Dai
Home-Owned Newspaper
Sitka Sentinel
and The ARROWHEAD PRESS
Member of The Associated Press
lOcaCopy
VOLUME xvn
Wednesday, December 21, 1955
NUMBER 8
17 killed as big plane crashes
early today at Jacksonville
Third air crash in
Florida within
three days
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (/P)
An Eastern Airlines Constel
lation bound from Miami to
Boston crashed and burned on
its 'landing run early today,
killing all 17 persons aboard.
It Was the -third air crash in
Florida in three days.
Monday, two air force Ibomlb
ers crashed over the outskirts
erf Tampa midway down the
Gulf of Mexico coast killing
eight men. A few hours later
an air force jot and a bomber
collided over Port St. Joe, 200
miles up the Gulf Coast, kill
ing1 three men and leaving
three missing.
On the shattered Constella
tion was 'the body of C. B.
Thrift of Miami, an Eastern
Air Lines accounting employe,
being Shipped to Washington,;
D. C., for (burial. The 47-year
dld war veteran had died Sat
urday of a heart attack.
The plane was only a quar
ter of a mile from the end of
its runway at the airport when
it apparently came in too low,
hit the top of a tree in the ear
ly morning darkness and plung
ed to the ground.
The airport said visibility
was V2 miles, the ceiling 300
feet.
The Eastern Air Lines Con
s ellation was shattered.
V eotchcomblng
% Finally found out what
the boss warits ;for Christmas—
a mink coat. Wtho does she think
I am, Santa Claus?
(Proof reader’s note: I oan
■want, can’t I? Bui: I’ll settle
for a pfair of near“fur lined
gloves!)
—|—|—
• Alaska is not part of the
United States even if some peo
pie would dike to make ft the
49th or 50th state. We wish
foreign aid would pay our taxes
instead of collecting them and
throwing (them away.
i »_
■ I
• There’s always one in every
crowd
iMAIRIBTTA. Oa. (IP) The
First Methodist * Church re
ports that its honor system
parking lot, under which mot
orists deqxreit what they want
to in a box on the sidewalk,
js not working so well.
Yesterday someone drove o»ff
with the cash, box and all.
i *
• (Stateside folk always axe
talking about how cold it is in
Alaska. But from whait we read
the east isn’t a “ibanana belt”
by any means.
• In former years we talked
about snow for Christmas —
Roman or Greek. But this year
we are thinking in terms of
jiain to break the cold sipelil.
Its (passengers apparently
never had time to try to escape
for the caibin was twisted and
mashed, trapping all inside.
Five of the dead were crew
members.
Sixteen of the bodies were
badly burned. It was three
hours after the 3:40 a. m.
crash before firemen couild re
move them from the flaming
wreckage.
Witnesses said the plane ap
peared to be in no trouble as
it a arted on its landing run at
the port 12 miles north of Jack
sonville.
The last word from the pil
ot, Capt. Tom McBrien. was
that ihe was coming in for a
landinlg.
LeRoy Connell, a boilermak
er, was drinking coffee when
he looked out a window of his :
home in idle thinly wooded,
sparsely settled area.
“I saw the landing lights go
on, then there was a sound —
it might have been an explos
ion or the sound the plane
made as it the tops of the
trees,” he said.
“The bdig ship fell but there
wasn’t any fire until it hit the
ground.”
Pentagon proposes
big boost in its
budget next year
by Elton C. Fay
WASHINGTON (/P) The Pen
tafeon, proposing a (big boos1,
in its budget next year, con
templates spending a billion
dollars for gtuided missile de
velopment.
Secretary of defense Wilson
told a news conference yester
day the military will ask con
gress to approve a billion-dol
lar increase in defense spend
ing over the 3414 billions cur
rently estimated for the pres
ent year.
The Pentagon proposes also
that congress increase by al
most: two billion dollars the a
mount of money appropriated
for defense over the 33 billions
asked Ifor the current year.
About a billion dollars of
this wouiia go inio me pipeline
to pay Ifor weapons to be
bough in later years.
Among other new items to
appear in Willson’s budget re
commendations will be money
to begin building the first sur
face ship to be driven by atom
ic power. This navy warship.
Wilson indicated, probably
will be of cruiser size and in
corporate the newest arma
ments, such as guided missiles.
Wilson remarked he was
“not quite ready” to discuss
the overall organization of the
armed forces in guided mis
sile development and produc
tion.
But he did provide a more
definite index df what he pre
viously had described as a
substantial expansion in the
missile field.
(continued on page four)
There is a real
'Mary' Christmas
LAWRENCE VILLE, 111. (IP)
With the approach of Christ
mias, a Lawrencville High
School teacher gets more than
her usual number of greetings.
She is Mary Christmas, a
business instructor ait the high
schodl for the last three years.
The more than 100 students
attending her 'five classes
greet her this week as ‘Mary
Christmas,” not Miss Christ
mas.
Miss Christmas, 36, said she
was named afiier (grandmother,
Grace and Mary. “Mary just
happened to come first,” she
said.
What next?
CLEVELAND (IP) S ariley
Wenger went to a garage yes
terday to pick up his car after
mechanics repaired its smash
ed front end. The oar wasn’t
ready. A mechanic had taken
it out to test the new front end
and another car had rammed
into its rear end.
Rivers rise to flood
stage in western
states today
SEATTLE (/P) Rivers rose to
ward the flood stage in part of
western Washington and Ore
gon Wednesday in the wake of
a PaaLficJborn storm that left
up to <t*wo inches of rain in
wide areas oif the two states
in a few hours Tuesday.
