European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - March 17, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Tuesday March 17, 1992 the stars and stripes b Page base closing May turn Limestone to dust Limestone Maine apr built at the height of the cold War Loring fab brought jobs and people to Maine a austere potato growing Frontier with Canada. It is the closest . Military base to Europe an Ideal launching spot for b-52 bombers Kc-135 refuelling tankers and f-15 fighter jets. On its 14,300 acres Are a 30-bed Hospital a department store supermarket dining Hall 1,717 apartments and three dormitories that can House 1,440 people. Loring generates $152 million a year in salaries alone. But now Limestone is one of dozens of communities across the country grappling with what life will be like after the military clears out. The nearby base is targeted to be shut Down in october 1994. Will the Limestone area in Maine a Northern tip become wilderness once again a a it a going to unravel our very social fabric in All of the communities in Central Aroostook a said Tom Stevens manager of Limestone a town of 1,200. A the military folks bring a unique worldwide perspective to the area a he said. A they have a lot of Energy and Good ideas. We re going to lose people friends cultural Exchange ideas housing and  trouble signs Are appearing. Home values have plummeted. Business has declined at some stores because residents worried about the future Are buying Only essentials. Families Are beginning to leave for new jobs. A amps of All the impending base closures air Force officials said shutting Down Loring would have the most devastating economic Impact because of its Remote location four Miles from the Canadian Border. Stevens 37, is moving later this month after 12 years As town manager to take a similar Post in Standish 20 Miles West of Portland. Deciding to leave a was very very difficult a he said. A my future Here has limited  local officials filed a Federal lawsuit saying the air Force used fraudulent data to bolster the Case for closing the Loring which was built Between 1947 and 1953. Senate majority Leader George j. Mitchell and other members of the Maine congressional delegation argued to no Avail before a commission deciding on base closings that Loring should be kept open because of its strategic location. Loring is the single largest employer in Aroostook county providing 3,300 military and 1,300 civilian jobs. An additional 3,900 jobs Are indirectly tied to the base state officials said in a report to the commission. Within three years of closure the county will lose 20 percent of its economic base including 8,500 jobs $152 million in annual earnings and the exodus of 15,000 residents the state report said. Bernard f. Ryder superintendent of Limestone schools said the District will shrink from 1,502 students to 318 students when the base closes and will have to Lay off 135 of its 185 employees. A everyone is scared a said Jim Cote who runs an Auto repair business near the base. His wife works in Ryder a office and May lose her Job. Local officials Are beginning to plan for life after Loring. They Are looking for new uses for the base which May not be easy to convert. State officials warned that converting Loring to civilian uses a will be greatly impeded by the presence of 42 hazardous waste Sites on the  their report estimated it will Cost $800 million to clean up the Sites. Spirits were lifted somewhat when the Pentagon confirmed in january that Loring is one of several Sites being considered for the nations first strategic defense initiative or a Star wars missile defense base. Lorings civilian employees worry about How or if they will find new jobs. Karen Edgecomb 29, has worked for More than five years As a laundry Presser at the base and makes $9.30 an hour. A the Money is real Good and you can to really find anything for that kind of wages around Here a said Edgecomb who has a 7-year-old daughter. A a there a just no jobs in the  in the stars and stripes 10years ago March 17,1982 a after researchers reporting swelling on the Crater floor of Washington states mount St. Helens scientists reported that the Volcano probably would erupt within a week.20 years ago March 17,1972 a in Vietnam communist infantry and artillery teams poured out of camouflaged Jungle Camps to hit army bases and villages in the heaviest attacks in More than five months. 30years ago March 17,1962 a a chartered Airliner bound for South Vietnam with 107 persons aboard was presumed to have crashed in the Western Pacific. The passengers included 93 enlisted soldiers.40 years ago _ March 17,1952 a Gen. James a. Van Fleet said the military needs of the chinese and North korean armies in Korea Are seriously straining soviet Industrial capacity and easing communist pressure on other possible War fronts. Van Reet also said that if truce talks failed and full scale fighting broke out again the United nations could win the War. World War ii 50 years ago today 17 march1.9 .4 .2 Gen. Douglas Macarthur arrives in Darwin Australia to take command of All Allied military forces in the Southwest Pacific combat area although the allies still have not agreed on the territorial limits of his command. In the Mediterranean German and italian bombers continue an Axis Effort to Pound Britain s tiny Island base of Malta into submission assassination