The Charlotte Observer from Charlotte, North Carolina • 1

141 tt JhLt rill tit 374-7322 Partly Cloudy Have Your Observer Delivered At Home Make That Can Today High 75 Low 45 More weather data on page 2A Foremost Newspaper Of The Carolinas 8 11 1 1 1-1- I A 4 L' rill114Lixt Q411114A tri' 'N --N -N 1 I I 4 MONDAY APRIL 2 1973 88th Year No 11 48 Pages 10 Cents 0 1 0 4-''' log)4 lster at rl (es 1 1'1 1 I lit''''' ii 'k ir 4 I '''k 1 'k a tt De Kollo ::4::::: fr evl 6 04 :1 -t rs o''' I biOkg 'S e9 4 i i 3 ti l'''''''''''itli 7: A 4: tlN i ''4: 2 Men Dte 1 7 MICHAEL LANE had the '0 7 zz stern look of a young fight- ht Geor gia i Ir dr er pilot when this photogi4Mil''k! PA') :4 0 44 A -4 graph was taken early in 1 his Air Force career be- Tot tiadoes 4 -0 fore his long imprisonment i1 -rV -414'' i 2 4 This Is How l'OWs Greete(I Cal)t()rS and torture by the North Ey JIAI BOCK Observer Staff Writer Jfk 1' 4 '41 Rt '''s it iras not a niatter of choice Lane sai(1 Vietnamese tt( I A z's -s------- ABBEVIILE SC Darn- 4744'a f7f VI' 1 st4r aged homes uprooted trees t-x 7 'I Couldn't Take toppled i I i poles and re vii e2 smashed vehicles dotted the tt' 7:: landscape in and around this 4(4rik: Or-- i'sArr-s: -'i --4 town of about 5500 Sunday 'O I- -'v in 3 -P' 1 after a tornado struck Satur- -11 tt 4 po -7 '7z day night killing six four Any ill se ol To ture men a young girl and a teen- 7 '74 4'' age boy 4 tt'llt- 1 itet" 1 4 4 zp Farther south in the Gear- ttett! 4444- 1: 7--: :2 st- tkt 104 4 fini 41 -1'0-)4 i Retr 441t I 4 10 Vii1''''7' 44' 71 gia towns of Athens Alonroe -t rt 4 ir- z14 4 4 'lief s' it t--- -kos 4 property damage yt -t 37t- 1 By POLLY PADDOCK and Conyers from several tornadoes was te17 7: gk3' 4 1 itgt '1 1: i 4k extensive according to wire 704' 041 7'sii'''40'V Observer Staff Writer 1 As he Jeep bounced through the 11 noir Niintrinmpec niccht sat citi III I 0 I eat service reports Two men were 0 This Is Ilow POWs Greeted Captors it was not a 'natter of choice Lane said 'I Couldn't Take Any More' Torture By POLLY PADDOCK Observer Staff Writer As the Jeep bounced through the black Vietnamese night NV a MICHAEL LANE had the stern look of a young fighter pilot when this photo graph was taken early in his Air Force career before his long imprisonment and torture by the North Vietnamese 119ht coops 4 e1 it Abbeville 2 Men Die hi Georgia Tornadoes By JIM BOCK Observer Staff Writer ABBEVILLE SC Damaged homes uprooted trees toppled utility poles and smashed vehicles dotted the landscape in and around this town of about 5500 Sunday after a tornado struck Saturday night killing six four men a young girl and a teenage boy Farther south in the Georgia towns of Athens Monroe and Conyers property damage from several tornadoes was extensive according to wire service reports Two men were 0 0 Z-- lit is er 144 rilitices Killing 6 a 1 'TT at iitki Trot nical hor 0 -0- m-- Brick Outline Of Foundation Is All That's Left Of Highway 72 Motel four (lied when tornado carried rest of building across road Hanoi Michael Lane's mind raced through his lessons from Air Force survival school: if you're captured use any trick to avoid interrogation by the enemy But survival school was make-believe and this was all too real No Air Force manual could have prepared Lane for what lay ahead In the next six years he'd be bound in ropes and manacles trussed like a chicken screaming in agony as his body was bent slowly backward into an arc Michael Lane who came to Charlotte when he was 13 and graduated from Catholic High School was shot down over North Vietnam on Dec 2 1963 For the next six years two months and 16 days he would be a prisoner of 710 In several exhaustive tape-recorded interview sessions last week with Observer reporter Polly Paddock he detailed what those six years were like This is the second part of an exclusive three-part Observer series 1 tszT ii 4 1434 74pfc117- V'm iLtt'4'5r7f1 41 -F titfl? 