European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - April 18, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse Tuesday april 18. 1989 the stars and stripes Page 9 tramp Framp tramp fhe kids Are marching by Vince Crawley turn birr Bureau Hohenfels West Germany Here along the rom of the Comba a never training Center american school Chi Dren Are doing a Little March ing of their own. Instead of Ding Home after their last class More than a Quarter of Hohenfels elementary school s 215 students take an hour Long hike in the wooded Hills behind their school. Ulicy started at the beginning of March. And fourth fifth am sixth graders who Chalk up at least 100 kilo meter about 60 Miles by May 12 will get a free held trip to go swimming in Distant Nim burp said Shawna Berry the teacher who organized the program. She Calls it walk into one of the pint site pedestrians is Daniel Leonard a fifth grader. Walk ing gets me out of the House and i m not sitting Down As much any More he said admitting he used to be a Couch school officials dreamed up the walk after Reading surveys saying that Amer ican children Aren t As physically it As their parents were according to Joni Clark a Counselor for the Hohenfels Amburg and re Ginsburg elementary schools. Amberg with 60 elementary Stu dents started its own version of walk into Spring last week copying and expanding Hohenfels Model Cark said. Berry who takes after school strolls with her students said walking through the Forest is also a peaceful Way to end he Day. Since hiking and leisurely strolls Are also favorite German pastimes Stu dents can go to weekend Volks marches to add to their mileage Berry said. She also counts Miles walked at Home if the student s Parent writes a note verifying the distance. Fredrika Bell another Hohrn facts fifth grader said she first thought her classmates were just joining Tor theorizes but found out they re just doing it cause they want to get healthy some like 11 year old Bryan pres Ley already have reached the Century Mark and have kept on walking. Nobody has More than me pres Ley boasted somewhere in the Middle of his 262nd Kilometre. His Pool is to reach 500 by the May deadline for no other reason than to Nave the most. He said that weather permitting he walks at least five Kilometres a Day a link Over three Miles. Longer on weekends. And he plans to walk All through the summer. Hohenfels is about As far off the beaten path As you can get. In the course of a year almost every combat troop in Europe passes through themed and dust of the combat Man Euver training Center there. But Only about 2,000 soldiers actually live work and have families at the Center the 50-Squarc-mile Man Euver area is South of in the bavarian Hills Between Nilon Borg and the czechoslovak Border and students hike along a Ridge about half a mile South of Alberts Hof the cinder Block Camp where transient soldiers slay when they re not living in tanks and tents. Berry who teaches sixth Grade and science classes said walking gives rest less kids something to do Alicr school. But i Don t think it would catch on in the states she said. Here there really in t much else for them to do except walk. It s a social lakes he Yar Brookli 10, and Bryan Presley 11, hike along with other students. Decades later sex pow receives Wii honors Bureau these Days Donald Stevens knows the True Ine Arii Ogof the saying better late than never almost 45 years after being shot Down on a bomber run Over Europe the world War ii Veteran from Ca Nii Joharie n.y., finally has received six awards that Werc swallowed up a she military bureaucracy arid never him. But while Stevens admits that getting the medals and other awards is Nice he downplays the significance of the fact that they be been absent without leave for More than four decades. Sure i m Happy to finally get them but it real Yin t that unusual Stevens said in a Telephone inter View. This kind opining happened to a lot of Guys 1 know Stevens who turned 65 last week said he decided to apply for the awards last october through his local veterans , after the hew prisoner of War medal that has been authorized by the defense department the medals finally came through last month i was a prisoner for. 10 months and 1 thought it would be Nice to get the medal for thai and i figured As Long As i was at it i might As Well get the other ones too he said. Those awards include the air medal Good conduct medal purple heart and several Campaign ribbons he said. Stevens was a staff sergeant assigned to the 5th a i r Force in Italy when he went out on a b-24 bomber run on june 30, 1944,-, flying Over Hungary in route to the target his aircraft was spotted by a i fighters. Something hit my guess it was Cannon fire and i was knocked out Stevens said. Luckily. Was blown Back into the aircraft fuselage instead of he came to the aircraft was still flying but he saw an open trap door and realized the rat of the Crew had bailed out think ing he was dead so i bailed out too he said Malter of factly. "1 was t Hurt All that much just some shrapnel in my foot. hit the ground. Saw the darn Cost thing a Little girl who could t have been More than 15 was co Erina me with a .22 Nile. The germans who had obviously seen the aircraft coming Down got there right after he was sent to a pow Camp on the Baltic coast in Northern Germany where he spent the next. 10 months until the Camp was liberated by Canadian troops on May 2.1945. The l an no Camp and we weren t forced to work or anything which my not have been so great in itself because we Hud nothing to do but sit said Stevens whose grandson Joseph Blackmun now lives in i Crlin. Blackman i wife spec Jill a Blackman is assigned to the Berlin brigade s signal support co. The main worry was hunger. We weren t starving or anything and the germans treated us fairly Well following Geneva convention rules but our revolved around getting something to cat lie said. We sure were glad to we those St veni does t think it s a big Deal that lie finally has received the official recognition that he Lias do ii retd for so Many years. I m just Happy that i m still Here la gel the med als he said. " a lot of Guys never made it team finds Steamer that Sank near Boston in 98 Boston a the stearic a Portland which disappeared in a storm i years ago with As Many As 200 passengers aboard has been found on the to idiom of the Atlantic off the Massachusetts East an oceanographer said sunday. There s no doubt we be got it said John fish of the historical maritime croup of new England who worked with Amord Carr and William Mcelroy for 13 cars to solve the mystery of the Portland the old Side Wheeler s Hull was Dis covered wednesday in 300 feet of water. East of Boston fish said refusing to he More specific about the location. The find is particularly significant not Only because the Portland was one of the worst maritime disasters in the Northeast but because it remained shrouded in mystery said Paul Johnston of the . Indications Werc Iurii the Hull was Cut Lengthwise when it went Down in 189s. We expected something weather beaten fish said. We found something Liat appeared to have the group will not Savage the wreck. Fish said we re considering it to be a memorial and a feel it s a grave where Between Iso and 200 people lost their lives he said. There were no survivors. The ship left Boston at 7 . On the saturday after thanksgiving in 1898, bound for Portland Maine. The storm hit about three hours later. By the Lime it ended a total of i vessels and 456 been lost be cause of the missing Side a Mcclur it came to be called the Portland storm
