Daily Tribune, The (Newspaper) - February 13, 1973, Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin POWs in N Viet seem to be in better shape CLARK AIR BASE pines AP American in North Vietnamese prison camps played a key role in keeping up the spirits and physical condition of the 116 U.S prisoners released by Hanoi Monday U.S ment experts said today They aiso the lack of such organization in Viet Cong prisons in South Vietnam took a toll on the con- dition of the 27 POWs released north of the same cay organization and dis- the prisoners in North Vietnam had been uble to maintain were very apparent said Shields fee Pentagon's senior civilian adviser on prisoners of war who was in Hanoi for the first release He told a news conference that POWs arriving in buses at Hanoi's Gia Lam Airport were drawn up in formation by the senior prisoner on the bus Shields said the three men who spoke briefly to the crowd on their arrival at Clark were leaders of camp organization They were Navy Capts miah A Denton Jr 49 of ginia Beach Va and James A Mulligan of Pensacola Fla and Air Force Col sen Risner of Tulsa Okla Much is still unclear about details of the American within the prison camps The returning POWs are not being pressed for these details white they undergo medical ex- officials said It also is believed officials would prefer to keep some details confidential until all Americans are released But all combat air crewmen attend survival training and as Shields put it are taught to organize in captivity for their own safety and protection He said the senior American officer in a camp was camp commander by his fellow POWs and the er had a staff organized along military lines The staff was concerned with all aspects of prisoner welfare and prisoner concerns in- committees on medical affairs food and clothing things that would help a man Shields said It has been reported that prisoners in the Hanoi Hilton a large POW compound in Hanoi at one time organized a chapter o f Toastmasters Inter- at which a POW with expertise in any subject would lecture to others on it The POWs who returned to Clark from South Vietnam were noticeably weaker and less well oriented than the returnees from North Vietnam The State Department's ex- pert on civilian POWs Frank Sieverts said part of this could be attributed to different prison camp conditions in North and South Vietnam In the North the camps were organized in a very open way But in the South there was no opportunity for that kind of organization said These men are returning from oblivion without even the limited contact with the outside that was available in some cases to men in North Sieverts said Tl A TT V J TRIBUNE Fifty-Eighth INFORMING THE SOUTH WOOD COUNTY AREA OF WISCONSIN Wisconsin Rapids Wisconsin 54494 Tuesday February 13 1973 Single Copy 15 Cents Once-Over THE DAILY 0 TRIBUNE On inside Returning POWs are getting swamped with free gift offers See Page 3 Wisconsin Rapids School Board will discuss a policy for school forests See Page 5 A few students and outsiders are causing at Lincoln High school officials say See Page 5 Program announced for Sunday's Symphonic Choral Society concert See Page 9 Edgewater Haven seeks volunteers for programs See Page 9 UCLA extends college basketball's record winning streak to 64 games See Page 10 Congress asks pro football's man in the stands what he thinks of the game See Page 14 Give your Valentine a marriage license PLATTEVILLE Wis AP Radio station calling itself the station with a plans to pay marriage license fees for all couples who seek them on Valentine's Day in its southwestern consin listening area Robert Sodden the station president and general ager said it would reimburse clerks in Grant Iowa and Layfayette counties for the cost of any marriage licenses issued Wednesday There are no strings attached except he said Meanwhile at Viroqua Vernon County Clerk Roger Novy is again offering his Valentine's Day special on marriage The So license is cut to on Feb 14 and there's also a special Couples applying between and can get their ence for only SI Novy says the response to the Valentine's Day special has varied from none to as many as six couples over the past eight years Our usual restrictions will said Novy No mail or phone orders one to a customer no exchanges or refunds and strictly cash no credit And though we've had some requests no We're gonna get a snow job In spite of what you may think we really ARE ing to get some snow and when we do it should make for pretty lousy driving conditions So do what has to be done soon because you're not going to want to be out sliding around the streets in a day or wo Snow mixed with possible rain is expected tonight with tions of from two to four inches and lows in the low 20s Wednesday should bring more scattered snow with highs also in the 20s The rest of the week is supposed to be cloudy and cold with daytime highs around 20 de- grees No more is expected until Saturday The high Monday in Wisconsin Rapids was 36 the low 18 Today at 6 it was 20 degrees Dollar depreciates in value by POWS HAVEN'T FORGOTTEN SOME THINGS While shopping at the PX at Clark Air Base pines a returned POW with a black eyepatch ing his left eye manages to get a good look at the wares on display including the passing attraction a miniskirted long haired girl The returnees wore their hospital garb during the unannounced sudden visit to the shop today This returnee is unidentified AP Wirephoto WASHINGTON AP ident Nixon has devalued the dollar by 10 per cent in a matic move to calm troubled world money markets and re- store confidence in the battered U.S currency Nixon's decision announced at a late Monday night news conference by Treasury tary George P Shultz marked the second dollar devaluation in 14 months It swept aside a world currency agreement reached in December 1971 Although the