4 1 4 0 '7 14: s'itrZ: i -'1 r---r47-7: ----7-71- 4" -'l i ft4 7-7 r---2 tii: 44 -10 I El 41 tk 7::::: '-''e'sS s' -j Li A 1-''''-''-1 ri -Atigo -45-1-4q lk "ei4 44' -tA 4' a i-klt--Ati-E-1'---- v- 1- xz--'-''' ii: i litw ii 1-2 --1'4 A 4 -1-' 1-Aizi ro rxipefor 1 r'''' 4--'V i'''''4 'i ''''i -1'1' I 'ktk- vr- 1 'tT' t14t4tia 6'''4V-Atf "1 tl sfi 1 4:1 '11 ic k64 A i itiiz '7 11' -k46- '-'0 14 'k --4-A -flu I -i lutte 4 NK efett rote el Q4 'Vs: pL: 1 417' 1 fiA1P4Ill' Nt i "'4ks 150't AFIr f- 'o- f- I auxitiodo i-: dioitoft ta' 0414 I' stainsismosmasc killed in Georgia one in Monroe and another in Athens "We think all our people in the city are accounted for" said Abbeville Police Chief Fletcher Johnson whose men were being assisted Sunday by 200 National Guardsmen called into action to prevent looting The Abbeville victims were Tommy Ferguson a teen-ager who was killed when a tree fell on him and Tammy Newton believed to be about 10 The other four South Carolina deaths occurred in the Highway 72 Motel which is 14 miles south of Abbeville near Calhoun Falls a small border town The a do yanked the small building off its foundation hurling it into a field across the highway The dead were identified as a mmy Lomax of McCormick Floyd Daniel of Greenwood Wallace Powell and Forrest Addison both of Calhoun Falls Those injured when the tornado struck included the middle-aged motel owners Mr and Mrs James Slaton who were hospitalized in critical condition and a couple from Dunn NC Gary Beasley and his pregnant wife Janet both listed in fair condition The tornado hit Abbeville with little warning about 9:45 pm Saturday doing most of its damage in two subdivisions Jack Mitchell a 34-year-old detected signs of hupending trouble in Abbeville 20 minutes before the storm hit His two daughters and one of their friends were in a bedroom Mitchell and his wife were watching television in the den when the lights went out "The wind started to pick up" Mitchell said Sunday "There was a loud whistle and a roar" Mitchell ran to get the children putting them in a closet Suddenly a door knocked him down Ile crawled into the closet shielding the children with his body as the twister knifed into the house "It was like a sonic boom and then it was gone" he recalled After the storm Mitchell's patrol car lay upside down near his house His personal car was buried beneath the collapsed carport roof A workshop in his backyard where he practiced his hobby taxidermy was flattened leav Please turn to Page 2A Col 1 over a bump But anytime we opened our mouths we got clobbered by the guy guarding us so we didn't try" At about 5:30 am they rolled up to the "Hanoi Hilton" an aging French prison in downtown Hanoi The men were yanked from the vehicle one by one with Lane going last Ile was dragged roughly though he hadn't resisted to a small room inside the compound and left alone still blindfolded and bound A man calling himself the camp commander soon arrived and in halting English began to question Lane: name rank squadron base aircraft type description of mission Lane was frightened and confused by the hostile voice coming at him thr ough layers of blackness but resolved to abide by the rules he'd memorized so long ago from an Air Force handbook He'd be beaten and kicked left in heat so brutal that his body would become a mass of boils and his lungs strain for air Fear would immobilize him His life would become little more than a frantic attempt at survival But the 25-year-old produ of Charlotte's comfortable middle class didn't know that yet All he felt was numb shock and the steady bumping over rutted roads Some 12 hours earlier on Dec 2 1966 Lane had been captured in the countryside of North Vietnam after parachuting from his flaming Phantom jet Now he sat in the Jeep blindfolded and passive his hands tied behind him while his copilot and another American flier shared his silence "We wanted to communicate I guess but we all just sat there bouncing up and clown I knew my front seat pilot was hurt because he'd grimace every time we went Observer Photo by PHIL DRAKE Thieu Nixon Meet Today 0 Washinohn Post-L A Times Service LOS ANGELES A smiling and cordial President Nguyen Van Thieu of South Vietnam arrived here Sunday night on his way to a summit meeting today and Tuesday with President Nixon Thieu wearing a conservative gray suit and smiling broadly stepped from his chartered Boeing 707 jetliner and was greeted by retiring Ambassador Ellsworth Bunke The plane touching down at 7v 03 pm on its flight from Honolulu taxied onto federal property near the Federal Aviation Administration headquarters on the west side of Los Angeles International Airport Only those