The Salina Journal from Salina, Kansas • Page 1

Journal Home Edition 25 Cents Salina, Kansas TUESDAY JULY 2,1985 114th year No. 183 20 Pages Two killed as F-4 jet crashes near Kanopolis By DAVID CLOUSTON Staff Writer KANOPOLIS A Kansas Air National Guard F-4 Phantom jet crashed Monday morning about miles southwest of Kanopolis Reservoir, killing the two crew members. The plane was one of four flying in a. low-altitude formation to a training mission at the Smoky Hill Bombing Range, in southwest Saline County. The crash occurred at about 10 a.m., 20 minutes after the jet and three others left Wichita from McConnell Air Force Base, 80 miles southeast of the crash site, witnes- sess and Air Force public affairs officials said.

Killed were the pilot and navigator. Their identities had not been released Monday evening, pending notification of relatives, said Capt. Jamie- Scearse, McConnell public affairs officer. The cause of the crash is not known, but is under investigation, Scearse said. Witnesses to the crash said they saw the aircraft, flying in formation, go into a dive when one of the jets suddenly smashed into a hill and exploded.

The crash occurred on property owned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Rural Kanopolis resident Steve Sneath and his mother, Joan Sneath Vondra, who live less than a mile from the crash site, were the first to arrive at the scene. Sneath said they found the two bodies next the wreckage, about 45 to 50 yards apart. Both were badly burned.

Both the men's parachutes were open but Sneath said he and his mother were unable to tell whether the crew members had attempted to eject from the aircraft. "I went up to them but I didn't The map marks crash site. try to move them or anything," Sneath said. The only parts of the aircraft recognizable were a portion of the fuselage and the tail section, Sneath said. "I bet there wasn't one piece that was as big as your car," Vondra Sneath said.

Ellsworth County Sheriff Raymond Thomas said his officers cordoned off the area until Air Force officials arrived. He said the pasture was littered with debris and ammunition. Another witness, Jack Copeland of Salina, said the impact sent up "a big black mushroom cloud of smoke." "He must have exploded on impact or something because it was a big ball of smoke and it didn't take more than a second or two for it to get way up high in the air," said Copeland, who was fishing at the lake with his 8-year-old son, Jay. Vonda Sneath regularly has watched fighter jets fly over her land, about five miles from the bombing range. "I've been expecting it (to hap- Court ruling could affect Salina schools From Staff and Wire Reports A Supreme Court ruling Monday disallowing public school teachers from conducting classes in religiously affiliated schools might create problems for some privately operated schools in Salina.

By a bare 54 majority, the Supreme Court upheld strict standards for separation of church and state and dealt a major setback to the Reagan administration and other advocates of expanded government support of parochial education. In two rulings, the justices declared unconstitutional the use of taxpayer dollars to finance "shared time" programs in New York City and Grand Rapids, Mich. Jeanine Salak, superintendent of Salina Catholic Diocese Schools, said the decision might affect students involved in special education and Chapter I programs. Chapter I is a federal program to finance education for underprivileged students who need help in math and reading. "It will be a loss to the students in those programs," Salak said.

"It's a shame because their parents are taxpayers, too." The 12 elementary schools in the the diocese, most of which have Chapter 1 programs, probably would suffer the most from the ramifications of the court's decision, Salak said. Rolland Ziel, Chapter I director for the Salina School District, said the district last year had one full- time teacher in the program who worked with about 40 students. Nick Compagnone, principal of St. Mary Queen of the Universe School, said the school does not have a Chapter I program, but the decision might affect special education programs the school does have. Private schools in central Kansas are involved in a publicly funded special education cooperative.

If those programs are affected, students needing those services will have to attend public schools or the private school will have to develop such a program and that would be expensive, he said. In. the court's decision, Justice (See Ruling, Page 9) Richard Moon (left) and Grant Elliott respond to the crowd that awaited the hostages Monday in Frankfurt. Reagan hints at U.S. retaliation WIESBADEN, West Germany (AP) Thirty-nine Americans spent Monday with their loved ones, safe at the end of a terrible journey that began as a routine flight home and turned into a horror of beating and killing on a captive jetliner.

They embraced their families, caught up on the news from home and went shopping. Gone were the guns, the fear, the vermin-infested hovels in which they had spent most of More on the freed hostages, Page 14 their time during the 17 days after two Shiite Moslem extremists on June 14 hijacked the TWA jet between Athens and Rome. The hostages arrived in Wiesbaden shortly after dawn after a trip overland from Beirut to Damascus, Syria, and an all-night flight in a U.S. military plane to Frankfurt, 24 miles east of here. Vice President George Bush and his wife, Barbara, led the welcoming crowd.

The Reagan administration hinted Monday that the United States would strike terrorist training camps or support bases in retaliation for the hijacking. National security adviser Robert McFarlane said there are "two or three strategic locations in the Middle East" that might be targets. In other actions in Washington, the State Department announced it was taking steps to isolate the Beirut airport and Secretary of State George Shultz said the United States knows the identities of the hijackers. A State Department statement said, "The United States is taking legal action and diplomatic steps to isolate Beirut International Airport and to encourage other governments to take similar steps." Shultz, in an interview on the PBS program "MacNeil-Lehrer Newshour," was asked if the United States would go after the hijackers. He replied: "We will.

