Griffin daily news. (Griffin, Ga.) 1924-current, December 28, 1968, Image 1

Georgia Historic Newspapers

Griffin daily news., December 28, 1968, Image 1

About Griffin daily news. (Griffin, Ga.) 1924-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 28, 1968)

Page of 24

Prev Issue Next Issue

Text PDF JP2 (4.1 MB) Clip/Print Image

Page of 24

Prev Issue Next Issue

Return to Top

Newspaper Page TextE good VENIN vF By Quimby Melton All the world is talking today, and will be talking for days to come about the amazing trip to and round the moon and then the safe return to earth of Appo lo 8. Everything went A-OK as plan ned. One of the most amazing th ings about the whole affair was that the capsule landed on t h e center of the designated landing target, just 5,000 yards from the carrier USS Yorktown, be fore dawn, and when the three astronauts were taken aboard were found to be A-OK physi cally in spite of the long, exact ing strain of the first such trip. Many "firsts” were made by Apollo 8, and the world today is praising Uncle Sam. And, amidst the cheers of joy that the project was a success, were the shouts of thanksgiving that the three men were safe and sound. There will be discussions, pre dictions, and comments galore about Apollo 8, the three brave men who manned it, for days and months to come. , — + — Discussing the Apollo 8f ea t this morning at breakfast with friends and one said “M a n has been curious about space since the dawn of day.” Anoth er responded ‘‘Yes, but Apollo has not been the first ‘space ship’ to soar into space,” s a i d the second. “How about Elijah and his ascention into heaven in the chariot?” “Yes, but Elijah did not ‘reen ter’ the earth’s atmosphere and land” the other said. “That shows how well you know your Bible, the greatest and most authentic record of history,” he said. “Remember in Matthew we are told of the tranfiguration of Jesus on, the mountain, in the presence of Peter, James, and John, Elias (Elijah) appeared with Moses!” That ended this conversation. Then there was another con versation, for everyone is talk ing about the Apollo 8. A friend recalled the story, told in Greek mythology, of the man who wanted to fly to the sun. He fas tened wings to his shoulders with sealing wax, and jumped off a high cliff. At first, he seemed to have the wings of a bird and mounted into the sky. But the rays of the sun melted the wax and he fell into the sea. We remembered the story and tried to find the name of this mythical would-be astronaut, but could not. One friend said it might have been “Prometheus”, but looking up this found that it was he who figured in the Pan dora box story, and who was chained to a rock where the vul tures attacked him, until he was freed by Hercules. So that eli minated Prometheus. Another friend said how about “Aristotle?” “No”, responded another, “Ar istotle married Jackie and spent Christmas on his private island.” At least this friend brought Greek history up to date and ended this discussion as to who was the astronaut whose attem pt to soar ended in the sea. — * — Os course we in America have everv reason to be proud of the achievement, of the scientists who planned it, of the men who piloted Apollo 8, and of the wi ves, remaining at home this Christmas while their husbands were way up yonder in the blue. But most of all we have rea sons to be thankful to the great est scientist of all times — God Almighty—who we sincerely be jieve was the “co-pilot” of the Apollo 8 crew. Country Parson jyi * iz ' z * “Be stern, if you are re forming yourself — gentle if you’re reforming others.” LB J Tells Saigon To CaH Off ’Dilly - Dallying* By GEORGE SIBERA PARIS (UPD—The United States today tried to get South Vietnam to stop what President Johnson called "dilly-dallying” in getting talks started to end the Vietnam War. Johnson’s Paris negotiators, W. Averell Harriman and Cyrus R. Vance, huddled with their Saigon counterparts in a morn ing session aimed at finding new agreement to breaking procedural blocks to negotia tions. The Saigon leaders, Pham Dang Lam and Nguyen Van An, restated their hard line Friday, saying they refuse to recognize the Viet Cong as a separate entity and demanding a Com munist battlefield surrender. President Johnson in Wash ington said to newsmen he wants “to cut out all of this dilly-dallying, talking about where you sit at the tables, who comes in first, who speaks first and all that.” His statement underscored what diplomats said was increasing American impatience at Saigon’s reluctance to join expanded Vietnam War negotia tions involving the Viet Cong. The meeting with South Vietnam’s negotiators came one day after Vance’s arrival from a week with President Johnson discussing new strategies in breaking the procedural im passe. In Washington, Johnson said Vance “believes we can get going in substantive talks after his return there (to Paris). • . ” Vance told newsmen the United., States would “spare no effort to achieve a break through.” One of Vance’s first aims, U.S. sources said, is to set up secret discussions with his 852 s Pound Guerrilla Escape Routes By JACK WALSH SAIGON (UPD—U.S. 852 Stratoforts splattered tons of bombs into guerrilla escape routes from the battlefield where South Vietnamese Ran gers killed 218 Communists near Da Nang, military spokesmen said today. Behind American divebom bers and allied artillery, the Rangers