The Wichita Eagle from Wichita, Kansas • 6

4A THj WICHITA IASU AND gEACON Sundoy Auguol 27 1971 People and Places eat and drink less That affects the amount the facilities are used Maine health inspector New Prison Walls Argentina's most pampered political prisoner former president Isabel Peron will move into a new private prison a sprawling country villa National border guards will escort Peron from a naval base chalet where she has been held prisoner for the last 22 months to a country villa of her late husband Juan Peron Several squads of troops have been stationed around the of country villa in San Vicente 30 miles southeast of Buenos Aires The 47-year-old widow who became president in 1974 after the death of her husband is being held for trial on five cases of corruption in office The armed forces on March 24 1976 ousted her from office in a bloodless coup ir Cleveland Mayor Dennis Kucinich may still But Not Equal There is a movement under way in Maine to provide more bathrooms for men in bars and restaurants State statistics show that eat less and drink a state health inspector said that affects the amount the facilities are The change would require two bathrooms for men and one for women in establishments serving 50 to 99 patrons three and two for 150 to 199 patrons four and two for 200 to 249 patrons and six and three for 250 to 300 patrons Actress Ali McGraw and tennis pro-turned-actor Dean Paul Martin right burst into laughter after doubling up to hide in a toilet from photographers at tennis courts in Wimbledon England The two are in being shot in England Martin is the son of entertainer Dean Martin Kucinich Peron be blushing after singer Dolly fans booed him as he gave Parton a key to the city during a concert in Cleveland The mayor who barely survived a recall election remained cool and Parton said mayor was extremely nice So uh thank The crowd cheered as Kucinich left The Gas Leak: It Actually Started 4 Days Before Ala carries out its normally assigned duties The team is composed of two officers and two enlisted men Besides Matthews there is 2nd Lt Charles Frost 25 Little Rock Ark Senior Airman Glen Wessel 21 Seneca Kan a missiles facilities technician and Airman 1st Gass Danford MH From Page 1A THURSDAY Aug 24 A missile propellant transfer team headed by Staff Sgt Robert Thomas Philadelphia arrives at the complex Other members of the team are Carl Malinger Erby Hepstall assigned positions adjacent to the holding trailer above ground Two other team members had assigned positions adjacent to the silo door's "blast a passageway between the silo and the combat crew's working quarters Thomas the team chief was Richard Harth John Korzenko all Airman 1st Class and Airman Gary Christopher Inside the underground complex in a separate self-contained module a four-man combat crew headed by 1st Lt Keith Matthews 26 Montgomery Wong 20 Honolulu a ballistic missiles analyst technician ABOUT NOON Thursday -Two men were inside the silo on a work platform near the bottom of the missile Two additional team members had Only 2 Wore Suits Survivor Says From Page 1A In his room at McConnell hospital Harth told how the chief of the refueling crew sacrificed his life Thursday to save two other crewmen was on the radio and 1 heard the men down in the silo start hollering and Harth said Harth said he and Airman 1st Gass Gary Christopher 19 Philadelphia were underground in the missile complex standing mi a walkway behind a blast lock that leads into the top of the silo Airmen 1st Class Erby Hepstall 22 Thomasville Ala and Carl Malinger 19 Baltimore were in the silo at the base of the rocket They had just finished loading the propellant nitrogen texroxide into the missile through a hose from the surface Harth said THE FOUR other members of the refueling crew were' above ground Harth said Only Hepstall and Malinger were wearing protective suits which are self-contained and resemble space suits Harth said "They'd just closed two valves and they were disconnecting from the missile and it went" he said "When it errupted everything went black It was so red it was Mack They were three feet apart from each other and they couldn't find each The crew chief Staff Sgt Robert Thomas 29 heard the crewmen in the silo screaming over their radios and COL JOHN HAMPTON I Expects 2nd evacuation AF Might Evacuate Rock Again raced to the Mast door where Harth and Christopher were standing Harth said Hepstall had found the elevator to the top of the silo and stepped through the Mast door to where Harth Christopher and Thomas were standing Harth said THE FACE SHIELD of Hepstall's helmet was partially melted and had become opaque from the vapor Harth said Malinger was still at the bottom of the silo and could not see in the darkness he said was talking to him on the radio and I just told him to stand still and straight right where he Harth said "I put on a gas mask and it started coming in I could smell it in the gas mask" Thomas donned a protective suit Hepstall snapped on a new helmet and the two plunged into the black hole to