m NOME NUGGET
OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA —MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
VOL. LIX No. 8 NOME, ALASKA, FRIDAY, JANUARY 18, 1957 Per Copy—15^
All 12 Crewmen Killed in Crash of
B-50 Weather Observer at Eielson
FAIRBANKS (Jt-An Air Force!
B-50 crashed on takeoff from Ei
elson Air Force Base near here
yesterday, killing all 12 crewmen
aboard.
The plane was starting on one
of the regular weather observa
tion missions carried on in the
north. The. plane, attached to the
58th Weather Reconnaisance
Squadron, was blown to bits in
the crash.
Eielson base is about 26 miles
from Fairbanks. The crash was
about five miles from the field.
It was 17 degrees above zero.
2nd Division Legislators
Leave For Juneau For
Session of Legislature
Legislators are taking off this
week end to take up residence in
Juneau for the session which
starts Jan. 28.
Sen. John McNees and family
left today and will have their two
children with' them.
Rep. and Mrs. von der Heydt
are to depart Saturday, and Rep.
Clinton Gray leaves on Sunday.
Sen. N. W. Faster and his fam
ily expect to leave for the cap
ital on Wednesday.
It is reported that Sen. Edith
Bullock will go directly to Ju
neau.* Sen. Wm. E. Beltz was
last heard from in Unalakleet.
According to the Fairbanks
paper Rep. Eben Hopson will
leave Barrow on Jan. 21 “to go
down to Juneau to speak, as he
he has lets to complain.”
Chas. D. Jones also left to
day for Juneau for the meeting
of tiie Legislative Council which
immediately precedes the open
ing of the legislature.
WAS HIS FACE RED!
LAGUNA BEACH, Calif.,
Oooops!
When officials of the Laguna
Beach High School set out to find
who turned in a false alarm that
emptied the entire school, they
found red-faced Fire Chief Ho
mer Mann.
It was like this, mumbled the
fire chief. He was inspecting a
fire alarm box in the gymnasium
Wednesday, when all of a sudden
The B-50 is a Boeing-made#
four-engine bomber, converted to
weather observation purposes.
Weather flight are carried on
from fiielson both over the North
Pole and far to the southwest of
Japan.
The last previous crash of one
of the^ B-50 weather' planes was
last September along the Susitna
River. Eleven men died in the
wreckage. It came after a long
record of safe flying on the
weather runs.
The Pentagon announced last
night the names of 12 crewmen
who were aboard the plane.
The 12 men were:
Capt. Robert E. Eichelberger,
plane commander; Capt. William
O. Spil, pilot; Capt. Harold W.
Bales, navigator; 1st Lt. Ralph L.
Sampson, navigator; 1st Lt. Rob
ert E. McGough, navigator; 2nd
Lt. Bobbie H. Spencer, navigator;
M/Sgt. Woodrow B. Russell, flight
engineer, all seven with wives in
Alaska;
Airman 1/C John W. Cramer,
student crew chief, wife in Pough
keepsie, N.Y.; Airman 1/C Don
ald W. Dodds, dropsonde operator,
Pottsdam, N.Y.; Airman 2/C Rob
ert C. Glenn, radio operator, of
Milford, Utah; Airman 2/C Thom
as F. Patterson, crew chief, of
Cedar Springs, Mich.; Airman
3/C Roger D. Sigmon, GM radio
operator, of Tarpon Springs, Fla.
B-57 CRASHES AT
BIGGS AIR BASE,
KILLING TWO MEN
EL PASO, Texas, Wl—A B-57
ibomiber crashed while landing at
Biggs Air Force Base near here
yesterday, killing its two crew
men and injuring a civilian.
The Air Force identified the
dead as:
1st Lt. Russell Earl Hanson, 24,
Cudahay, Wis.
1st Lt. Thomas H. Higgins, 24,
Wallad Lake, Mich.
* Gordon Jordon of El Paso, a
civilian employe was injured.