mauled a 400-man North Vietnamese battalion in a running two-day battle that ended Friday 15 miles south west of Da Nang. The fighting was the heaviest since the allies’ Christmas truce and centered in an area where other allied troops killed 133 Communists on Christmas Eve. South Vietnamese losses were light. Military headquarters said the Rangers cut into the Communist buildup Thursday, killing 74 guerrillas, and then chased the remnants of the Red battalion through heavy jungles, killing 144 more Friday. Three waves of the giant 852 s swept in hours after the final skirmish in an attempt to crush escape routes, bivouacs and Communist supply dumps in the area. Thirty miles south of that battleground, South Vietnamese soldiers, outnumbered two to one, Friday threw back 200 guerrillas who tried to surround their camp on Highway 553, spokesmen said. The beleaguered government irregulars held off the Commu nists until 1,500 reinforcements reached the scene. They suf fered 10 killed and 17 wounded in the fighting. In Saigon, Prime Minister Tran Van Huong of South Vietnam said today the allies would not join the Communists in a New Year’s truce because the Reds could not be trusted to honor a standdown. An American official said the United States agreed with the decision. Huong cited 140 violations of the 24-hour allied Christmas truce in which two Americans died and 37 were wounded. DAILY 4TnEWS Daily Since 1872 Hanoi counterpart, Col. Ha Van Lau, on the shape of the conference table and other procedural matters. F I ■L j a ▼ ? • ■ • : -1 a % A * 4 ** Apollo 8 astronauts James Lovell, Frank Borman and William Anders let the world know how happy they are at the end of their moon trip as they arrive on board the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown. Photo was taken from TV screen. Borman Calls It 'Beautiful Ship’ By WEBSTER K. NOLAN ABOARD THE USS YORK TOWN (UPD—Rested and re laxed after a square meal, a shower and some sleep, Frank Borman walked out on the flight deck and looked at the Apollo 8 spacecraft, its blunt heat shield blackened and charred. “It’s a beautiful ship,” he said. It had taken Borman, James Lovell and William Anders half a million miles faultlessly, 10 times around the moon and home. It had put the United States a giant step ahead in space. And the next step—or the next — could be an American on the surface of the moon. Barman, Lovell and Anders, who splashed down in the Pacific Friday to end their six day moon flight, were to lunch on this prime recovery carrier today, then leave (about 5 p.m. EST) and fly to Hawaii, then to Houston. Go To Houston No official welcome was planned for their 5 a.m. EST arrival at Ellington Air Force Base in Houston Sunday, but a space center spokesman said “There’ll probably be some people there.” The people of both the free and communist worlds paid unprecedented tribute to Bor man, Lovell and Anders Friday after the trail-blazing astro nauts had returned from the greatest exploration ever con ducted by man. The Apollo 8 crew circled the moon 10 times on Christmas eve. They came back Friday to tell the world what they had learned about the celestial sphere that has intrigued mankind for ages. Out In Front Borman, Lovell and Anders had put America out front of the Soviet Union in the space race. But the accomplishments of Apollo 8 was a victory for mankind, rather than one nation. President Johnson said the astronauts had led the world “into a new era.” Tass, the Soviet news agency, said the American astronauts had opened “a new stage in the history of space research.” Dr. Thomas Paine, acting head of the National Aeronau tics and Space Agency (NASA) said “man has started his drive out into the universe.” That drive, he added, “will never stop.” Borman, Lovell and Anders, 5-STAR WEEKEND EDITION GRIFFIN Griffin, Ga., 30223, Sat. and Sun., Dec. 28-29,1968 Yuletide Stealing In Griffin Shows Drop the greatest heroes to date in America’s 10 year race to the moon, have a chance to be in on the moon landing itself next year. May be Chosen A space agency official hinted that Borman, 40, Lovell, 40, and Anders, 35, will be considered along with others to make the historic landing in 1969. The astronauts completed their fantastic six day voyage Friday, splashing down in the dark Pacific ocean with the same precision that had charac terized the trip around the moon., They came back in at nearly 25,000 miles per hour, a new speed record. Borman, the usually business like commander of Apollo 8, exclaimed “Boy, my eyes opened wide on that one.” Dr. Clarence A. Jernigan, who examined the astronauts on board the Yorktown, said “we saw nothing new or spectacular. “So far out tests have all gone as expected” and added that he knows ‘‘of no reason why the three astronauts could not fly another mission.” Perfect Shape Jernigan, asked if they were ‘Moon Look’ Crew May Get Land Nod By EDWARD K. DELONG UPI Space Writer SPACE CENTER, Houston (UPD—America may be able to make three landings on the moon before the decade is out instead of the one to which the late President Kennedy commit ted the nation. And the space heroes of Apollo B—Frank Borman, James Lovell and William Anders— have at least a chance of setting the first footprints on the lunar surface. Lt. Gen. Samuel Phillips, head of the Apollo program, said after Apollo B’s splashdown Friday the United States was “clearly a