rescue Malinger Harth said Harth said he and Christopher ran to an elevator and escaped to the surface Thomas found Malinger in the blackness and the three men rode the elevator back to the blast lock at the top of the silo Harth said WAS PITCH Mack down Harth said don't know how Thomas ever found him It was like a magnet Thomas went right to him Thomas got Malinger and threw him in the elevator definitely deserves a medal He deserves a whole lot more than that for what he did" Thomas Malinger and Hepstall ran from the Mast lock still underground along a walkway to the control center of the missile That is a distance of 50 to 75 feet Harth said and Thomas tripped or fell on the walkway FIRST LT Keith Matthews commander of the combat crew ran out of the control center and dragged Thomas the last 15 feet into the control center Harth said Then Matthews Malinger and Hepstall tried to carry Thomas' inert body up an emergency escape ladder to the surface tried to get him up the escape route but he was just too heavy" Harth said "Hepstall and Malinger could hardly carry themselves when they got to the control center When him (Hepstall) and Malinger came up they just kind of fell on the ground Hepstall looked like he wasn't going to make it much farther" Thomas was left in the control center His body was retrieved about 5 hours later by men who went back into the complex which still was filled with deadly vapor Hepstall and Malinger are both in critical condition Hepstall at Wesley Medical Center in Widiita and Malinger at Scott Air Force Base in Belleville III Harth says he feels fine just want to get out of here A service for Thomas will be at 10 am Monday in All Saints Catholic Church Survivors include his widow Linda sons Scott and Michael both at home parents Mr and Mrs Raymond a brother Raymond all of Philadelphia and sisters Mrs Jean Deissinger of Old Bridge NJ and Mrs Rita Bradley of Philadelphia Quiring-Old Mission Funeral Home has charge Residents Return for How Long? safe for residents to return Hampton said When the ammonium hydroxide is pumped into the silo a large cloud of ammonia gas will spew forth and chances are high that residents will have to flee Hampton said The hydroxide will neutralize the nitric acid and the resulting non-toxic mixture will be pumped from the complex he said The hydroxide will not be pumped into the complex until weather conditions are such that the cloud of ammonia gas will rise quickly instead of spreading over the surface Hampton said About 200 Rock Kan residents who had fled poisonous missile propellant vapor were allowed to return to their homes Saturday But an Air Force officer said the area probably will be evacuated again I Residents near a Titan II nuclear missile complex 25 miles southeast of Wichita probably will be forced out when the Air Force takes a final step neutralizing the toxic propellant said Col John Hampton commander of the 381st Strategic Missile Wing at McConnell Air Force Base The base operates 18 Titan II missile complexes in the Wichita area The evacuees including residents of Rock Kan 2Vj miles north of the complex were allowed to return to their homes after 80000 gallons of water were pumped into the complex The area probably will be evacuated again when thousands of gallons of ammonium hydroxide are pumped into the complex Hampton said Pumping in the water turned the propellant nitrogen tetroxide and its lethal orange vapor nitrogen dioxide into nitric acid That reduced the amount of vapor coming from the complex and made the area above-ground His assigned position according to DeFend was adjacent to what is called a trailer" The eighth and remaining member of the team is called the -equipment a man as- signed to look after personal belong- ings of other team members during the transfer operation normally -would be at the personal equipment 1 DeFend said 1215 pm Thursday In the silo Malinger and Hepstall ap-parently are preparing to disconnect a hose to the missile They are about 100 feet below the ground surface at what the Air Force calls Level 7 in its Titan missile silos Above them the silo's doors through which the missile is fired are closed 12:20 pm A safety valve on the quick-disco nnect section on the hose to the Titan's nitrogen tetroxide tank fails according to Major Harry Sun- derlin a spokesman for SAC's head- I quarters The built-up pressure spews nitrogen tetroxide throughout the I silo Above ground team chief Thomas spots trouble and rushes to get into a spare protective suit races into the a complex's entrance and down to the silo area Unofficial reports said the pressure was too great and could not be con- trolled The escaping nitrogen tetrox- ide according to the same unofficial -reports got into Thomas' protective suit and oxidized his lungs 12:22 pm Thursday The esca- -pinggas triggers the automatic seal- ing off of the silo from the rest of the complex The sealing off process however can be reversed by either those in the silo or by the four-man combat crew in the separate structure on the other side of the