University Press (Beaumont, Tex.), Vol. 67, No. 42, Ed. 1 Wednesday, March 27, 1991 Page: 3 of 8
eight pages : ill. ; page 23 x 14 in.View a full description of this newspaper.
- Highlighting
- Highlighting On/Off
- Color:
- Adjust Image
- Rotate Left
- Rotate Right
- Brightness, Contrast, etc. (Experimental)
- Cropping Tool
- Download Sizes
- Preview all sizes/dimensions or...
- Download Thumbnail
- Download Small
- Download Medium
- Download Large
- High Resolution Files
- IIIF Image JSON
- IIIF Image URL
- Accessibility
- View Extracted Text
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
University Press
Page 3
^Wednesday,March 27, 1991
Former student
returns from war
:20-year-old vet
Silsbee native Thomas Larsh talks with a UP reporter. Photo by Jonna Smith
44
...We were flying and I went up to the cock-
pit and remarked how cloudy it was, and the
pilots said it was smoke. As far as you could
see on the horizon it was black smoke — dev-
astation. * *
— Thomas Larsh
?-
«By Jay Casey
UP editor
t_
* “It was just a few days before the
ground war started. We were flying
'and I went up to the cockpit and
►remarked how cloudy it was, and the
^pilots said it was smoke. As far as you
” could see on the horizon it was black
•smoke — devastation,” says Airman
♦Jst Class Thomas Larsh, a former
■Lamar student and 20-year-old vet-
. eran of Operation Desert Storm.
>' A native of Silsbee, Larsh is a
‘.communications technician on an
' AWACS radar surveillance and guid-
ance aircraft. He attended Lamar in
ttne fall of 1988 as an undecided
major, taking various courses in order
‘to obtain a higher ranking in the Air
♦Force.
' “I came in to Lamar the summer
after I graduated, took a few courses
•and then enlisted for the next
^February,” he said.
Larsh, who has been in the Air
♦Force since February 1989, said he
,was caught by surprise by the turn of
events in the Persian Gulf region.
‘ “Like everyone else in the ser-
Avice, I thought I’d come in, do my
four years and maybe re-enlist or go
back to college, but a war never real-
ty entered my mind.”
But after his unit — the 552
AWACS, stationed at Tinker Air
‘Force Base in Oklahoma City — was
♦transferred to the massive air base in
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, he found him-
self in the middle of a war zone.
* After his unit arrived in Saudi
Arabia in early December, Larsh said
he realized the situation in the
•region was on edge.
“I knew something was going to
happen. Everybody knew ... because
«of the presence of our armed forces
over there ... we had built up so
much.”
p “There was almost no backing
kout of it, we gave him (Saddam
Hussein) one last chance and noth-
* ing came of it,” he said.
^ Larsh’s unit was involved in com-
bat as well as other dangerous situa-
tions during its 90-day tour of duty in
* the Persian Gulf.
The mission of the AWACS air-
craft on which he is stationed is to
help coordinate the movement of
fighter aircraft and also provide
advanced warning of the positions of
enemy aircraft.
“They had told us that we might
lose an AWACS, and it kind of both-
ered me,” he said. But Larsh said
that the threat never materialized.
“We were mainly worried about
their Fighters because we thought
they were better than they were. But
they didn’t put up much of a fight
because they weren’t really orga-
nized or coordinated. We had them
on the run.”
In the end, Larsh said the
AWACS performed well in that near-
ly every Iraqi jet shot down during
the war had been detected by the
surveillance aircraft and dealt with.
“I was on a jet one time when
there were four Iraqi jets that were
shot down. We controlled the
American fighters until they inter-
cepted them, then they took over
and shot them down.
He describes the episode as one
of the most interesting he experi-
enced in the war but not the only
brush with danger.
Although Larsh’s unit was sta-
tioned at Riyadh, 350 miles from the
front lines along the Kuwait-Saudi
border, the base was subject to fre-
quent Scud missile attacks. He said
these attacks had the most impact on
him, personally, of the war.
“I think they sent up 8 or 10 the
first night, and I was within a half-
mile of where they landed. They’d
get you real scared at first, but we
knew most of the time the Patriots
would get them, and they did,” he
said.
“The first night it happened, I
personally thought we were getting
bombed by Iraqi bombers because
the patriots launching sounded like
jets flying over.”
