European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - July 18, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                July 1985 the stars and stripes Page 9 medal will Honor Vietnam War vets by Clint Swift Washington Bureau chief Washington an army corporals design showing combat troops in a helicopter assault will be the picture on the Vietnam veterans National medal to be cast by the a mint employee and former Soldier won the Competition for the reverse which will read in Honor of those men and women who gave of themselves in an Effort to ensure democracy and peace throughout the this medal is struck by act of Congress Terrill Tritch helicopter and troops on the picture Side Are superimposed Over a map of and the words Vietnam veterans National medal run around the said Donna director of the an Eagle with american and the Capitol in the appear in the lower part of the reverse Side design by Jim a visual information specialist with the the initials of the artists will appear on the is with co 1st 502nd fort he was stationed in Ger from 1983 to a mint spokesman Tritch has been interested in Art since High while in he designed company symbols and he said his idea for the medal came from the Many books and magazines he has read about Viet of Falls served in the army from 1963 to 1966 at fort he has studied at the Corcoran school of Art in Washington and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine As a mint pm he studied with Frank the mints former chief a mint spokesman the medal was authorized last fall by a Law that specified that designs be encouraged from Vietnam vet Pope said the Competition that followed from december to the end of february brought 784 the designers remained Anonymous until after these the designs were reviewed by representatives from the veterans the army Institute of the National sculpture society and the veterans groups representing an estimated million americans who served in Vietnam were the final designs were selected by Treasury Secre tary James Baker and approved by the commission of Fine the Bronze medals will be available this fall in 3inch and diameter a mint spokesman at that the mint will announce where the medals can be bought and at what the medals also will be available by the spokes Man general denies philippine jets tried to divert plane Manila up the philippine air Force tuesday denied reports its officers ordered jets scrambled in an attempt to divert the plane that flew opposition Leader Binigno Aquino Home from exile just before his air Force chief Vicente Pic in a statement carried by the state run news categorically denied the scrambling incident reported sunday by the san Francisco he said other allegations were inaccuracies and outright the denial came hours after the Mur Der trial of armed forces chief of staff Fabian ver and 25 other men was suspended until Aquino was slain after being taken off a China air lines Jet by military escorts waiting for him at the Manila chief Justice Manuel pamaran reset the hearings because military attorney Rodolfp Jimenez had been readmitted to the philippine heart Center with a heart the examiner quoted air Force officers As saying philippine air Force officers took Over radar Scopes at the philippine air defense control Center at Villamor air base near Manila and at the air forces Wallace air station in the Northern the newspaper said the officers or dered two philippine air Force jets scrambled to divert Aquinas plane to a nearby military then asked the officers to Send their own planes when they failed to intercept the China air lines government who charge that Aquino was slain by a Soldier in a military said they were studying the examiner report for previously unrevealed during testimony before a civilian commission last ver denied officials knew on which plane Aquino was returning from three years of self exile in the United the state news Agency quoted Piccio As saying that the examiner Story is just a sensationalized Barracks Story of the usual Type bandied about in an air Force operations Piccio said there was no attempt at All to exclude air Force personnel from the radar rooms and denied any unusual activity on the Day of the Mur it would look funny if we scrambled our using up precious fuel to intercept a scheduled commercial flight in this he among the alleged inaccuracies or untruths also mentioned by Piccio were charges that the chief of the philippine air defense control Center was part of vers inner weapons Czar warns of on Rise in planes costs by Norman Black Washington a the Penta Gons new weapons Czar said tuesday he has warned the air Force it cannot continue to justify rising Price tags for its frontline fighters by simply citing a quest for improved James who two weeks ago was named assistant Secretary of defense for acquisition and said he is trying to impress on the air Force if costs keep the Pentagon might not be Able to buy All the planes it we cannot afford in the future to see Cost numbers go even if we get added capability at the he is a career Pentagon offi Cial who moved into his new Job after serving As the defense departments principal Deputy undersecretary for re search and at his first press briefing since assuming the Wade acknowledged tuesday that further improvements to the pentagons system for buying weapons and spare parts Are referring to reports of contractors Bil Ling the Pentagon for such things As country club expenses and Kennel Wade added that business As usual is simply not acceptable to him or the american i some of these costs that they have been putting Forth As far As indirect charges Are concerned Are not he the defens Industry team is terribly vital to our defense he it is not in Good shape at this Wade was asked about the air Force fighters because of a memo he wrote on june 14 to assistant Secretary of the air Force Thomas asking Why the average unit flyaway Cost of the f 15 and the f16 had each increased More than 30 percent since if we had been procuring the same aircraft in each of these we would have expected learning curve effects to Lead to a Small decrease in average unit flyaway Cost in constant Wade Wade said tuesday he had received a response from Cooper and was satisfied with his he said the Price increases can be explained through cuts in the number of planes purchased each year and through modifications made by the air there have been changes in the con text of improvement in Overall combat Wade told and i As of i think those numbers Are but the message in trying to make Here is if we let ourselves get into a Mode Over these weapon systems continue to increase in Cost and youre continuing to also make the argument that your capability is going i think were going to be in according to wades the Price per plane for an expressed in 1970 dollars to discount the effects of Rose from million in fiscal 1980 to million in fiscal the Price per plane for an expressed in 1975 Rose from million in fiscal 1980 to Mil lion per plane in fiscal air Force to test water at old missile site for plutonium a the air Force has agreed to test the groundwater at a defunct missile site for radioactive plutonium released in a fire 25 years air Force officers announced plans for the tests tuesday after meeting with state and Federal environmental and also agreed to give the state department of environmental Protection All unclassified information the military has about the fire that destroyed a nuclear tipped but any air Force proposal to clean up the site will be about two years said Edwin Banner Iii of the biomedical service corps at Scott fab in plutonium can cause cancer of the Bones and Lymphatic system if parti cles Are inhaled or according to research the air Force officials said that continued monitoring of the site where nearly All the contaminated dirt is covered under 100 Square Yards of Concrete is the Best course of action for the immediate future and that the site poses no health but John Burr said the air Force surgeon general agreed that Monitor ing Wells May have to be drilled into a major water Supply aquifer under the for Mer Bomarc missile Burr is the executive Secretary of the air Force radioisotope committee in tuesdays meeting was arranged after Thomas Kean and Dep commissioner Robert Hughey complained at a news conference a week earlier that they Learned about the contamination after it was disclosed by Federal officials at a july 2 meeting to discuss an unrelated hazardous waste air Force officials maintained that plutonium particles left by the june fire at the missile site in Plumsted township could not be dissolved in the water and could not spread through the water Supply in the environmentally sensitive Pine lands two Wells that supplied drinking water to the 75acre missile base 11 Miles from Mcguire fab on land leased from the army were tested in 1979 and showed no presence of radioactive they we dont feel its a Hazard to David of the air forces occupational and environmental health Laboratory at Brooks fab in said of plutonium contaminated dirt covered since 1960 or 1961 with 2 inches of Asphalt and 4 inches of the officials said tests in 1973 revealed some Low level contamination in a Culvert carrying water off the missile site to a drainage Basin on fort Dix it is apparent that the contaminant is slowly migrating to the where it is available for translocation by Rainwater says a february 1981 report pre pared by he recommended that the air Force re move surface dirt and apply an Oil or Asphalt coating to the area until a decision is made whether to take further