devaluation was widely expected as a result of tumultuous monetary dis- on markets in the past few weeks few thought it would be so large newsmen that the move combined with two other key trade and monetary tions would benefit the U.S consumer workingman and businessman The immediate impact of a devaluation is to raise the price of imports from foreign tries But because the dollar is now cheaper in relation to er currencies prices of U.S ports will be less The devaluation will be achieved formally by raising the official price of gold though this take an act of the dollar tion will take place ly in foreign money markets POWs are in high spirits CLARK AIR BASE pines AP The United States newly released ers of war were signing tines today swapping war ries and enjoying hot showers and American food as officials worked to prepare them for a quick trip home The 142 men who arrived here following their re- lease in Hanoi and the jungles of South Vietnam woke just after dawn to begin their first full day of freedom The dav was filled with cal checks administrative processing phone calls home and measuring for uni- forms to get ready for a flight possibly Thursday or Friday to Travis Air Force Base in Medical officers at Clark's hospital where the men dressed in blue pajamas were being processed said the returnees were in high its and in generally good cal condition Despite the routine of essing the wards were de- scribed as scenes of ex- with men ing the heady feeling of being back among their own after years in confinement One ior officer described the men as tigers Despite previous warnings the men would not want to talk about their prison experiences medical officers said many slaved up until -5 ex- changing tales about their con- finement and joking about it In at least one prison camp it became traditional to have a William Metzger expected to be freed in days 1573 tj NEA In But Sarge I thought we were stopping ALL military activity in South By John Pellon Tribune City Lt Metzger Jr a Navy pilot held captive by the North Vietnamese since May 1967 is expected to be released within 15 to 30 days The mother Mrs Myrtle Metzger of Wisconsin Rapids learned the news Monday afternoon through the mother of Air Force Capt Thomas Barrett one of 143 prisoners of war who arrived Sunday in the Philippines According to Mrs Virginia Barrett the captain had been a prisoner with Metzger and had seen him the day before being released In a telephone call to his mother in Lombard 111 Capt Barrett insisted this information be passed on to Metzger's parents Mrs Barrett said her son held in the highest steem Capt Barrett who a POW since 3955 reported was in great Barrett said the North Vietnamese Metzger he would be in a group of prisoners scheduled for release within 15 to 30 days Barrett told his mother he believed Metzger's wife lived in Washington but wasn't sure where so he asked his mother to caK Metzger's parents Metzger's wife Bonnie lives in Annandale Va Metzger will be to the Naval hospital at Md after an initial in the Philippines Bonnie has asked for a family reunion with her husband's parents her brother and in-law Marine Lt and Mrs Robert Bulik of Oceanside Calif and the son Robert Metzger's mother said she in which of the three camps Butch is being held the Hanoi Zoo or the Country Club Since the camps are in North Vietnam she said she believed Bili has been receiving better treatment than the POWs held Si the south She said she was aware some months ago her son was being considered for promotion to lieutenant commander but the family had rot mentioned this until promotion became official When Metzger was shot down on a May 19 1967 raid over Hanoi he was a Lt In nis telephone conversation with mother the Barrett learned father died four years ago Capt Barrett is not married He will be flown soon to a military hospital at Bellville III party on the anniversary of a man's capture Rations were saved and such affairs became a special occasion One re- turnee pretended he was dis- appointed because he missed his Eight more days and it would have been my seventh he said His friends booed and one Wanna go There's a plane leaving for Hanoi tomorrow A roar of laughter swept the ward Some of the men had not had a hot shower in nearly nine years and doctors reported the men going back into the ers three or four times to er up with perfumed American soap lunch Monday they heaped plates with servings of tenderloin steak beef stroganoff spiced apple sauce mashed potatoes tered noodles salad apple del and chocolate cake A returnee said he knew of no American POWs wounded by the massive bombing raids on Hanoi last December but said one time concussion knocked a big hunk of piaster from a ceiling and it hit one guv on the Two of the returnees were undergoing special processing to speed up their returns be- cause of critical family es in the United States said they hoped they could arrange a departure tonight for Air Force Maj Glendon W Perkins of Orlando Fla and Navy Cmdr Brian Woods of San Diego Calif They would be the first returnees to reach the United States since the cease-fire Shultz also announced mat Japan's currency the yen will float meaning that it will find its own value in the place He said the expectation is that the yen will rise in value even more than 10 per cent In Tokyo the Japanese announced its cy market will be reopened Wednesday The Finance try said the Bank of Japan might intervene if the yen floats to an overvalued level Although West Germany was the focal point of me dollar crisis that forced closing of for- eign exchanges in several tries there was no immediate change in the value of the mark and probably won't be The French franc also is ex- to keep its present par value Shultz said that other tries now floating their notably Canada and Great Britain probably will continue the