™ NOME NUGGET
OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS__
VOL. LXII No. 150 NOME, ALASKA, MONDAY, DECEMBER 19, 1960 Per Copy 15*
Ten Men Injured
In Crash of Wien
Plane Sunday
A twin Beech plane of Wien
Airlines which made a special
flight to Northeast Cape yesterday
with mail and freight cracked up
just after take off on the return
flight. The ten men on board in
cluding the pilot, all were in
jured.
A military plane on an emer
gency flight from Cape Lisborne,
equipped with stretchers, realiz
ing the emergency, stopped in
Nome, dropped off its emergency
patient who was Fritz Awe. Pick
ed up Dr. John Barrow and nurse
Mariam Shaub and made the
flight to Northeast Cape where
all ten injured men were given
emergency treatment and brought
back here into the local hospital
about midnight.
In the meantime Nome resi
dents mobilized to assist and un
der the leadership of Dusty Rhode,
Jack Reed, Bob Oliver and Roy
Snyder recruited cars suitable to
carry stretchers. At the hospital
preparations were quickly made
to care for the injured. Assisting
the regular staff were Jo Ann
Conklin, nurse; Clarice Hardy,
helping on the charts, Allen Ry
lander and Roy .Conklin also as
sisted.
Wien Station Manager Pearse
Walsh had the highest praise for
the Nome volunteers, the hospi
tal staff, Dr. John Barrow, the of
ficers and men at Northeast Cape,
the pilot of the Air Force plane
which diverted to assist and even
its passenger who aided in the
handling of the stretchers.
Hospitalized are pilot Porter
Lockard, Thomas Quillius, Dan
Karmun, Phillip Brown, Robert
Reilly, Stephen Young, Charles
Reed, Richard Mohr, Gerald Wal
lace and Joe Gordon.
FAA inspectors from Fairbanks
and Fritz Wien left this morning
for Northeast Cape to determine
the cause of the accident which
occurred shortly after take-off
when the plane was at 500 feet
altitude.
The pilot sustained a back in
jury and Dan Karmun hurt his
wrist. Dr. Barrow declined to
make any statement as to the
condition of the passengers at
this time, but none are considered
critical, it has been reported.
Arriving at wo o’clock this
afternoon is an F27 with military
surgeons and staff to relieve Dr.
Barrow. After their arrival it will
be determined if the patients are
to be evacuated to the Elmendorf
Hospital.
Tony Schultz, veteran Wien
pilot was scheduled to arrive this
afternoon from Fairbanks with an
other twin Beech plane which will
keep the bush schedules.
SNIP 1 I !
MANILA tW — A man who saw
a neighbor woman whipping his
son took out his Bolo knife and
cut off her hand, police said Sat
urday. The woman died.
Aussies Pick French Mirage III
CANBERRA, Australia Ml —
j The Defense Ministry said it has
chosen French Mirage III jet
fighters over American Lockheed
F105s as replacements for 30 Aus
tralian Air Force Avon Sabres.
KK Public Library will be
closed on Saturday, Christmas
Eve. All over-due books should
be returned on Friday evening or
dropped in the box outside the
door of the library.
Aukruk Lanes
Bowling Alley To
Open Wednesday
Dennis Marquiss has announced
the opening date of the Aukruk
Lanes to be on Wednesday, at 10
a. m., although the grand opening
will be sometime in January.
Starting on Wednesday, bowling
shoes, and a limited supply of
free balls will be available as
well as a ball cleaning machine.
Mrs. Jim Schooler will operate
the snack bar which will also be
open on Wednesday.
Those who have not looked over
the new building and its facilities
will be pleasantly surprised at
the modern and well equipped
amusement center which has been
under construction this past sea
son.
Advanced Course In First
Aid to be Given Here
The Red Cross has announced
that an advanced course in first
aid will be given here sometime
between Christmas and Jan. 9
under the direction of Jo Ann
Conklin.
The purpose of the course is
to help many persons who have
had some first aid but not enough
to qualify for the instructors
course which is being given here
from Jan. 9 to Jan. 12.
Anyone wishing to get the in
structor’s rating in this important
Red Cross training must qualify
first with the advanced first aid
training. The exact date will be
announced later for Mrs. Conklin’s
class.
—
Three Alaskan
Electors Cast
Ballots for Nixon
JUNEAU, Dec. 19 UP) — The
State of Alaska came of political
age at 11:12 a. m. today.
At that minute, three grey
haired presidential electors cast
for the first time ever the state’s
three electoral votes.
All three Alaska members of
the Electoral College, elected Nov.