Larsh said a Patriot breaks the
sound barrier as soon as it launches,
causing a loud initial boom, which
would then be followed — if the
missile was on target — by the sound
of an explosive impact with an
incoming Scud missile.
“The explosions from the Patriots
hitting the Scuds and the shaking of
the ground made me feel they were
bombs,” he said. “I didn’t know
what was happening until it was all
over.”
Larsh said that prior to the attacks
everyone on the air base was alerted
and required to put on gas masks.
“Usually you could see them
coming in if you were bold enough
to stand outside and watch. They
looked like a big comet or meteor
coming in.
Larsh feels it may have been the
great success of the Patriot anti-mis-
sile system which contributed to the
tragedy of Dhahran, where 28 service
men and women were killed.
“It wasn’t very long, probably the
weekend of the (ground) war, when
everyone got the attitude of compla-
cency that the Partriots would get
them (the scuds) and if they didn’t,
they were so inaccurate'they would
probably explode somewhere else.”
Along with the threat of scud
attacks on his base, Larsh said anoth-
er constant worry of the soldiers was
the action Israel would take after
being hit with scuds.
“I was flying the night they got
scudded for the first time, and I was
shocked for a few minutes. We all
worried that they would come back
and do something drastic, but they
never did,”' he said.
Larsh said the Saudi people were
nice to the soldiers but one of their
worst ememies was boredom.
’’The people were nice but their
laws are really strict. You could tell
the Saudi men were a little bit
stunned when we were riding around
and they (female soldiers) were in
the front seat without any covering
on.”
He said female soldiers in the Air
Force were required to wear gowns
when going into town but such trips
were restricted once the war had
started.
"We talked to the Saudis, you
could talk to them but they are really
strict on their women, they were
always wearing the traditional cloth-
ing.”
Even with the cultural differ-
ences Larsh admits the conditions
under which his unit lived were
good.
"We were a little better off than
the Army and Marines because we
were closer to the base in Riyadh. I
think the boredom was probably the
worst part for everyone over there.”
He said the imminent ground war
was another more important concen
for the fliers.
“Before the ground war started, I
was beginning to get worried about
the Army. Because of the way the
news was playing it up, it seemed
like there were going to be a lot of
people dying, like it was going to be
a big battle. I have a lot of friends in
the Army, so I got nervous for them.
But once it started and we went right
through them, everybody was happy
— we knew it would be over soon.”
Concerning his unit’s reaction to
the ceasefire, Larsh said, “We were
happy because we knew by then that
our mission had been accomplished.
Wc had done our job and we were
coming home soon —and the killing
would stop.”
UT dean
refutes
allegations
of payoff
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) —
Manuel Justiz, dean of the
University of Texas college of edu-
cation, has met with South Carolina
law enforcement officials in connec-
tion with a grand jury indictment of
the former president of the
University of South Carolina.
They spoke with Justiz on
Monday in Austin, the Austin
American-Statesman reported.
Authorities said that James
Holderman, former president of the
University of South Carolina, told
them the school had received
money from a law firm for its role in
helping to free a client from jail. He
said he gave some of the money to
Justiz, the newspaper reported
today.
Justiz told the newspaper, “I
never expected any money and
never got any money for doing it.”
Holderman was indicted last
week by a state grand jury on
charges of illegally using his public
position for personal gain. He
resigned in May of last year.
The charges say Holderman used
his position to earn $25,000 from a
law firm headed by former South
Carolina Gov. Robert McNair. The
story dates back to 1986.
Justiz, 43, held an endowed chair
as a professor of educational leader-
ship and policies at the university
for four years. Justiz said Holderman
asked him to help an influential
South Carolina law firm, headed by
McNair, to free a client arrested on
cocaine charges from jail in the
Dominican Republic.
McNair attorneys argued their
client, a San Juan, Puerto Rico, busi-
nessman named Bernard Baus, had
no knowledge of the cocaine found
in his plane.
Justiz told the Austin Newspaper
that Holderman chose him because
he knew the president of the
Dominican Republic and some
influential officials who could possi-
bly help “get an innocent man out
of jail.”
Before the request, Justiz said he
did not know Baus and had never
met him.
FIRST,
YOU CAN'T
SWALLOW
mmm
•. You have ALS •— "Lou Gehrig's
disease."
