European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 24, 1967, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page the stars and strips sunday september 24, 1967 fortress holds out against North vietnamese piece of Angels hell on Earth for marines by Thomas Cheatham con Thien South Vietnam up the place of Angels the name vietnamese gave centuries ago to a Hillock that is now the fortress of con Thien has become a hell on Earth for . Marines defending i from North vietnamese attacks. More than 50 marines have been killed and More than 700 wounded since sept. 1 in hold ing the fortress the Northern most . Outpost on South Vietnam s Northern Border. For the last four Days it has been under virtual around the clock heavy artillery and mor tar fire. Thursday alone 16 marines were killed and More than 170 wounded. Friday 6 died and 72 were  Marine. Officers say the situation will probably get worse before it gets better at the fortress that vietnamese centuries ago regarded As fit for a Junior Olympus. Con Thien is a Bald Little Knoll 518 feet High lying two Miles South of the six mile wide demilitarized zone separating the two Vienna is. Be cause it is what the military Calls a commanding piece of terrain Over the Flat land of the area the marines by Neces sity established an outpost Here in april. Day in and Day out rockets mortars and artillery in an North of the Buffer zone bombarded the outpost sometime with As Many As 200 rounds in 10 minutes. The Marine casualty lists grow. So does the fear of an attempt to overrun the outpost. Despite a concentrated .bombing attempt at stopping the shelling and preventing Anorth vietnamese troop build up Marine intelligence say the North vietnamese have 100 artillery pieces in use against con Thien and probably 35,000 men inside the  will happen to the marines on the place of Angels once the fall Monsoon Rains set in in a fortnight or so they got an inkling this week when More than 20 inches of rain fell in three  vietnamese troops broke the perimeter almost nightly feeling out the de sense. American air support was nullified during heavy rain storms. Supplies were Short and ammunition had priority Over food and water on helicopter resupply runs. Bunkers were flooded and the men s feet ached from being wet for  attacks continued. You know your girl forgets to write the paymaster forgets to pay you the Supply office forgets to bring food but Char lie Charlie never forgets photographer wounded Henri Huet prize winning associated press photographer grimaces As a Friend dresses a leg wound Hue suffered when hit by shrapnel during a communist shelling of con Thien. The Marine Strong hold has been under almost constant shelling by the North vietnamese. The outpost is two mile South of the demilitarized zone. A photo you one Marine told up photographer Dana Stone Dur ing an attack. Marine commanders know the North vietnamese Are capable of attacking con Thien on the ground with several Hundred men and to overrun the out Post would be a great propaganda  col. Keith Houghton the Marine intelligence commander says the communists would have to pay a terrible Price in lives to take con Thien and i Don t think he s Willingto pay that  the leathernecks reworking feverishly to Complete an All weather Road Between Cam to seven Miles South of con Thien to the outpost to alleviate helicopter Supply limitations when the weather turn bad. But time is running Short and the mud is getting deeper. The marines seem to be Bank ing their Hopes on the theory that the Monsoon will Hurt the North vietnamese More than it will Hurt the marines. The Leatherneck commanders say the heavy Rains will drive the North vietnamese to High ground and limit their move ments through flooded Low lands. Spotter pilots say however that most of the hostile Artil Lery positions Are already on High ground in the Southern reaches of North  Rivers South of the Doz Are already limiting the marines movements. Meantime the Young Marine sat the place of the Angels Are digging their trenches deeper and waiting waiting for the heavy Rains and what the will bring. Every Day As the artillery shells rockets an mortars come thumping in they get a clue. Congress and the computer allllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllillllllllllllllllllullllllllllllllllllllllllllcihiu1 moslem jews defy push Button budgeting Mau figure in future \ soviet suppression 9-7 9jr r to tvs c to a tit to  it As sure a Senate pious a economic subcommittee that he is not advocating can Piru i Iii con Gress fiscal functions out of Husi Iti is even though he said it Iii he � cheaper. Instead lie said Congress could assume effective control Over the budget if it pushed tothe Hilt adoption of a new approach pioneered in the defens department and now being introduced gradually elsewhere in the  planning programming budgeting system emphasize analysis of government pro Grams in terms of objectives present and future costs and no Money considerations. Armed with such information he said Congress could really make policy decisions. The result the compute experiments he conducted Davis said led to the conclusion that Congress has for the greater part chosen not to exer Cise very much control Over a  he told the sub committee he and some col leagues set out to see whether they could figure out equation that would duplicate the actions of human budget makers on the executive Side and budget con Siderer on the legislative  into a computer the figures on the last budget handsome behavioural rules he said they largely succeeded where defense figures were no concerned. One of the behavioural rules he said was that the Agency determines its request for next year by merely looking at it appropriation for this year and marking it up by a certain per  a corresponding example Ofa congressional behavioural Rule is to determine some Agency appropriation by merely giving the Agency a certain percentage of its request he added. Other rules refer to Agency padding of requests congressional reaction to pad Ding  in general he concluded Agency participants make budgetary decision by looking at Congress and congressional participants in turn look to the  i Don t want to make too Biga thing of this Davis told the congressmen. There were differences Between the computer results and actual perform Ance but they were rather Small. One can conclude there i room for substantial improve ment. There seems to have Bee far too much of what one might Call five percen Manship or creeping incrementalism " Geneva up soviet attempts to destroy the jewish an moslem faiths Are having the opposite effect two leading scholars said  religions they argued become More firmly entrenched the More the soviet government attacks  Point was made at a three Day conference held by the Cen Ter for research and study of religious  Ben Shlomo of the Winer Library in London addressing the 70 scholars attending the conference said the present National and religious consciousness of the soviet jew was shaped against a background of official  soviet leadership is stressing the inevitability of jewish assimilation while it makes it at the time almost impossible except for children of mixed marriages he said. Col. Geoffrey wheller of the Central asian research cent Erin London said meanwhile that islam is second among Russia s religious  propagation of atheism seems to make less Progress in the moslem republics than elsewhere wheller said. European edition col. James w. Campbell Usa. Editor in chief it. Col. F. S. Michael jr., Usan Deputy editor in chief Arnold Burnett managing editor Elmer d. Fran production manager Henry s. Epstein circulation manager an unofficial newspaper of and for the . Armed forces printed Dally at Darmstadt Germany under the auspices of the office of the chief of Public affair he Usa eur. Military address the stars and stripes Apo 09175. International mail the stars and stripes Post Nch 1034, 61-Darmstndt, Germany. Tel or Leanell c prefix 06155 2071 m Darmstadt air strip prefix 2376 741. New York office 641 Washington st., new York 10014, Tell area code 212 620-5771. Second Cia postage paid at new York . ". 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