8, cast their vote for President for
Republican Richard M. Nixon and
their vote for Vice President for
Nixon’s running mate, Henry
Cabot Lodge.
The ceremony, an improvised
affair because the state’s election
code does not provide for the
casting of electoral votes, went
off smoothly in the courtroom of
Superior Court Judge James von
der Heydt.
Charles D. Jones of Nome was
the first to cast his ballot for
Nixon. Then Sylvia Ringstad of
Fairbanks cast her ballot for the
unsuccessful Republican candi
date. Mrs. Ringstad was followed
by M. D. Snodgrass of Palmer.
Despite the history-making sig
nificance of the ceremony, it took
less than seven minutes, includ
ing the swearing in of the three
electors by Judge von der Heydt,
a short talk by Gov. William A.
Egan and the actual casting of
the electoral votes.
The three electors cast their
ballots for Nixon and Lodge sepa
rately as some spectators watched
in silence.
Before the electoral votes were
cast, Egan told the three electors
they were taking “the final action
that points for all the world to
see that Alaska is truly, in all
ways, a sovereign state of the
United States of America.”
Kennedy Officially
Elected President
Of U.S. Today
WASHINGTON Iff) — Sen. John
F. Kennedy was officially being
elected President today by an
Electoral College that obeyed the
voters’ Nov. 8 mandate.
One elector jumped the traces,
but the loser of that one electoral
vote was Vice President Richard
M. Nixon the Republican nominee
—not the Democratic candidate
against whom some southerners
tried to organize an electoral re
bellion.
In Oklahoma, which Nixon car
ried, elector Henry D. Irwin de
finantly cast his vote for Sen.
Harry F. Byrd, D-Va., for presi
dent and Sen. Barry Goldwater,
R-Ariz., for vice president. Okla
homa’s other seven votes went
to Nixon and his vice presidential
running mate, Henry Cabot Lodge.
Irwin had telegraphed electors
in other parts of the country to
vote as he did.
Southern Democratic electors
were being urged by others to
vote for Byrd for president and
Sen. Strom Thurmond, D-S. C.,
for vice president.
But there had been no defec
tions among the Kennedy electors
as the various state meetings con
tinued into the afternoon.
After electors from 26 of the 50
states had concluded their busi
ness, Kennedy had 149 electoral
votes, Nixon 104, the Byrd Thur
mond ticket 14, and the Byrd
Gold water combination 1.
Illinois’ 27 electoral votes were
cast for Kennedy about noon. So
ended, apparently, any lingering
hopes by some Republicans that
the big state might be switched
to the Richard M. Nixon column.
By tonight, after the last of the
50 separate meetings of state
electors in their respective capi
tals, there should be no doubt
about the Democratic candidate’s
title.
But the exact size of his elec
toral margin—the one that counts,
under the constitution—may re
main in doubt even until the final
formality, the official tallying of
the electoral vote by Congress
in joint session Jan. 6.
Hawaii’s three electoral votes
will be cast both ways. A partial
recount in the newest state, which
had been certified as carried by
Nixon, put Kennedy 55 votes
ahead Saturday. A full recount is
expected.
Counting Hawaii’s three votes
for Kennedy and barring unfor
seen defections of some electors—
who are only morally bound to
support the winner of the popular
vote in their states—the count
at the end of the day should be:
Kennedy 303.
Nixon 219.
Sen. Harry F. Byrd 15.
At least 269 votes are needed
to win.
MAILING CROWD FORECAST
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (41 — C.
W. Abrams, assistant superin
tendent of mails here, issued this
Christmas mailing crowd forecast
for the post office lobby:
FRIDAY: “We can take care of
them. They won’t have to stand
in line.”
SATURDAY: “It will pick up
considerably.”
SUNDAY: “You won’t be able
to stir them with a stick.”
MONDAY MORNING: “All
heck will break loose.”
MONDAY AFTERNOON: “The
bottom will fall out.”
World’s Largest Aircraft Carrier Burns
In Brooklyn With Heavy Toll of Life
NEW YORK UP) — The world’s
newest, largest aircraft carrier,
Constellation, near completion at
the Brooklyn Navy Yard, was
turned into an inferno of raging
flames today.
A police official said the death
toll could exceed 100.
The fire started on the main
deck of the carrier in a tank of
jet aviation fuel. There were no
planes aboard, but the liquid was
being used to flush the ship’s
piping system.
In the first moments the fire
seemed trivial and under control.
Then suddenly it exploded out of
hand and ravaged the sleek mis
sile carrying carrier from stem
to stern.