• ^ Gradually, you'll become unable
• . to walk or use your hands. You'll find
+*' vourself drooling. Your reflexes will
*■ . disappear.
£** Your mind, however, will remain
'* * completely clear, leaving you a
P*- frustrated prisoner in a body you
j can't control.
ALS is a fatal neuromuscular
i ♦ disorder that attacks adults in the
prime of life. Right now, no cure is
j ^ known. But the Muscular Dystrophy
• Association has launched an all-out
• x _ assault against this dread disease.
MDA has developed the world's
• ► largest integrated ALS research and
patient services program. The Asso-
• * ciation has established five major ALS
'■ research centers and maintains some
] 230 clinics to help people with ALS
*v and other neuromuscular disorders.
And MDA is the only voluntary
, • health agency that provides patients
• with a wide range of medical care
. and equipment free of charge.
You can help MDA fight ALS and
N* dozens of other neuromuscular disor-
« ' ders by making a tax-deductible dona-
tion to the Association. You can even
specify that your check is to be used
' . ■ exclusively to bene-
A fit ALS patients.
There are
>20,000 ALS pa-
.* tients in America
' * who can t write
checks or even
*, read this ad out
;. loud. Please send
your contribution
“,«i to MDA today.
Lou Gehrig
Yankee's Hall-of-Fatner
MDA,
A Muscular Dystrophy Association
Jerry Lewis, National Chairman
When you buy from UP Advertisers, tell
them you saw their ad in the University Press
^SSSSSSSSSSSSSS^
UNIVERSITY PRESS
SPRING 1991
Production Schedule
APRIL 5, Friday
APRIL 1 0, Wednesday
APRIL 1 2, Friday
APRIL 1 7, Wednesday
APRIL 1 9, Friday
APRIL 24, Wednesday
BmBI
mm
KB
■
■HI
—
liilggggsgi
WM
University Press
Editor...........................
.............................................................................Jay Casey
Managing Editor.........
........................................................................David Barras
Sports Editor...............
.................................................................Brian Richardson
Copy Editor.................
....................................................................... Karen Gilman
Photo Editor................
..........................................................................Janna Smith
Photographer...............
........................................James Pressler, Brian Vincent
Staff Reporters..........
...................................................Craig Clark, Steven Collins,
Dee Gilchrist, Don Norwood
...................................................................Scamcs O'Grady
Advertising Assistant.
...............................................................................Yum Le
Distribution.................
........................................Lieu-Thi Nguyen, Teena Nguyen
Office Assistants.........
...............................................Khem Khamphouy, Kim Tran
Marketing/Advertising
Elaine Butler
Production Manager
Gloria Post
Assistant to the Director of Student Publications
David Hooker
Director of Student Publications
Howard Perkins
Publisher
Student Publications Board
Joseph Kavanaugh, Chairman
The University Press is the official student newspaper of Lamar University and is published every
Wednesday and Friday during long semesters, excluding hiolidays.
Offices are located at P.O. Box 10055, 200 Sctzcr Student Center, University Station, Beaumont,
Texas 77710.
Opinions expressed in editorials are those of the student management of the newspaper. These opin-
ions are not necessarily those
of the university or faculty or administration. Columns are chosen to give
a variety of opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views of the student management or administra*
don.
^TRIANGLE
PRESS
a division of Port Arthur Newspapers
549 Fourth Street, Port Arthur, Texas 77640
(409)985-2060
TOP QUALITY PRODUCTS ON TIME-GUARANTEED
Triangle Press is the commercial printing division of
Port Arthur Newspapers. We specialize in newspapers,
tabloids and pre-print circulars.
At Triangle Press we have one simple goal -
Total Customer Satisfaction -
by providing top quality products
in a timely manner.
At Triangle Press we have the capability to take any
non-heatset, web offset print job
from concept to the delivered product.
High Speed Web Offset Printing
Newspaper Publication
Tabloids
Layouts
Typesetting
Fill Color Pre-Prints
Direct Mail Service
y/.vvWvTv
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Matching Search Results
View eight places within this issue that match your search.Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Newspaper.
Reeves, Lou. University Press (Beaumont, Tex.), Vol. 67, No. 42, Ed. 1 Wednesday, March 27, 1991, newspaper, March 27, 1991; Beaumont, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth499614/m1/3/?q=Lamar+University: accessed June 10, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Lamar University.