major step toward the manned landing, a major step beyond where we were a week ago.” The next step will be Apollo 9 Feb. 28, in which the little landing craft designed to make the actual moon touchdown will be carried aloft in its spacecraft into orbit around the earth, and the astronauts will get in it and in prefect condition, said “except for fatigue, yes.” Happiness gripped the manned spacecraft team that had backed the astronauts. Shortly after splashdown at mission control, a giant Ameri can flag covered the huge tracking map that had been used to follow Apollo 8 around the moon. The “Star-Spangled Banner” was played over the public address system that had been used to communicate every word uttered by the astronauts. But Lt. Gen. Sanuel C. Phillips, director of the Apollo program, said there would be little time for celebration. “Our program is moving with rapid momentum,” he said, adding that Apollo 9, the first test of the moon landing craft, would probably be launched Feb. 28. Bullseye The splashdown in the Pacific was just 6,000 yards from the 25-year-old Yorktown, the prime recovery vessel. For a ship that had been aimed from nearly 250,000 miles away, it was a bullseye for a landing, in keeping with the flawless operation of the vehicle through out the six days. test fly it. On Apollo 10 next spring, Astronauts will fly within 10 miles of the moon but will not acutally land there. Apollo 11 set for next summer, will be the first planned landing opportunity and Phillips said there are two other flights after that capable of landings. Crews have already been named for Apollos 9 and 10 but not for 11, the crucial flight Astronaut Chief Donald K. (Deke) Slayton said the astro nauts would be named “by the end of January.” Dr. Robert Gilruth, director of the Manned Spacecraft Center, said there was a chance the Apollo 8 crew could get this coveted berth just as other astronauts had a chance for it. “I’m not ruling out anything,” Gilruth said. “I want to keep all my options open.” Slayton said there was “no reason” why Borman, Lovell and Anders could not be named. Vol. 95 No. 308 Shoplifting, Bad Check Cases Down The Yuletide season of 1968 was a quiet one for the Detec tive Bureau of the Griffin Po lice Department compared with those in past years. A detective said this morning that a minimum number of shop lifting cases were made and that no reports of bad checks or bogus money had been receiv ed. He also reported that the num ber of burglaries during the Christmas season was down. The Detective Bureau this year initiated a program to in form merchants of the loss they suffer each year through shop lifting and bad checks. Some of the stores hired per sonnel to watch for shoplifters and others informed their regu lar employes to be on the look out for people who might be tak ing items from the stores. Shoppers also were warned of the penalties that could be im posed through the courts if they were caught shoplifting. The detectives warned shop pers to put packages in the tr unks of their automobiles where they could be locked. The number of burglaries dur ing the Christmas season was small and items taken had little value, police said. Griffinites were cautioned to be on the lookout for slim-slam operations. Clerks in stores were alerted for persons who might have been trying to pass counterfeit money or worthless checks. Detectives had high praise for the merchants for their coope ration in the campaign to cut down on the amount of losses through shoplifting, worthless checks and bogus money. “However, there was some shoplifting that was not detect ed,” the detectives said. “We be lieve that this amount was sm all or the people would have been caught,” he said. Jackson County Jail Door Won’t Lock JEFFERSON, Ga. (UPD — Three Jackson County jail es capers kicked their way to free dom and there’s no way to pre vent fellow inmates from doing the same, the sheriff says. The problem is a jail door that won’t lock, and which, in fact can be kicked open. Sher iff Curtis Spence said that’s what the three who escaped last Sunday did. “The door’s been broken sev eral times and repaired, then broken again,” Spence said. “The last time they told us it couldn’t be repaired.” A $175,000 bond referendum last month failed, leaving the county without plans for a new jail to replace the century-old structure that still holds 19 pris oners. Three of them still occupy the cell from which Wayne Ed wards, Billy Ellison and David Rowe escaped Sunday. Although they are considered low-risk prisoners, Spence said a watch is kept “practically 24 hours a day.” Rowe has since been recap tured in his hometown, Cayce, S.C., but the other two are still free. Weather: FORECAST FOR GRIFFIN AREA — Partial clearing, windy and turning cooler this after noon. Fair to partly cloudy and colder tonight and Sunday. LOCAL WEATHER — Esti mated high today 62, low today 48, rainfall .78 of an inch; high Friday 57, low Friday 48, sun rise Sunday 7:41, sunset Sunday 5:43. Red China Admits H-Bomb Explosion By CHARLES R. SMITH HONG KONG (UPD—Com munist China tonight announced the successful explosion of a hydrogen bomb at its testing grounds in western China. At the same time, Peking reiterated its opposition to the United Nations-sponsored treaty to ban the spread of nuclear weapons as an attempt by the United States and Soviet Union to maintain a nuclear “monopo ly.” The