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Griffin Daily News
Eight Green Berets
Sent Home To Families
By HELEN GIBSON
LONG BINH, Vietnam (UPI)
—The Army freed eight U.S.
Green Berets today and sent
them home to families jubilant
that the military had dropped
charges accusing them of
murdering a Vietnamese civi-
RAY CRDMLEY
s
Nixon Draft Plan Full
Os Evasion Loopholes
By RAY CROMLEY
NEA Washington Correspondent
WASHINGTON (NEA)
If Congress fails to amend the Selective Service law this
session and President Nixon goes ahead with the new way
of drafting young men he now proposes, he will be jumping
from the frying pan into the fire.
A college freshman with a student deferment will still
have four to five years of uncertainty ahead of him.
He won’t know whether or not he is going to be selected
for service until he graduates from college and spends his
required year in the prime draft-age group.
A low draft call, or no draft call at all in a month in
which the son of some high administration official has a
high priority for call would make the whole draft system
suspect, even though no wrongdoing was intended.
Critics would be certain the call was cut that particular
month so that this particular young man would “escape.”
The “moving age group system” which Secretary of
Defense Laird favors would have Selective Service local
boards in such confusion that there would be myriad mis
takes. Each month the priorities would change. Through
the Selective Service System this would require a huge
quantity of extra paper work which would of necessity have
to be done at high speed.
If a board acted slowly in reclassifying a young man
whose deferment had just ended, for example, his drafting
might be delayed for a year, a year later than a young man
in another area whose board acted more quickly in his re
classification. The date on which a board met, for example,
could heavily influence when a young man would be drafted
or, conceivably, through a change in draft calls, whether
he would be drafted at all. This could lead to a board being
accused of bias or corruption.
It would seem from analysis that the moving age group
plan would provide so many loopholes for evasion, however
much these loopholes were restricted by careful legal lan
guage, that there would be constant recrimination. Clever
lawyers would be busy advising their clients on evasion.
For example: A man, finding that he would be finishing
school at a time, when because of his birth day and month,
he would be near the top of the first priority induction
group or near the top, could find ways to delay graduating
for a month or two, in order to get classified as eligible at
a time when his name would be at or near the bottom of
the induction list, thus lowering his chances of being in
ducted. Or a man, deferred as a key worker but due to be
shifted to a job in which he was not eligible for deferment,
might get his company to hurry or delay the change to les
sen his chances of being inducted.
The “moving age group system” further is technically
so complicated to explain that neither young people nor
their parents will be able to understand what is happening.
Lack of understanding inevitably leads to suspicion. In
such a climate rumors and accusations will flourish even
when no unfairness exists.
(Newspaper Enterprise Assn.)
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Tuesday, Sept. 30,196*
10
They were flying to Travis
Air Force Base, Calif., tonight
and were expected to get 30
days leave before reassignment
outside Vietnam.
Col. Robert B. Rheault, 43, of
Vineyard Haven, Mass., once
commander of all Green Berets
in Vietnam, said for the first
time he believed the man they
had been charged with killing
was a North Vietnamese double
agenU-something defense law
yers said all along.
Rheault Makes Remark
Rheault made the remark
shortly after Army Secretary
Stanley R. Resor announced the
Army was dropping the char
ges.
“It was like Christmas all
over again,” said Maj. David
Crew, 33, of Cedar Rapids,
lowa, one of the Berets.
Several of the Berets and
their lawyers said CWO ED
ward M. Boyle of New York,
one of the accused, was the
hero of the case. The Army
offered to drop all charges
against him if he would testify
against his companions, they
said, and he refused.
The accused men, on being
notified of Resor’s announce
ment, celebrated until dawn in
Barracks 4813 at the Long Binh
base where they had been
confined.
“Insides Like Jelly”
Capt. Robert F. Marasco, 27,
of Bloomfield, N.J. said, “My
insides still feel like jelly.” The
Army had accused Marasco of
being the triggerman in the
alleged slaying. He said he was
quitting the Army.
“I guess I’ll go back to being
an insurance agent,” Marasco
said.
The others charged included
Maj. Thomas C. Middleton Jr.,
29, of Jefferson, S.C.; Capt.
Budge E. Williams, 28, of
Athens, Ga.; Capt. Leland J.
Brumley, 27, of Duncan, Okla.;
and Sgt. 1 .C. Alvin L. Smith of
Naples, Fla.
The men were arrested July
21 and accused of slaying Thai
Khac Chuyen June 20 near Nha
Trang on the South China Sea,
188 miles northeast of Saigon.
They allegedly dumped his
‘weighted body into the sea.
Navy divers failed to find a
body.
Six Flags
The flags of six nations
have flown over the Virgin
Islands — France, England,
Spain, Holland, Denmark
and the United States. The
islands were purchased by
the United States from Den
mark in 1917.
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Charges Against
Rights Leaders
Ordered Dropped
NEW ORLEANS (UPI) -
Charges have been ordered
dropped by a federal appeals
court against two persons who
participated in civil rights sit
ins in Atlanta in 1904.
The sth U. S. Circuit Court
of Appeals ruled Monday that
indictments against former Stu
dent Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee executive secretary
James R, Forman and Mardon
R. Walker, a white student tak
ing courses at Atlanta’s Spell
man College, should have been
dismissed when some 125 other
similar charges were thrown
out under the 1964 Civil Rights
Act.
Both had been charged with
riot, malicious mischief and
other offenses.
Miss Walker, in Atlanta on
exchange from Connecticut Col
lege, was indicted by a Georgia
grand jury for her part in sit
ins during January 1964 at a
Krystal hamburger stand and
at Leb’s Restaurant.