High winds accompanying
the rains uprooted trees and
felled (power poles and lines,
disrupting service in many sec
tions.
The storm aibaed overnight
but the weather bureau warned
of a low pressure area 600
miles to the west that forecast
ers said might bring more rain
in 'the next two or three days.
Red chiefs arrive
home to welcome
as conquerors
MOSCOW (/P) Premier Nik
olai Bulganin and communist
secretary Nikita Khrushchev
returned to Moscow today from
their month’s tour of India,
Burma and Afghanistan and
were welcomed like conquer
ors.
Khrudhchev told the crowd
i of Soviet officials, diplomats
and Muscovites gathered at the
airport for the welcoming cer
emony that he and Bulganin
had “exposed the policies of
the colonizers in Asia.”
He said colonial regimes are
a blot on mankind and declar
ed he would go on saying so,
despite criticism in the west
ern press.
Bulganin itold the crowd
more and more states are ad
hering to Russia’s “five princi
ples” of peaceful coexistence
and said more personal ex
changes between national lead
icontinued on page four)
West Point graduate found
guilty of helping enemy
First West Pointer
to be tried for
collaboration
FT. LEWIS, Wash. (/P) Lt.
Col. Paul V. Liles was found
guilty today of aiding the en
emy by making propaganda re
cordings while he was a pris
oner of war in North Korea in
1950-53, but he won leniency
from the military court.
Accused slayer was
mental patient
attorney reveals
DENVER (/P) John Gilbert
Graham, 23, accused slayer of
44 in the bomb-crash of a Unit
ed Air lines plane, was treated
for a mental condition while
in the U. S. Coast Guard, de
fense attorney John J. Gibbons
said today.
Gibbons said Graham was
treated for 4V£ months in a mar
ine hospital on Staten Island,
N. Y., in 1949 while an under
age member of the Coa9t Guard
Graham, by lying about his
age, then 16, was sworn into
the Coast Guard in 1948. the
attorney said. After serving
some three or four months and
running AWOL for 63 days, he
added, Graham was placed in
the hospital.
At that time, Gibbons said,
Graham complained of recur
ring bladkouts and was treated
wilth electric shock therapy.
The treatments covered 4 Vz
months, immediately after wh
ich Graham was discharged —
honorably — from The service,
the attorney said.
The psychiatrists who will
report Jan. 9 their opinion of
Graham’s sanity may be called
at his trial both as defense and
proseouUon /witnesses.
Dist. Judge Edward J. Keat
ing so ruled yesterday over pro
tests of lawyers appointed by
the court to delfend Graham.
I He is charged in the dyna
miting of an airline which ha
shed and killed 44 persons.
Byrd says foreign
aid funds reduced
British taxes
WASHINGTON <7P) Sen Byrd
(D-Va) said today American
foreign aid funds 'bad been used
to reduce British taxes and he lip
pay dff Denmark’s debt.
The Virginian cited these as
exjaimples off ways he said “bil
lions of dollars have been squa
ndered in foreign economic
aid.” He demanded such prac
tices be stopiped.
Byrd’s blasf: apparently sig
nalled some strong apposition
in congress to the Eisenhower
| adminisrtration’s plan to boost
ecnomic aid spending by about
I (continued on page four)
He was reprimanded by be
ing suspended in rank lor two
years.
Army attorneys said that
meant he will retain his pres
ent rank as a lieutenant colon
el, but will toe pur. two years
behind all officers in the or
der of promotion to higher
rank.
Liles won acquittal on the
other chariges against him.
He was the 12th soldier t'.o be
| tried on collaboration charges
i since the end of the Korean
conflict. Two other offiers
and six enlisted men were con
victed; two officers and one
enlisted man were acquitted.
Liles was the first West
Point graduate to be tried on
collaboration charges.
The 39-year-old officer from
Birmingham, Ala., was found
innocent of two other charges
embracing several counts.
They were accusations that he
was disloyal to the United
States; led Red indocrination
classes, ibeoame a member of a
so-called prisoners’ peace com
mittee under communisl spon
sorship, signed surrender ap
peals to United Nations troops
and refused to take charge of
American prisoners when he
was the senior officer present.
His defense counsel, Lt. Col.
Leslie E. Dixon of Monterey,
Calif., said the case will toe ap
pealed “all the 'Way to the
court of military appeals.”
“I feel confident the decis
ion will be reversed,” Dixon
said.
Liles stood erect as the ver
dict. was announced by the
president of the court, Brig,
Gen. Fred W. Salden, Jr.
Dixon told reporters he was
sure the result would have
been different if Liles’ escape
plan for some 70 Americans
from a BOW camp near Pyang
yang, capital of North Korea,
had been a success.
Liles Was captured by the
Chinese ommunists in North
Korea, Oot. 28, 1950 and spent
the next three years in pris
oner camps near Pyoktong
and Pyangyang.
Aliens required to
report addresses
SEATTLE (JP) Some 80,000
aliens in five northwest states
and Alaska are required to re
port their addresses to the U.
S. Immigration and Naturali
zation service in January, dis
trict immigration director
John P. Boyd said today.
Boyd said regia, ration cards
are available at post offices
and immigration stations. They
should be filled out by the
alien, he said and handed to a
clerk. The cards may not be
mailed.
Boyd said every noncitizen,
except persons in diplomatic
status and foreign representa
; tives assigned to the United
Nations, are required to regis
ter. Wilful violation o# the law
may result in fines, imprison
ment or deportation, Boyd said