Red Chinese announce ment that it had “successfully conducted a new thermonuclear test” came almost 24 hours after the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission in Washington had informed the world of the explosion. The test, of what the AEC said was China’s eighth nuclear device, was carried out on Friday at the Lop Nor testing range near the border with the Soviet Union. The AEC announcement said the explosion had a force equivalent to about 3 million tons of TNT and was set off in the atmosphere. The Peking radio announce ment gave few details. Much of it was devoted to denouncing the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. The radio called for world wide opposition to the treaty, already approved by some nations and scheduled to come up for confirmation by the U.S. Senate early next year. China’s successful develop- 2<» Killed, 27 Hurt As Plane Crashes By JOHN I. PELLETREAU CHICAGO (UPD—A North Central Airlines plane carrying 45 persons and searching for landing room through blinding fog crashed into a hangar at O’Hare International Airport Friday night. Airline officials said 26 persons were killed and 27 injured. Not all the casualties were on the plane: A boy’s drum and bugle corps was practicing in the Braniff International hangar when the plane crashed through the doors, spewing burning fuel and metal upon them. All eight of the boys were injured; some of their clothing was set afire. North Central’s flight 458 originated in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn., and had stopped in the Wisconsin cities of Wausau, Green Bay, Manitowoc and Milwaukee. Then it headed for murky, fog-shrouded Chicago. O’Hare had been diverting some flights for “brief periods” earlier Friday because of the fog, but the world’s busiest commercial airport was open at the time of the crash. The Convair 580 prop-jet came in southeasterly, through mist and drizzle. “It appeared to be a normal approach,” a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration said later. He said that though the fog was thick, visibility was a quarter-mile with a 200-foot ceiling, within minimum re quirements. The plane settled toward the runway, cleared a seven-foot fence, and almost had landed when its wing apparently tipped toward the hangar. The plane made an “exceptionally severe” left turn while still off the ground, investigators said, and crashed through two large hangar doors. Fuel sloshed from the plane and blazed. The doors exploded on the drum and bugle corps, flag-bearers for the Vanguard group of suburban Des Plaines. An explosion blew the plane apart as it skidded to a halt inside. At first, because of the fog, workers were not certain whether the plane bad crashed ment and testing of a hydrogen bomb, the announcement said, “is giving the world great inspiration.” It said China is producing nuclear weapons “in order to break the monopoly” by othjy powers. A total of five countries are members of the so-called nuclear club—the United States, the Soviet Union, Britain, France and China. Both China and France have refused to become signatories to the partial nuclear test ban treaty and have continued to conduct weapons tests in the atmosphere. The broadcast reiterated Pek ing’s declaration that Red China would never be the first to use nuclear weapons in war. “The Chinese government once again announces China is conducting limited, but necessa ry testing of nuclear weapons only for defense and for destroying the monopoly of nuclear weapons,” Radio Pek ing said. It renewed the Peking re gime’s call for complete de struction of all nuclear weapons along with a ban on future development. China, it indicat ed, would ever settle for less. The AEC said the blast probably meant the nation’s nuclear program was back on track after the seventh test Dec. 24, 1967, apparently failed to detonate except for the fission trigger. or landed. They came upon burning, shredded wreckage. “The men just keep looking through the wreckage bit by bit and every once in a while they find a body,” a police spokes man said. A survivor, Robert Irish, 26, Antigo, Wis., said he was sitting in the rear of the plane. He suffered lacerations and an eye injury, and was taken to Ressurection Hospital, where many of the dead and injured were sent. Escapee From Pike Arrested At Bus Station A prisoner, who escaped a work detail from the Pike Co unty Public Works Camp, found out Friday afternoon that it does not pay an escapee to come to Griffin to wait for a bus. Albert Shadburn, 32, of Cov ington, escaped from a wor’.; de tail on Shackelford Lane road off U. S. 19 north of Zebulon Fri day afternoon about 2:30. He was arrested at a bus station in Griffin about an hour later. The arrest was made by Grif fin Police officers Herman Par ker and Wallace Upson. The detail Shadbum had been assigned to was cutting brush on the road right of way. He was returned to Pike Coun ty Friday afternoon. Young Harris Grad First To Reach Apollo ABOARD USS YORKTOWN (UPD—A South Carolina man who graduated from Young Harris College in Georgia was the first to reach the Apollo 8 spacecraft after splashdown. Sonar technician Richard H. Coggin, a 24-year-old Columbia, S. C., frogman, beat out two other frogmen diving from a helicopter in recovery opera tions Friday. Coggin completed a nine month tour of duty off Vietnam before joining the operation in iba FaciUo.