

Meinhardt said the mining association would be wasting its time with a petition challenge before the election. "The court has ruled that the time to challenge the validity is after the election, so we think that if they come back into court (before the election), that decision should hold." Changes in the industrial index were mixed, the report said, with an increase in drilling rig activity of 23.9 percent and a decrease in agricultural prices of 4.6 percent. Fuel sales, an indicator of tourism in the state, remained about the same. Compared to the fourth quarter of 1986, three of the elements in the index, employment, tax collections and wages, declined, with employment dropping by 2.7 percent, tax collections by 2.8 percent and wages by 2.S percent. The industrial index, meanwhile, posted a strong 19.7 percent increase during the one-year period, led by a 62.9 percent increase in drilling rig activity.

Agricultural prices increased by 12.5 percent, the report said, while fuel sales increased by 4 percent. Mining association keeps checking names on petitions New air and space museum will be built at Ellsworth Dirk Moore Staff Writer A consultant for the South Dakota Mining Association said Friday the organization was continuing to examine signatures on petitions calling for stricter mining regulations and a court challenge to them was possible before the November election. "We're conducting a review of those names and the possibility of whether or not the people who circulated them (the petitions) may not have done it as the law requires them to," said Lee Brown, who is organizing the mining association's campaign against the initiatives. A circuit court judge in Pierre last month twice refused to keep the proposals off the ballot so the mining association could have more time to study the petitions. The judge's decision was upheld by the state Supreme Court.

The mining association complained then that the supporters of the initiatives did not turn the petitions into Bill Harlan seconds you 'II be singing the Whi fen-poof Song along with your classmates yes, that's right, YALE UNIVERSITY! Act now and you'll also get, absolutely free, the Bunco Transcript-o-matic. the secretary of state's office in time to allow for a thorough examination of them. Under state law, supporters of ballot initiatives have until the last day of the Legislature to file the petitions. The supporters of the mining initiatives handed their petitions in two weeks before the close of the session. Brown said under any new court challenge, the mining association would contest the validity of the signatures.

The mining association has been studying the petitions since they were submitted, Brown said. Nick Meinhardt, a spokesman for the Citizens' Law Center in Rapid City, said he would not be surprised if the mining association initiated another court challenge before the election. He said supporters of the initiatives expected the challenge and another one after the election. "Whether we're challenged before or after, we're confident that we're going to be able to survive that economy should not decline much more." The index is derived using four economic variables including total employment in the state, wages reported for the quarter, sales and use tax collections and an industrial index. The industrial index is a composite of variables representing mining, agriculture and tourism.

The index, computed quarterly, tends to change coincidentally with the state's economy. The index increased by 2.7 percent in the final quarter of 1987 from the third quarter, the report said, with all four variables posting gains. Tax collections increased by 11.1 percent, followed by gains in wages of 8.6 percent, a 3.4 percent growth in the industrial variable and a 1.8 percent increase in employment. (ft Si Jerry Teachout, left, and Master Sgt. Ron Alley display a model of the proposed South Dakota Air and Space Museum to be built at Ellsworth Air Force Base.

Teachout is president of the Ellsworth Heritage Foundation and Alley is curator of the present museum. (Staff photo by Jim Holland) Gordon Hanson Staff Writer Growing numbers of visitors have prompted the Ellsworth Heritage Foundation to expand its role in presenting and preserving South Dakota's air and space history, officials said Friday. This summer the foundation will start building a new South Dakota Air and Space Museum at the south edge of Ellsworth Air Force Base, said the group's president, Jerry Teachout. As a part of the museum complex, the Air Force was considering moving our old fighter hangars to the new museum site, said Col. Tom Kuenn-ing, vice commander of Ellsworth's 44th Strategic Missile Wing.

The hangars were too near the base runway and were scheduled for removal, Kuenning said. The buildings have a total of 22,400 square feet and would house at least a portion of the new facility. hope we can get approval and get going on it this summer," Kuenning said. Also, the foundation continued a fund drive to build a new structure. "It's still our dream," Teachout said.

The hangars would be a bonus and would help alleviate crowded conditions in the present Ellsworth Museum located on the base, he said. Kuenning said, "We're going to be pressing ahead with the core (main) building, and if we can't move the hangars, we'll start construction of the museum building" in a few months. If the hangars were transferred, foundation members would remodel them during the winter. "By next tourist season, they may not be in perfect shape by that time, but they will be a lot better than the one we are now in," Teachout said. The fund drive received a major boost Friday when Rockwell International Corp.

donated $10,000. Rockwell is the main contractor for the Air Force's new B-ls. In a brief i'jf fiT miBm 1 Gift shop sales last September had increased 113 percent over the previous fiscal year, and were up 55 percent since then, Toms said. Strong congressional cuts in the Air Force budget have caused commanders to limit use of discretionary funds, Teachout said. As a result, the base will no longer provide buses, drivers and guides for base tours.

That function will be taken over by the foundation. The foundation has contracted with Bridgewater Transport Inc. which provides buses for the Douglas school system to conduct the tours, Teachout said. Beginning June 1 and ending in early September, one 44-passenger bus will shuttle visitors to the museum and another will take them on base tours. The schedule will be expanded to seven days from the previous five-day-a-week "We will be adding more buses as we get busier this summer," Teachout said.

Index shows Wyoming's economy bounced back in last quarter of '87 ceremony, Teachout accepted a check from Charles Walker, Rockwell's field manager for the 35 B-ls assigned to Ellsworth. The money was one of the largest single contributions to the museum. Other large cash gifts have come from the Rapid City Area Chamber of Commerce's Military Affairs Committee, Norwest Bank of South Dakota and Pete Lien Sons said Ed Toms, foundation treasurer. "We're hopeful other corporations we've made contact with will follow suit, maybe not in cash" but with gifts-in-kind, Keunntng said. The present museum is in an old structure, believed the oldest on base, that was once Ellsworth's headquarters building.

More than 40,000 people visited the base last year "and we're expecting 60,000 minimum this year," Teachout said. "That's in part due to the new 'air space museum' sign" erected in October on nearby Interstate 90 by the state Highway Department. CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) An index that indicates the condition of Wyoming's economy bounced back during the final quarter of 1987 from a slight drop it experienced in the third quarter of the year, according to figures released Saturday. The Department of Administration and Fiscal Control's Research and Statistics Division said the seasonally adjusted Wyoming Coincident Indicator Index ended the year at about the same level it had held the previous five quarters.

"This plateau may represent the bottom of the current economic cycle," the agency said in a news release. "The industrial index is up nearly 20 percent from the previous year and 3.4 percent from the third quarter. As long as the Industrial index at least holds steady, the state.