Forman, SNCC executive sec
retary at the time, was indicted
for his part in the Leb’s demon
stration.
Miss Walker was convicted
for trespassing and had been
given Georgia’s maximum sen
tence of 18 months in jail and
a SI,OOO fine. She posted $15,000
bond. The U.S. Supreme Court
threw out the indictment in
1965. Georgia authorities later
filed the riot charges and she
was again indicted.
In handing down its decision,
the appeals court said there
was “absolutely no evidence”
to convict the two for their ac
tions and ordered the case re
manded to the district court
with directions to dismiss the
indictments.
Georgia Power Co.
To Construct
Nuclear Generator
WASHINGTON (UPI) -Geor
gia Power Co. hopes to have
construction on a $180.2 million
nuclear generator completed by
Jan. 1, 1972, according to a
spokesman for the Atomic
Safety and Licensing Board.
The Board Monday authorized
construction of the 786.000 kilo
watt generator on the Altamaha
River near Baxley in southeast
Georgia.
Concerned mainly with safety
features, the licensing board
said Georgia Power has a 2,100
acre “exclusion area" around
the proposed plant site. This
area is in a sparsely populated
section about 11 miles south of
Baxley.
Cooling towers will be used in
the river to carry away waste
heat, the Board said, and the
river will furnish water for the
cooling system.
The project is to be called the
Edwin I. Hatch Nuclear Plant.
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READY when YOU ARE"
Social Security
Household Workers
Should Cheek Status
By naie ivi. wietaunu
Griffin Manager
A lady from Griffin stopped
by the Social Security office to
see about getting disability
benefits for her 49-year-old
mother who was suffering from
a serious heart condition. She
received a shock,
Although her mother had
worked all her life in various
jobs as a maid and domestic
worker, the Social Security re
cords showed she did not have
the five years of work needed to
be eligible for Social Security
disability benefits.
An investigation revealed
that several employers did not
report her earnings or pay the
Social Security taxes due. Her
mother had never made a fuss
because at the time she pre
ferred not to have her share of
the Social Security taken out of
her pay because she needed the
money to make ends meet, or
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If you still get carried away
with a new car,
we’d like to help you get it.
In fact, that’s how we get our kicks —helping people
to get what they want. Makes little difference to us—
if it’s a new car, or just a car that’s new to you. The truth is,
we just like to finance cars—at the lowest bank rates possible,
and at terms to suit your budget. So test price and test-drive ’em.
And when you're ready to deal, we’ll help you wheel
it with an Auto Loan. First National Bank of Griffin V
... the bank you can bank on. ... - ... -_, }^
FIRST NATIONAL BANK<V'M
I OF GRIFFIN. GEORGIA MEMBER F.D.I.C.
for some other reason.
The end of this story is both
happy and tragic. The happy
part? Social Security officials
were able to contact two of her
former employers and get them
to report the wages they had
paid her and pay up the back
taxes they owed, and she was
able to get monthly Social
Security benefits.
The tragedy of the story is
that the benefits payable to her
mother are lower than they
would have been if all of her
employers had reported her
wages. The amount of a Social
Security benefit is based on the
worker’s average earnings. If
some earnings are missing, the
average is reduced and the
benefits are lower.
This case is not an unusual
one for Social Security. Many
household workers, particularly
those who worked by the day,
are careless about their sociaal
B’• • 3
I It's thumbs up and smiles forß
I these Green Berets afterßM|
■ learning that the Army had ■'
■ dropped charges accusing them L
■of murdering a Vietnamese ■ \
■ civilian. Shown outside thHrH||-
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Jiipß "here they had been confined
'■H are: (1-rj Capt. Steve Berry,
Kj| lawyer for the accused; Capt.
J ■ Leland J. Brumley, Duncan. ***
Okla.; Maj. Thomas C. Mid-
Bf dleton Jr., Jefferson, S.C.; and
Capt. Robert F. Marasco,
Bloomfield, N.J. (UPI)
security. Many employers of
household help are willing to
take a chance and not report the
wages of the persons they hire.
When a household worker is
paid SSO or more cash wages
over a three-month period, the
law requires that the employer
report those wages for Social
Security and pay the Social Se
curity tax. Only cash wages
count—not room and board or
other kinds of payments.
You should deduct 4.8 percent
of the wages you pay the
worker—just under a nickel for
each dollar—and match it with
an equal amount yourself. Or as
some employers do, you may
want to pay the entire amount
yourself. Every three months,
you send these tax contributions
to the Internal Revenue Ser
vice. Your local Internal
Revenue office will provide the
forms, or you can get a con
venient postcard at your
nearest Social Security office.
These rules apply to anyone
who works in or about a private
home—a cleaning woman,
babysitter, handyman, butler,
gardener, or chauffeur—if they
are paid at least SSO during the
three-month periods beginning
with either January, April,
X.. 1 . a
July, or October as little as $4 a
week can come to SSO cash
wages in the 13 weeks in a
calendar quarter of a year. If
the total amount of cash paid an
employee for household work is
less than SSO in a calendar quar
ter, it does not count, toward
benefits and no Social Security
tax is paid on it.
As an employer, you are re
quired to give your employee a
yearly statement of the total
wages paid during the year, and
the total amount of Social
Security contributions deducted
from those wages.
As an employee, you should
request such a statement if it is
not offered. You should also ask
your Social Security office
every three years or so to check
to see whether all your wages
have been reported to your
social security record.
Many persons have not been
as fortunate as this lady, who is
now collecting monthly bene
fits. There are others for whom
back taxes could not be
collected. And there were other
employers who had to pay much
larger sums.