The huge plane, attached to the
first tow target squadron here,
smashed into the motor pool, de
stroying two trucks and damaging
several. others.
Police Can’t Prove or Disprove Abduction Story
Of Marie McDonald; Case Goes to Grand Jury
LOS ANGELES, UP)—Marie Mc
Donald, emerging teary-eyed from
a grand jury hearing, blamed dis
crepancies in her kidnap stories
on sedatives and a state of shock.
The case was handed to the
jury when the police department
announced that it was unable to
prove or disprove Marie’s story.
She repeated for newsmen yes
terday a little of what she said
she told the Los Angeles County
grand jury investigating the case:
‘T was in a state of shock when
I made the statement in Indio,”
she said, “and I never had a
chance to correct it.” She said
she had previously been given
sedatives.
A
She didn’t say what the dis
crepancies were.
It was at a hospital in Indio,
a small desert city 150 miles from
Los Angeles, that the blonde ac
tress first told her story of being
abducted from her home by two
swarthy men.
Later she re-enacted her story
of the kidnaping at her Encino
home as police cameras filmed
the scene. She said that the jurors
asked her about details of the
first version. They were “very
kind,” she said, adding:
“I’m glad to clear up these so
called glaring discrepancies in my
statement taken in Indio.”
The jurors took evidence for
almost nine nours, then adjotrned
without action until 10 a.m. next
Tuesday, when they will resume
deliberations on possible indict
ments.
Before she went before the
jury ftor a 3-hour and 10-m:ir.iute
appearance, Marie told newsmen
that “it’s my prayer that it will
issue John Doe indictments
against the two men” she ac
cuses of kidnaping her.
* But grand jury members said,
unofficially, that after receiving
instructions from a district at
torney’s representative the j ury
was unable to agree or. an indict
j ment.
‘Large Cracks’
In Foundation of
Communism Seen
GENEVA, UP)—Scott McLeod,
the U.S. State Department's ad
ministrator of security and con
sular affairs, said today that
“large cracks in the very founda
tions of international Commu
nism” are now visible in eastern
Europe for the first time.
McLeod was addressing the ex
ecutive board of the Intergovern
mental Committee for European
Migration which has moved more
than 100,000 Hungarian refugees
out of Austria on the way to new
homes overseas and in Europe.
“Already,” McLeod told, the
board, “approximately 2 percent
of Hungary’s population has re
jected in the most decisive fashion
possible Soviet Communism.”
McLeod said it was “particu
larly significant that such a large
proportion of those who have fled
are ydung students and workers.
“These are the very persons
that the Communists have tried
hardest to mold into their image.”
School Board Assn. Recommends
$800 Pay Raise for Alaska Teachers
And $20 Million for New Schools
PETERSBURG UP)—A pay raise
of at least $800 each for Alaska’s
teachers and a $20 million bond
issue to build schools in the ter
ritory were two of the proposals
that came out of the meeting here
this week of the Association of
Alaska School Boards.
The session closed Wednesday
with election of Keith Lesh of
Anchorage as president. He suc
ceeds John Coghill of Nenana.
The association voted to join the
national association and set its
next meeting for Fairbanks; in
September.
The Cordova American Legion
questioned the use of the text
book “Our Changing Social. Or
der.” Its objection was quashed
when Don Dafoe, commissioner
of education, said local boards
can choose textbooks with the
approval of the Textbook Com
mission.
The salary boost proposal, pre
sented by the Alaska Education
Assn., would cost an estimated
$2,950,000. The program would
increase the annual increment
from $125 to $200 and set higher
scales for head teachers, princi
pals and superintendents. Also
recommended was an improved
tenure law to provide better se
curity for teachers.
It was recommended that the
Territorial Board of Education
budget be kept at the requested
$12.9 million for the next bien
nium and that local school (boards
and districts be permitted to set
and collet their own tax millage
operating independently of the
city councils.