underground complex it was said About 12:30 pm Thursday The combat crew commander ac- cording to one report becomes alarmed about the safety of the men -in the silo and opens a door that re- leases the nitrogen tetroxide Another -report says Team Giief Thomas opened a door The pressure behind the gas escapes into passageway and up through air vents that sends a 75-foot cloud of lethal vapor into the sky above the complex 12:35 pm Thursday A disaster signal is transmitted from the com- plex to McConnell AFB in Wichita and a disaster response team starts -forming 12:46 pm Thursday The last of the combat crewmen and propel- lant transfer team members gets out of the Rock missile complex Some' jump into a pickup truck and race to a farmhouse Vj-mile away others are-t seen climbing over a fence that sur- rounds the 10-acre complex En route to safety the men franti- cally strip away their contaminated clothes Several are vomiting from' apparent inhalation of the nitrogen tetroxide Those reaching the comparative! safety of the nearby farmhouse try to wash down their bodies with water from a garden hose washing areas' exposed to the nitrogen tetroxide is the recommended immeddiate first-? aid treatment 1:45 pm Thursday Evacua-" tion begins of surrounding farm- houses and those in the city of Rock about 2'2 miles from the complex' The city is in the path of the lethal vapor clouds i 2:20 pm Thursday Evacua tion is completed 5:27 pm Thursday The initial! major outpouring of the lethal gas4 subsides and two military men enter? the missile complex in protective suits and remove Thomas' body 2:35 pm Friday A team is! sent in but is only able to descend part way into the complex because of the -heavy concentration of the nitrogen tetroxide 5:11 pm Friday The disas-? ter-response team begins pumping water into the silo rekindling bursts? of colored vapor inti the sky Air: Force officials said the mixing of the water with the nitrogen tetroxida: should help change it to nitric acid: and possibly also to nitrates The? water also was expected to art as a' agent helping to re duce the outflow of the gas i ii i in July snnmi ii i i -i Aug 10 1 05 00 95 90 85 80 75 70 65 60 55 50 45 40 35 30 25 Jic 105 100 95 90 85 80 75 70 65 60 55 50 45 40 35 30 25 Hoping Clouds Have Silver Linings KansasWichita Kansas can expect variable cloudiness today and Monday with widely scattered showers and thunderstorms according to the National Weather Service Highs today should be 85 northwest to near 95 southeast and Monday in the 80s Lows tonight should be in the 50s northwest and 60s elsewhere Temperatures Tuesday through Thursday should be mild National Weather Service forecast to 7 pm today WICHITA'S 30-DAY HIGH AND LOW TEMPERATURES Slwdid oraa it normal higHlaw rang broken linot actual tamporatma Forecast Tht tinl thra tieurM art hieh and low and afaciartallan RM column ara a toracaU of sky conditions and pradtclod tamoaraturas tor Manday Tha forecast symbols: Fit fair PC partly cloudy CD cloudy RN rain- SN State Temperatures Tha liouras eiva Itw statian's man Mm-oaratura lor 11 hours low tamparstura lor is hours and oracipitatisn lor hours andma at am Friday Wichila 100 77 00 Clunufa 74 00 CaHayvilla 101 74 Tr Concordia Of 74 00 Dodao City 4 74 Emoaria 0 74 SO Cardan City OS 40 00 Caodland 2 SO 01 Hill City 47 4 Hutch man 44 71 Lawranc a 40 75 00 Flttlbura 40 75 40 Ruueil 40 72 00 Sallna IS 00 Tooaka 47 07 M- National Thundershowers are forecast today for the middle Plains and the upper and middle Mississippi valley Mild to hot weather should prevail over the remainder of the nation Oklahoma today will be fair to partly cloudy with scattered thundershowers through Monday Highs today and Monday should be 94 to 103 with lows in the 70s State Forecast by Zones Wichita Data HiahaU lamoaratura Wichita an Am 24 sinca 1000: 104 14a Lowatl: 40 in 1410 Hiahast tampsralura Saturday: 100 at 1 Lowatl: 77 at 0 am Total precipitation this year: 1512 Normal tor the same period: 2157 Data tor today Sunrise: 0:55 Sunset: 0:07 HOURLY TEMPERATURES (At Wichita Mid Continent Airport) 1 am 05 7 am 77 I pm 44 7 am 41 2 am (2 4 am 74 2am44 Spm04 am 00 4 am 42 1 pm 100 4 pm 14 4 am 74 ISamOS 4pm 47 10om02 Sam 77 11 am 41 5 pm 44 llom 02 4 am 77 Moon 45 0pm42 Updated Reports Taped reports of local and state conditions revised every hour and broadcast 24 hours a day can be received on NOAA weather radio station KEC-59 frequency 16255 Mhz on the FM band The Eagle-Beacon Weatherline from KARD-FM also provides the Wichita and vicinity forecast 24 hours a day Dial 265 3331 1 8 Partly cloudy with a chance of isolated nightime thunderstorms Highs 80s Lows 50s 3 6: Partly cloudy with a chance of nighttime showers and thunderstorms tonight Highs 90s Lows 60s 7 8 9: Partly cloudy with a chance of showers and thunderstorms ending early Highs 90s Lows 60s 10 II IS IS I6i Mostly cloudy with a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms High 90 Lows 60s 12 17: Variable cloudiness Chance of periods of showers and thunderstorms tonight Highs 9Gs Low 70 1 1.