European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - April 18, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse Armed with wire reports on Nixon s impending resignation the desk was All ready to go with a front Page that said a Nixon resigns a in Large bold Type. As the deadline approached however the president still Hadnot made an announcement and the news desk started to get nervous. Nixon clearly planned to resign but the paper say so until it happened. Skipping the Story completely was also out of the question but what to do the minutes clicked off toward the 11 30 . Deadline and still no word came from Washington. Finally news editor Clay Sherman made the Call. Without definitive word from Washington the front Page headline would have to hedge. The Page was altered the paper was printed and stripes delivery trucks headed off on their appointed rounds. A Nixon resigning a stars and stripes customers read the next morning. And so he was. The president had said so at 9 . In Washington 6l/2 hours after stripes deadline. The stars and stripes had similar problems in Early 1981 with the on again off again release of the american hostages being held at the . Embassy in Tehran Iran. A after months of negotiation the group was to be released on Jan. 19, after 443 Days of Captivity and the stars and stripes had prepared a commemorative front Page for the Jan. 20 paper. Photos of each of the 52 hostages framed the stripes logo and a Large headline that read a free at but iranian Leader Ayatollah Khomeini suddenly decided to delay the release one a St Day and the headline had to be changed. With deadline staring him in the face copy editor Dennis Mcauliffe managed to save the Day. A so near yet so far a Mcauliffee a new headline read. It proved to be a popular front Page anyway especially with the hostages who finally touched Down at Rhein main a in Germany on the morning of Jan. 21. Thanks to fast work by a stripes circulation staffer most of the hostages stepped off the plane carrying a copy of the paper under their arms and some held up copies for the television cameras. The credit belonged to Tony Iannacio the Guy who a helped liberate delivery vehicles during world War ii. Iannacio by then a regional manager was watching the an news at the press club when word broke that the hostages were free and on their Way to hell Nikon a in Greece. Iannacio booked a Call to a colleague in Athens and instructed him to get a copy of the commemorative paper to each former hostage. A Are you kidding a the worker in Greece shot Back. A can you imagine the Security they re going to have around that plane a Iannacio switched to greek and after a Brief conversation returned to his table. A a he la see what he can do a Iannacio said. So it was that the former hostages stepped out onto the Rhein main Tarmac with stars and stripes in hand. The feat May not have ranked with stealing count Cianos car but it was great publicity nonetheless. Iannacio Iannacio retired to Clarksville tenn., in 1983 after More than 40 years with the stars and stripes. Sherman the a a if 11hs a so near and yet. America s 51 Ixmael a at cd throw Alt hat appeared a it be their Jitt Dir of Captivity monday with the to Liesem of Kirchn taht the �1> Holdup to a adm i month a iranian hand Laic Mon a it aft a of it it took weeks for the clamor to finally die Down. The following fall. Wood began to lose weight at an alarming rate and he underwent tests at an army clinic. On the Day he was to get the results Wood went into a diabetic coma suffering massive gland and kidney damage. He died two Days later at the age of 24. Those who knew or. Wood still miss his gentle nature and ready smile. Bob Wood was a Pudgy Good natured reporter the army assigned to stripes in 1983. Wood did no to have much experience but he had a clean writing style and seemed willing to tackle anything so the editors sent him out to help cover the annual reformer exercise. It was there hanging out in the exercises information Bureau that Wood heard about american troops who were digging big holes in a German pasture. A might make a Good feature a he reasoned and off he went to find the unit. The soldiers in fact were practising the mass burial of . Casualties the first time the technique had been tested in a reformer exercise. Woods feature a fairly innocuous piece of about 12 column inches ran on Page 9. And then the German press got hold of it. Within hours Woods Story was being beamed around the world accompanied by angry comments from Germany a opposition party. Mass casualties meant weapons of mass destruction the politicians said demanding that the United states explain Why it was practising for nuclear War without consulting its allies. As the state department began damage control Wood was being interviewed by the new York times. Wood a they called me or. Wood on second reference a the Young stripes reporter told friends. A no ones Ever called me or. Wood stripes ran into new censorship problems in january 1984 when it was banned from printing stories on Gunter Kiessling a German army general who had been forced into Early retirement a a ,. _ for allegedly 3 frequenting v j homosexual bars. Kiessling a Deputy nato commander under . Army Gen. Bernard Rogers denied the charges and went to court to get Back his commission. The Story received wide play in German newspapers As Well As the International Herald Tribune time Magazine and other publications. However Rogers Deputy at european Conul Headquarters Gen. Richard Lawson ordered stripes not to run it. Noting that news reports on Kiessling had been a highly speculative and sensationalistic a Lawson announced that running the Story in stripes would be a detrimental to the Good order and discipline of . Troops. Word of the gag order quickly made its Way to Joe Fleming the former world War ii Striper continued on i i 52 Nixon resigning saturday april 18, 1992 50th anniversary special edition a Page 51