The boards endorsed the pro
posals of the Superintendents’
Advisory Council seeking more
taxes. This would raise the school
tax from $7.50 to $10 for all per
sons from 18 to 85. (The present
age range is 21 to 55.) It would
remit auto taxes to local school
districts, enact a boat tax to ben
efit schools, retain the present
tobacco tax exclusively for the
schools and consider a further tax
on liquor.
The territorial finance director
has cut the $12.9 million budget
request to $10.2 million.
Three B-52s Making
Nonstop World Flight
SAN FRANCISCO, (#—An Air
Force source here said three B-52s
on a globe-girdling nonstop flight
were to span the Pacific and
reach this continent at 9:52 a.m.
PST over Point Reyes, on the
Marin County coast north of San
Francisco.
All three will proceed to March j
Field at Riverside, Calif.
DOWNTOWN ANCHORAGE FIRE
DESTROYS FOUR LANDMARKS
SENATOR BELIEVES
CONGRESS WILL UP
POSTAL RATES IN 57
WASHINGTON, UP)—Sen. Carl
son (R-Kan) said today he be
lieves Congress will increase
postal rates this year.
However, the Kansan indicated
in an interview he wasn’t sure
the lawmakers would go along
with the $54 million annual in
crease requested in President Ei
senhower’s budget. Carlson is
senior Republican of the Senate
Post Office Committee.
Eisenhower did not spell out
how he proposed to get the addi
tional revenue, explaining he
would leave that for a later mes
sage.
But administration officials
have said Congress will be asked
to boost the letter rate from 3 to
5 cents an ounce.
1 ANCHORAGE, [fft—Four An
chorage landmarks in the down
town business district were de
stroyed last night by a fire which
raged out of control for several
hours, threatening other struc
tures in the area.
Heavy smoke, held to the
ground by a thick fog, and icing
of hose lines in the 5 to 8 degree
weather, hampered firemen as \
the flames ate thru a saloon, a
market, floor covering place and
damaged an electrical supply
store.
One firefighter collapsed from
smoke inhalation and was treated
at a hospital.
One of the first places hit by*
the fire was the old Malamute
Saloon, center of much of Alas
kan folklore. It, like the other
three buildings, was a false-front
one story frame structure and of
fered practically no resistance to
the flames.
The buildings fronted on Fourth
Avenue between C and D Streets,
about a block and a half from the
city hall and other important
buildings.
Cause of the fire was not de
etermined immediately, extent of
the loss could not be estimated,
altho unofficial sources said it
probably would run “well over a
hundred thousand dollars.”
Much of the efforts of the fire
men was devoted to saving ad
joining structures, including the
old Union Club, a widely known
bar and card room.
At the Union Club bar, patrons
refused to be panicked into the
cold. They kept to their drinks,
with full confidence in the fire
men. The confidence was justi
fied.
Secretary Seaton
Due Nome Jan. 29
WASHINGTON, (#—Secretary
of the Interior Seaton will leave
Washington Jan. 24 for a trip to
Alaska under plans now being
completed, informed sources said
Wednesday.
The plans call for Seaton to go
by way of Seattle and to arrive at
Anchorage the afternoon of Jan
uary 25. He wall go to Seward.
Jan. 26 and Fairbanks Jan. 27.
He is expected in Nome on
Jan. 29 for a very brief visit. He
is to be acompanied by Anthony
J. Lausi, director of the Office
of Territories; A. M. Edwards,
assistant solicitor for the Division
of Territories. Leola Tise, secre
tary to Seaton is also in the party.
Arrangements are now being
made with representatives of
civic organizations to hold a
luncheon for the party and pre
sent the problems of this area in
a well unified manner. A forma
tive meeting is planned for this
week after which speakers and
committees will be named.
Some side trips may be made
from Juneau, with the secretary
scheduled to be at Ketchikan, his
last stop in Alaska, Feb. 1.