At least 39 persons were known
dead, by police count—most of
them civilian workers aboard the
$250 million carrier. Hundreds
were injured.
More ominously, of 4,200 persons
aboard when the fire broke out,
an uncounted number were trap
ped below red-hot deck plating,
at the mercy of flames and dead
ly fumes, their fate uncertain.
“We haven’t any idea how many
people are down there,” said Adm.
CAB Says DC8 Jet
Was Off Course
In Friday’s Crash
NEW YORK (#) — A Civil
Aeronautics Board official said
today that the United Air Lines
jet involved in Friday’s airliner
collision “should not have been
over Staten Island.”
Philip Goldstein, chief of the
Safety Investigation Division of
the CAB, refused to say definitely
that the jet from Chicago was
“of course” at the time it col
lided with a Trans World Airlines
plane, but added: “You can con
strue it at that.”
The UAL plane in a “true ra
dar vector from the Preston
(N. J.) holding pattern,” Gold
stein said, “should not have been
over Staten Island.”
Goldstein spoke to newsmen
after an hour-long meeting of in
vestigating agency officials.
The investigators received,
Goldstein said, “four fairly good
statements” from among persons
who claimed to have seen the col
lision.
As to whether the TWA plane—
which crashed on Miller Field—
was in its proper area, Goldstein
replied: “According to the La
Guardia Field vector, it should
have been over Staten Island.”
Accurate witness accounts
would help to pinpoint the loca
tion of the collision and establish
which plane was on an errant
course.
As the Civil Aeronautics Board
pressed its inquiry, the exact total
of dead still could not be deter
mined.
All 128 persons on the jet and
on the Trans World Airlines super
constellation, were killed. Five
other persons were known to have
perished on the ground in Brook
lyn, where the jet plane crashed,
and at least two more were miss
ing and probably dead.
The total of 135 had fluctuated
because police were unable to
learn the whereabouts of all those
believed to be tenants of the
buildings smashed and burned by
the jet plane.
Schuyler Pyne, boss of the Navy
Yard. “They keep going down
there through the side and bring
people out. We just don’t know
how many more of them there
are.”
There were 4,200 men, most of
them civilian construction work
ers, on the job when the fire
started. Most of them escaped to
the upper flight deck and were
removed by crane lifts. Others
jumped overboard ito the East
River or were taken aboard
launches after going over the
side.
Asked if the ship could go un
der, Pyne said the river was not
deep enough to cover the ship at
the point where she stood. He
added:
“She could come to rest on the
bottom, but we don’t think she
will. There’s lots of margin for
safety.”
The fire at one point was be
lieved almost under control. It
raged furiously again, spreading
throught-out the length of the
1.047-foot, 60,000-ton craft.
“I never saw so much wood on
a steel vessel,” Fire Commissioner
Edward Cavanagh said.
He said hundreds of tons of
burning timber already had been,
torn out of the new ship and
thrown overboard, but the fire
blazed on.
The emergency was increased
to a 14-alarm fire, calling on aid
from all boroughs and increasing
the number of fire companies on
the job from 65 to 95.
Heavy snow, starting to fall
early in the battle against the
flames, hampered the operation.
It made the footing on decks and
piers slippery, and cut visibility
for fireboats and rescue craftt
maneuvering in the harbor.
The Constellation was described
by its builders, New York Ship
building Co., Camden, N. J., as
95 per cent complete. It was due
for commissioning in March.
Kennedy and Johnson
Work On Legislation
For 87th Congress
PALM BEACH, Fla. UP) — Presi
dent-elect John F. Kennedy and
the new administration’s No. 2
man, Lyndon B. Johnson, worked
today on a legislative program
for the 87th Congress convening
next month.
Kennedy and the Vice Presi
dent-elect conferred at length at
Kennedy’s Atlantic shore home
after Johnson arrived from his
home state of Texas early this
morning. Accompanied by his
wife, Lady Bird, Johnson traveled
from Austin aboard his own twin
engine plane.
The President-elect and John
son were to be joined late in the
day by two Democratic Congres
sional leaders—House Speaker
Sam Rayburn of Texas and Sen.
Mike Mansfield of Montana, in
line to succeed Johnson as the
Senate hajority leader.
The quartet arranged to hold
a news conference at Kennedy’s
home tomorrow. Meanwhile, re
porters had no access to the high
command group. And there was
no word of the conference pro
gress from spokesmen for the
president-elect.
Over the weekend Kennedy an
nounced that Elizabeth R. Smith,
Democratic national committee
women from Kentfield, Calif.,
will be Treasurer of the United
States in the new administration.