Among other things, I think there are legal steps that will be taken, and it's important to take them." It was uncertain how and when the freed Americans would return home. The White House announced that President Reagan would welcome them during an arrival ceremony this afternoon at the Andrews Air Force Base in suburban Maryland. But in Wiesbaden, TWA executive David Wookey said most of the Americans probably would leave today on a TWA flight to New York. Scores of relatives flew West Germany during the day. Some of the hostages avoided questions on the advice of U.S.

officials on- cerned about the fate of seven Americans who have been kidnapped in Lebanon since March 1984 and still are missing. Most of the former hostages used a bank of free telephones to chat with relatives back home. Many didn't go to bed, despite the long journey that will resume later this week with the last leg home. A hearty American-style breakfast began the day for the former hostages, with the added German touch of Rhine wine. Monday ended with a festive dinner.

Steve Willett, 36, of Choupic, said everyone was having a medical checkup, and he was feeling "quite well." Israel set to release 300 Lebanese prisoners JERUSALEM (AP) A government official said Monday that Israel would free more than 300 of its Lebanese prisoners within 48 hours, but that the decision was not related to the release by Shiite Moslems of 39 Americans. The prisoners are among 735 Lebanese, most of them Shiites, whose release was demanded by Shiite terrorists who hijacked a TWA jetliner June 14. The last 39 American passengers were freed Sunday and now are in Wiesbaden, West Germany. The government official said "more than 300" prisoners would be freed and the exact timing would be determined by the Israeli army. They were captured during the Israeli withdrawal from south Lebanon, accused of plotting or carrying out attacks on Israeli units, and have been transferred to Atlit prison in northern Israel.

Israel freed 31 of the Lebanese on June 24. "This is in line with our policy to release the prisoners according to the situation in south Lebanon," the official said. Abba Eban, chairman of the Cabinet's 10-member foreign affairs and defense committee, said he hoped the rest of the prisoners would be freed soon. The committee decided on the partial release during an hour-long meeting Monday. Eban and other Israeli officials insisted that Israel had not made a deal to free the prisoners in exchange for the American hostages.

"Why in heaven's name we should continue to keep them I am quite at a loss to understand," Eban said. Eban said it was time to put the war in behind Israel. Israel invaded Lebanon in June 1982 and made its final withdrawal early last month. "We've got to banish the Lebanese war, wipe it out of our minds, banish it from our con- sciouness," Eban said. "It is by far the least successful enterprise in modern Jewish his- tory and therefore anything that reminds us of it should be liquidated as soon as possible." Israel radio said the prisoners had been scheduled for release Friday, but the Cabinet committee decided to release them early.

Sources have indicated the initial delay was caused by fighting between Moslem militias and the Israeli-backed South Lebanon Army, and the hijacking put the release back even farther. Another official said Israel had been in touch with the United States throughout the hostage crisis, "but there was no coordination" on freedom for the Lebanese. Today Inside Classified 15-18 Entertainment 20 Fun 19 Living Today 6 3, 7 Markets 8 5 On the Record 9 Opinion 4 Sports H-13 Weather 9 Weather KANSAS Partly sunny today with highs in the mid- 80s to mid-90s. A slight chance of thunderstorms in the west. Remeta sentenced to four life terms for murder spree COLBY (AP) A Michigan man who pleaded guilty to two murders and other crimes in a northwest Kansas shooting spree apologized through his at-1 torney Monday, but was! sentenced to four consecutive life terms in prison by a judge who said he couldn't understand the I "cold-blooded killings." Daniel Remeta, 27, of Traverse City, was given mandatory life sen- Remeta tences on each of two counts of first-degree murder and on two counts of aggravated kidnapping.

Thomas County District Judge Keith Willoughby also sentenced Remeta to 15 years to life for aggravated battery on a law enforcement officer, 15 years to life for aggravated robbery and.five years to 20 years for aggra- vated battery. Each sentence was the maximum. Remeta's attorney, Jerry Fairbanks, told Willoughby before sentencing that Remeta wished to make a public apology. "He regrets what has happened and believes there was no reason for it," Fairbanks said. Willoughby said, however, that Remeta's murder victims, Glenn Moore and John "Rick" Schroeder, were executed and left behind families who would bear scars for the rest of their lives.

"These cold-blooded killings will be remembered by them for the rest of their lives and by everyone else in this community," Willoughby said. "I've tried to understand since this first happened how anyone could order two people to lay down and shoot them in the head. "You stand here and tell me you're sorry for what you've done. The times I've seen you you've shown no remorse. There isn't any excuse for what you've done." Thomas County Attorney Perry Murray called for the maximum sentences, saying Remeta was "nothing but a threat to our society." Murray said Remeta had spent 10 years in Michigan and California jails, where he had disobeyed orders, assaulted other inmates, had possession of weapons, incited riots, made token suicide attempts and had been involved in homosexual activities.

Remeta pleaded guilty to kidnapping Moore, 55, of Colby, and Schroeder, 29, of Levant, from the grain elevator where they worked. The two were murdered along a county road a short distance from the Levant elevator. Maurice Christie, manager of the elevator, was shot in the back by Remeta as he tried to telephone for help. Remeta also pleaded guilty to the shooting of Thomas County Undersheriff Ben Albright, who attempted to stop Remeta and three companions before they reached the grain elevator. Lisa J.

Dunn, 18, of Traverse City, and James C. Hunter, 33, of Amoret, Mo. were convicted on the same charges as Rerneta on June 15. They are awaiting sentencing. A fourth suspect, Mark Walter, 18, of Suttons Bay, was killed by law officers during a Shootout at an abandoned Rawlins County farm.

Remeta is to be sentenced Wednesday in neighboring Gove County for the murder of Larry McFarland, the manager of a Stuckey's Restaurant who was slain during a robbery. Remeta also pleaded guilty to that killing. Linda Mowery-Denning contributed to this report..