persons who had passed the scrutiny of security agents were permitted into the federal COMPOtilld Included in the group of welkvishers were about 150 students brought from San Francisco by the South Vietnamese consulate general there Another group Of about 50 calling themselves members of the Union of Vietnamese in the United States and shouting their opposition to Thieu were kept outside the FAA entrant gate by police The diminutive Thieu after speaking briefly with Bunker made his way to a temporary fence near the aircraft and shook hands with many of lie students from San Francisco before departing by auto for the Century Plaza Hotel After Thieu's departure about 100 uniformed Los Angeles police officers moved between the two groups to prevent a clash Thiel who last set fool on the United States mainland In 1960 when he attended an Army service school is scheduled to arrive at the 1Vestern White House in San Clemente at 10:30 am (PST) today Ile and President Nixon will meet privately at first while Secretary of State William Rogers holds separate sessions with Foreign Nlinister Titan Van Lam and other members of Thin's party Ann Landers Bishop Bridge Business Classified Collies Death Notices Editorials Horoscope Obituaries Sports Spotlight Theaters TV Timetable Viewpoint Women 3D 8R 9B 9A 2-13C 8-911 11A 3C 1'2A 88 10-11A 158 10B 73 13k 110D ri-r1 (TS 31) 8R 9R 9A 213C 8-911 ices 11A3C I2A 811 10-1IA I511 10R 73 We MOD Jack Mitchell And His Daughter Cindy near remains of their Abbeville home Federal Agencies To Recall Diet-Amphetamine Pills Cooks Using Their Noodles To Keep From Serving Meat tribution is estimated ai about 480 million dosage units equivalent to that many 1-milligram pills The decision to recall existing stocks of the injectable amphetamines is based on the FDA's contention that these products have such a great drug-abuse potential that they cannot be used safely The agency considers the combination drugs taken by mouth to he ineffective on the grounds that the amphetamines do little good in weight control and that the other ingredients contribute nothing useful toward this objetive MINFAY Chartres Hard To Si Sinoir United Press International PORTSMOUTH England When police stopped a Portsmouth man for alleged drunken driving he took several quick gulps from a hip flask then said they could not give him a breath test because he was drinking after he stopped It did not work Police checked the flask and found it contained only coffee The man was fined $171 in a magistrates court Please Antonio Tex a senior systerns engineer for a computer company Mrs Weaver who said she spends about $35 a week on food for herself her husband and their two young daughters said she has been cutting down on meat for some time and would participate in the boycott launched by a variety of consumer groups "We're using a lot of fish" she said "We dropped coffee when it went up and we can do without beef" Saturday dinner was tuna burgers for the Weavers: Sun Levels In less dramatic forms a growing amount of noise an noys most Carolinians on the street at home and especially at work The gr owl of increasing numbers of buses trucks and cars the clatter of textile looms the clash of whirring blenders and humming a In cleaners is making our life less pleasant and doctors and Ilea ring specialists say are diirn a ging our hea ring and health Sound is measured in decibels a short numerical scale express i an enormous range of sounds humans can hear One dec ibel is the least sound humans can hear 30 decibels is i he level of a whisper tiO decibels is nOrMell conversation turn to Page 8A Col I day was tuna tacos In addition Airs Weaver said she's making such main courses as eggplant casseroles cheese dishes and eggs She said she s-aves about $1 a meal by cutting out meat Faye Giordano of Brooklyn NY said Sunday's dinner for her and her husband a traffic manager for a trucking company was macaroni instead of roast beef She said that during the week "We'll have soups and omelets macaroni ravioli We'll go back to the It au an way" Mrs Giordano said her normal food budget is Please turn to Page 2A Col 7 Rising and 120 decibels is the threshold of pain to the human ear Decibels are commonly measured in industry and the environment On a sound-meter scale that simulates the