Buff wants to find out if Booth is really buried in Baltimore by the Baltimore Sun Baltimore a challenges to the government claim that Union troops killed John Wilkes Booth in a Virginia Bam 12 Days after he assassinated president Lincoln have been around for 126 years and show no sign of dying. Nathaniel Orlowek 33, an assassination Buff since he was 15, says the Issue can be resolved by exhuming the body that was buried As Booths in 1869 in Green mount cemetery in Baltimore. Orlowek and Arthur Ben chitty of the University of the South in Sewanee tenn., have asked Baltimore lawyer j. Martin Mcdonough or. To draft an exhumation petition to the Baltimore circuit court. Mcdonough said he does not know How Long it will take to Complete his Legal research and prepare the papers. If exhumation is permitted forensic experts Are prepared to do scientific examinations on the remains. Orlowek of Silver Spring md., argues that Booth escaped and spent years in the South and West. He says Booth died in 1903 in Enid okla., and his body was displayed in carnivals As a Mummy. The most prevalent theory is that the love moment covered up the escape by the Lar Ford county md., actor after claiming he had been killed. Orlowek a theory was persuasive enough for the television show unsolved mysteries to broadcast a segment on it. The pro exhumation forces will face a fight however from Green mount cemetery officials. Those officials supported by historians accept that Booth died at Garrett a farm in Virginia ending the manhunt that began after he shot Lincoln at Fords theatre in Washington on april 14,1865. They contend that his body was identified at the farm in Washington where he was originally buried and again in 1869. That year president Andrew Johnson acceded to Booth family pleas and permitted Dis interment for reburial in Baltimore. Today a Marble Stele Marks the plot which is the most visited grave site in the vast Green mount cemetery according to cemetery staff. William c. Trimble jr., chairman of the cemetery Board said Green mount would demand releases from descendants genealogical charts and birth and death certificates from certifiable Booth descendants before it would agree to exhumation. Orlowek and chitty 77, insist that under Maryland Law they do not need permission from Booth descendants to Booth exhume the remains if they can convince a court that the exhumation a is in the Public  they argue that it is within the Public interest to determine whether Booth escaped and whether top Lincoln administration officials conspired to cover it up because they had announced Booths death. A for the Sake of the integrity of american history we should know the identity to know if the government lied to us that they killed Booth a said Orlowek a religious education director for Beth Sholom synagogue in Potomac my. A and if they lied it shows there was a government cover up. We Are entitled to know. A if Booth is in that grave at least we would know for sure. A i Only want the truth and the Only Way to Settle it is to examine the  but Trimble said a there is no Public right to know at All. We feel we have a responsibility to the people who Are buried  Jack Schwartz chief counsel for opinions and advice in the attorney general a office said Maryland has Laws covering Dis interments but none that seems to apply to this Case. A judge would have to decide whether a Dis interment was merited he said. Indians protest resort at burial grounds source 2194 Days of War w. H Smith a Pydi is is Irea of cd Aithi tic boo of of o Ivor ii. B so corp Galveston Texas up indians protested sunday at the construction site of a resort that they say desecrated an ancient burial ground. About 100 members of the inter tribal Council of Houston read statements during a rally at the Woodlands corp. Pirates Cove resort. A this is not an Issue of Indian is. White but rather an Issue based on unwritten moral codes a said Council chairman Preston Thompson. A we believe that All burial Sites Are sacred and should not be desecrated. Yet this was not the Case  the Woodlands spokesman Jack Crumpler said work would continue on the project with no plans to Stop. He said areas where Indian burials have been discovered were being avoided. Archaeologists say six skeletons and parts of others interred in the Earth at the site Are believed to Date from around the year 1300. A the six indians were buried with Knees folded toward their chests and Heads pointing to the West a said Gayle Celmer an archaeologist with the army corps of engineers. Celmer has been monitoring the area on Western Galveston Island since the first Indian remains and a Camp area were found in january. The skeletons Are thought to be those of Karakawa or Ako Kisa indians who roamed the Galveston Bay area for hundreds of years. Historians think Spanish explorer Ca Beza de Vaca first encountered indians at Eckerty a Bayou which lies adjacent to the pirates Cove development. The inter tribal Council which represents about 750 area indians has vowed to form a coalition in an Effort to halt the 339-lot development. Council officials said they were unaware of the Skeleton discoveries until a Story appeared in a Houston newspaper feb. 28. A the Woodlands corp., owned by George Mitchell must Stop violating native american Graves at the pirates Cove site a the councils Board of directors said in a statement