European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - September 9, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Wednesday septembers 1987 the stars and stripes Page 3 weather army helping contain fires by the associated Percsi thick smoke hampered efforts to fight fires thai hive charred More than 1,000 Square Miles in he West but the Wear her and he army cooperated fire fighters gained ground and most evacuees were Back Home tuesday. Every Day we re galling a few More fires out said Jack Wilson of Floc coordinating incr Agency fire Cen Ter in Boise Idaho. Aboul 22,000 firefight in were working in califor Nia where More Ihnn 500,000 acres have burned and Oregon where fire has ravaged 109,000 acres Wilson said  said 1.000 10 1,100 of the 1,800 fires started by lightning storms were under some degree of control. Meanwhile officials from Hawaii s volcanoes nation Park called for help from the Mainland to fight a Brush and Forest fire that had burned 10,000 acres. The lire broke oui saturday and was whipped out of control monday by Strong winds Sard Jon Erickson the Park s supervisor for Public relations. In California where 15,000 people have been evacuated since aug. 28, All but about 1,000 were allowed Hack in i hair Homes by monday night said Fores service spokesman Brian Barrett. A battalion of 650 infantrymen from fort Ord near Monterey calif., look Over mop up work on a 10,000 acre Cluster of fires in Oregon to allow firefighters to concentrate on two blazes that have charred 32,600acres in Sisk you National Forest. What we Are doing Here is protecting the american people and he american Homeland without m-t6s and bayonets said Cap Andy Buchanan As busloads of soldiers donned fire gear. This time we arc doing it with hoes and  he told his men to beware of Poison Oak rattle snakes scorpions and hidden marijuana Fields which lie said Are often Booby trapped. In California s Tuolumne county site of the state biggest fire Crews used mules to pack equipment be cause the smoke was too thick for truck Drivers. People arc starting to show the effects in health related ways with dizziness and disorientation said John Garland of the Forest service smoke also grounded air planes and helicopter equipped to drop water and fire retardants. With the smoke the Way in is. I be hardly even seethe fire we be been fighting said Lloyd of rails of the mural Bureau of land management. Firc fighting coordinators in Sacramento set a goal of containing All of California s major fires by sunday three firefighters have been killed in vehicle Acci dents and at least 35 have been injured including an Oregon firefighter seriously burned monday after Generator he was repairing exploded authorities re ported. The top priority fire in Oregon was a Blaze that has burned More than 22,000 acres in Sisk you National Forest said Ron Scharl a spokesman for Oregon Sfire coordinating Agency. In Idaho a stubborn 10,500-Acrc Blaze in sawtooth National Forest was brought under control monday. Meanwhile a 39-Day-old fire continued to bum in virtually inaccessible Mountain area about 30 Miles East of Cascade. One Hundred acre fires were still burning in Washington and Wyoming tuesday. Fires in Arizona Mon Tana and South Dakota had been contained authorities reported. Severe refuseniks reportedly to be allowed to leave Moscow a members of four soviet jewish families were old tuesday a Day after Josef begun and several other refuseniks got similar news that they will be allowed to emigrate a jew ish activist said. Vladimir Slopak a jew who has Bee trying to secure an  visa since 1970, said emigration officials told the families by Telephone they would be notified by mail when they can get their visas. All were refused permission to Emi grate earlier such people Are Dubbe refuseniks on state Security grounds. Officials on monday told jewish activist begun and other refuseniks they could emigrate to Israel. Begun a 55-year-old hebrew teacher who first applied for an exit visa 16 years ago was released from prison in february after serving More than three years of a seven year term for anti soviet agitation and propaganda. Slepak said in a Telephone interview hat three jewish families from Moscow those of Valery Lerner Boris and Emma Lanzman and Boris run and Yevgeniya Palanker a woman from be re Van in Armenia were told tuesday they would be allowed to leave the soviet Union. Begun among the Besl known Jewis refuseniks speculated monday that granting him an exit visa could be connected to a Summit this year Between soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev and president  jewish activist scientist Vik Lor Brailovsky 51, and his wife Irina were also old monday that they could App Noto refuse elks Josef begun left and Victor Brailovsky were granted exit visas monday. Brailovsky who first applied to Emi grate in 1972, was sentenced to three years of internal exile starting in 1981 for defaming the soviet regime he had edited a jewish cultural publication. Slepak said monday he was told Arkady and Helena Mai and lev Sud also would be allowed to leave. He said Lielais had been wailing almost 14 Yean. Mai was fired from his radio Engineer s Job. Reports from jewish groups in Lon Don and Jerusalem said refuseniks so Myon Yarlovsky lev Ovsish Chev and Vladimir Lifshiz also had received per Mission to emigrate. Plaque to Honor gis killed during Wii exercise London a p an american memorial will rededicated in England in november to 749 gis whose Fate was Kepi secret Afier they were killed in a disastrous exercise in world War ii. Most of the soldiers drowned when their Landing Craft were shelled by German attack boats that chanced upon hem in april 1944 As the troops prac tired sea movements for the invasion of France six weeks later. The exercise was code named operation Tiger. Earlier this year. Congress approved funds for plaque for the memorial at Tor Cross facing Supton Sands on the South Devon coast where invasion a Nevers look place. The commemorated units Are the 4ih inf div 279th combat engr and the 70lh tank in the plaque s text says in part May these Soldier be remembered for their supreme sacrifice where As Security provisions of the Day prevented acknowledgement of this incident the sacrifice of these sol Diers killed has never been fully  in s fitting that the site is properly dedicated at East said Frank Palmer chief executive of South hams District Council the local authority coordinating the ceremony which is provisionally fixed for nov. Palmer said he was not concerned with rumours abounding since the disaster 43 years ago that to main Tain wartime secrecy the american bodies were buried anonymously under Concrete in a mass grave in sheep pasture somewhere on the coast the stories about the burial Are in the realm of folklore myth legend and confusion and i m not very interested in them Palmer told the associated press. The men were killed and in was the Price of  must remember it was the rehearsal for the biggest seaborne invasion in history and it must be seen in the context of the whole War in which 50 million people Are estimated to have  he said. Palmer said his Council has invited . Authorities so be represented at the ceremony and a . Army color guard stationed in Europe will attend. The dedication will be a poignant Momeni for Meas i be spent the Best part of 20 years and 16,000 pounds 126,400 of my own Money trying to get these americans remembered said Ken Small a toreros Hotelier who worked for the memorial. Over the years i made three visits to washing Onlo persuade politicians and the Pentagon to bring Oul the truth about these men said Small. The disaster has been known about for quite awhile but it was t until the 40th anniversary of the 1944 invasion was approaching thai in began to get International publicity Small said. Small said the dead were recovered from the sea because their life jackets kept them floating. Bui their life jackets were wrongly lied round thei Waisis and the weight of Floc equipment on their backs tipped the soldiers Forward so icy drowned he said. Live ammunition was issued and other american were shot by their own gunners who panicked when the germans opened fire. Many americans and Bri tons also died in the land exercises he said. Small said he gels a steady Stream of information from War veterans and their relatives about the disaster. One woman Jusi called to say the death toll was nearer 1,000, including an american general named Metheny he said. Small said there will be no names on the memorial and he refuses to give out names. That s he business of the families he explained. As for the grave i believe i have stood at the spot Bui i will never disclose the site he said. Small placed his own memorial to the dead at Tor Cross three years ago a . Sherman Battle tank which he salvaged one mile offshore. He Laid he first became interested in the episode when the kept finding ammunition helmets american coins and jewelry on the Shore while beachcombing. Cla Ifield and Coupon on Page 12 of the stars and stripes