way humans hear When Gurley stood in his front yard and a jet roared over the other day The Observer recorded a 104-decibel noise on a sound meter Doctors agree that prolonged exposure to 90 decibels and very possibly as low as 80 can I mpair human hearing Some evidence has related excessive noise to stress high I ood pressure rise in blood cholesterol fatigue and even mental illness In the survey made of 303 North Carolina industries in the spring of 1972 Dr Larry New York Times News Service WASHINGTON The Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs and the Food and Drug Administration have decided to recall diet drugs that contain amphetamines i the goal of eliminating them from the market by June 30 The action described as the I argest recall of controlled substances ever is designed to end the use of injectable amphetamines and closely related chemicals as well as all combination diet pills that contain amphetamines and other ingredients such as vitamins or a sedative Controlled substances are prescription drugs that can he dispensed only with special safeguards such as nonrofillable prescriptions ann extra record keeping hy the doctor Current use of the drugs involved is huge They make up the hulk of the so-called diet pill market Yearly retail dis like plugs and muffs Employers who don't comply can be fined An October 1972 law authorized the Federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to establish noise limits in the I ransportation construction and electrical equipment industries The North Carolina Department of Administration has appointed a study group to guide municipalities in setting up tougher more specific noise ordinances The study group should make their recommendations this summer The Observer ran its own Please Turn to Page 8A Col I In Carolinas Car Works As Predicted By LOUISE COOK Associated Press Sunday dinner meant things like macaroni tuna fish or maybe vegetable casseroles for thousands of American families who joined the start of a week-long meat boycott aimed at cutting rising food prices The boycott went on despite newly imposed price ceilings on beef pork and Iamb Many consumers said President Nixons action to limit the cost of these items didn't come soon enough to help "Nixon is too little ton late" said Charles Weaver of San Noise By JIM BOCK Observer Stan Writer "America is the noisiest country that ever existed" Wilde 1882 About 8 o'clock every night CS and Nina Gurley can't watch television make telephone calls or talk to each other without constant interruption Noise keeps butting in At 8 pm the peak hour jet airplanes take off at three-minute intervals from Douglas Airport less than a mile away and roar just several hundred feet over the house the Gurleys rent at 5204 Old Dowd Road Mrs Gurley is often stirred from sleep hy passing jets You wake up and don't hear anything" she says Its already gone" AUSTIN Tex Television cameraman George Brown got a letter from General Motors telling him his car a Chevrolet Vega was being recalled because of a defect that "might cause the rear axle to disengage" The letter told Brown to take the car to an authorized garage Brown got in the car and drove to the garage Four blocks from his destination the axle fell off Pastor Is Twice 'Blessed' Royster of North Carolina Slate's Center for Acoustical Studies said he found that 148 or 482 per cent of the industries exposed workers to levels about 90 decibels Yet only 103 per cent of the 146 industries had programs to conserve hearing like issuing ear muffs or ear plugs Noise certainly isn't new but the government is finally starting to do something about it The 1970 Occupational Safety and Health Act tOSI1Al requires employers to protect employes who are exposod to 90 decibel throughout an eigathour day They must reduce machine noise through englneering reschedule employes working too long in high noise areas and issue ear protection OXNARD Eugene Rogers pastor of a Baptist church was awakened by a call from po lice asking if he owned a black and yellow Ford Ile said be did and it was in his driveway No the officer said it was parked about 10 blocks away apparently abandoned by a car thief Rogers said he'd be right over to claim it lie could drive his other car He walked outside to find that car had been stolen too.