practice The de- valuation has meaning only for nations wita fixed values for their currencies Canadian Finance Minister John Turner confirmed the dollar will continue to float The International Monetary Fund issued a statement saying the U.S action will help bring better balance to world ments improve confidence in the dollar and bring about reform The dollar crisis came about because of the glut of U.S lars in foreign countries That surplus is traceable to heavy U.S defense spending abroad increased foreign travel by Americans and heaw deficits i in the balance of payments Shultz announced that ths United States will phase out its controls on exporting U.S tal by the end of 1974 In addition he said Nixon will send Congress a ing trade containing new authority to force an end to for- eign barriers goods sold overseas Derby elbowed out of fieldhouse By Carl Roehl Tribune Managing Editor The city's first roller derby was elbowed off the track Monday before the bleachers could even be set up for it A misunderstanding over the cost of setting up temporary bleachers at Lincoln Fieldhouse apparently could prevent the derby from being held here The Wisconsin Rapids School Board voted twice Monday not to permit the Zephyrs Drum Bugle Corps to use the fieldhouse for the derby Mrs Barbara Devonshire Zephyrs executive director said this morning she is in- the possibility of using Assumption High or Nekoosa facilities We're going to have this roller derby if I have to take it to Meanwhile Thomas Teske said today he plans to ask the board to reconsider probably at its Feb 22 meeting its denial of the derby in the fieldhouse if there's enough public support for the Zephyrs proposal He said temporary bleachers have Point man dies in car crash here Thomas Somers 30 Stevens Point died at Riverview Hospital at from in- juries received when the car he was driving collided head-on with a car driven by Lloyd Gumz 32 Rt I Rudolph on Ave at Roosevelt St Gumz was given outpatient treatment at Riverview Hospital for lacerations to the chin Somers died in the emergency from a possible crushed c h e s i hospital authorities report The accident which demolished botn cars occurred when the car driven by Somers to negotiate a turn as i traveled south on 4th Ave N and struck the Gumz vehicle in the opposite lane Both drivers were taken to the hospital by Wisconsin Rapids ambulance to the vehicles was estimated at The death raises the Wisconsin traffic fatality count to 93 compared with 81 on this date in 1972 been set up during school hours on- occasion for major ball games The school board had proved a derby in the fieldhouse March 10 but the promoters Bay Promotions of Oakland Calif had a scheduling conflict and the date was changed to April 14 Mrs Devonshire said a contract was signed with the promoters and with the school board after the Zephyrs were informed by school officials it would cost about or about 50 cents a seat to install seating in the fieldhouse The Zephyrs have begun promoting the event and have so far sold worth of tickets and have paid the fee for use of the fieldhouse However after the contracts were signed according to Mrs 2 County board hears plea for bridge site Wisconsin Rapids Mayor Donald Penza presented his case for the Daly Ave third bridge site to the Wood County Board this morning Penza distributed an en- impact report prepared by the city's planning and design department which compared the Daly Ave site to an alternative Pepper Ave roule Several members of the county's pfenning zoning and resource committee including its chairman Dr Arthur Hayward have favored the Pepper Ave site while the city and state have pushed for construction of the bridge over the Chicago North Western Railroad right-of-way The city's report lists the following reasons for choosing the Daly Ave route over the Pepper Ave vehicles per day would use the Daiy route compared on the Pepper Ave route The adverse effect on neighborhoods would be sub- less with the Daly Ave route Only two to three homes be taken by the Daly Ave route compared to 14 or 15 homes removed by the Pepper Ave route Far less open soace and park land would be needed for the Daiy Ave route Planning studies favor the Daly Ave route The Daly Ave route would cost an estimated less for the bridge structure than the Pepper Ave route The Daly Ave route would cost an estimated less for access roads to the bridge than the Pepper Ave route The Daly Ave route would allow a limited access ex- 7 pressway with connections at only 8th Lincoln and 3rd Sts and 2nd Aves while the Pepper Ave route would have 16 streets intersecting and 25 or more private accesses Board Member Thomas Reddin questioned the city's priorities in pressing for bridge construction at a time when sewer facilities and schools are also needed Penza replied that the city acts soon to secure state approval of a bridge plan the legislature may change the nature of its funding program for bridge construction and possibly exclude the city from top priority for bridge building money Penza said the legislature appears to have goofed in funding bridge construction and only million now remains for eight communities which have been promised state assistance He said inquiries in November 1972 by the Daily Tribune brought the state's funding shortage to light and caused the city to accelerate its planning for fee third bridge to complete for the remaining state funds Board Member Norman Koch questioned whether the new bridge might be taken over as a state highway route soon after its completion Penza said he had received assurances from state officials that this would not be the case but if such action were taken by the state Penza said he weald then demand that the state pay a much higher percentage of the bridge's cost Today's chuckle Set aside your really big problems for a day IN FW SPA PERI
