The White Falcon - 13.01.1978, Page 1

Special program at theater 3 p.m. today
Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday Sunday
by TSgt Clarence E. Davis
Martin Luther King Jr., the son of a
minister, was born Jan. 15, 1929. He
was a gentle boy who would rather turn
his other cheek than strike back. He
also was bright. He skipped three
grades and was graduated from high
school at the age of 15 and from
Moorehouse College in Atlanta at 19.
Deciding to follow in his father’s
footsteps, Dr. King earned his bachelor
of divinity degree at Crozer Theologi-
cal Seminary at Chester, PA, and, in
1955, he was awarded his doctor of
philosophy degree at Boston University.
Then he moved to Montgomery with
his bride to assume his post as pas-
tor. Shortly after his arrival, the
bus dispute erupted and the civil
rights movement claimed him. He had
come to Montgomery, AL, to serve as
pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist
Church. He wound up with a pastorate,
encompassing all of black America.
Mrs. Parks takes dispute's brunt
If it had not been for Mrs. Rosa
Parks, the world might never have
heard of Martin Luther King Jr. It be-
gan as a routinely simple incident for
the southern town of Montgomery, but its
impact was to be felt for years across
the United States and, indeed, around
the world.
On Dec. 1, 1955, a black seamstress
climbed aboard a municipal bus on her
way home from a hard day's work in a
Montgomery department store. She took
her seat in the "colored" section, im-
mediately behind a part of the bus
usually reserved for whites.
After the "white" section filled up,
the bus driver ordered the black seam-
stress, Mrs. Parks, to stand so that a
white man could sit down.
The seamstress angrily refused, and
told the driver that, despite a state
law, she would not surrender her seat.
Because the amenities of Alabama
did not provide for a black woman to
sit while a white man stood, Mrs. Parks
was arrested.
The imprisonment of a respectable
black woman for maintaining her dignity
and the widespread resentment about
similarly accumulated frustrations
Quality of Navy
recruits questioned
In its recruiting, the Navy strives
to attract the most highly qualified
people available. Advances in technol-
ogy increase the demand for intelligent
people who can be trained to operate
and maintain the highly sophisticated
ships and aircraft in the Navy's inven-
tory.
But are we getting that caliber of
recruits? A recent study conducted by
the‘United States Office of Education
revealed that 22 per cent of American
adults cannot read well enough to
handle all the demands of daily life.
One estimate said that the overall
reading level for US males stands at
the ninth grade.
As far as the Navy recruits go, a
study of 32,000 recruits conducted at
the Recruit Training Center in San
Diego showed that 31 per cent of the
recruits who graduated from high school
read below the 10th grade level. Some
of those read below the fourth grade
level.
The problem shows up when these re-
cruits compete for advancement. The
reading level of the material they are
required to comprehend in order to be
advanced does not match their abilities.
Even the texts used by recruits in
boot camp are often above the compre-
hension levels. Those texts usually
range from 10th to the 12th grade
reading levels.
Advancement manuals average out to
a level of 12.6 years, and technical
manuals range from the 12th grade level
to the 14th.
What is being done to improve the
situation? For one thing, the Navy
is attempting to reduce the reading
grade level of its textbooks. This
is not only expensive but also there is
a lower limit to the degree of simpli-
city to which extremely technical manu-
als can be rewritten.
Another remedy which the Navy is
using is a remedial training program
at recruit training centers. These
programs are for those recruits who
read below the sixth grade level. For
those who read between the sixth and
10th grade levels, a program is being
designed to upgrade both reading and job
skill training.
FOR THEIR ONE-YEAR per-
fect attendance record
at the NATO base Chapel
Sunday School, Michael
Weed and Judy Fowler re-
ceived special awards
Sunday during opening
exercises at the Lower
School.
caused a 10-month boycott by 50,000
blacks, led by Dr. Martin Luther King
Jr., an obscure 26-year-old Baptist
minister.
Dr. King starts bus boycott
Dr. King persuaded the black citizens
of Montgomery to stay off the buses, in
a historic boycott that caught the
imagination of the world, and drew all
eyes to the provincial Alabama city and
its beleaguered blacks.
White law enforcement officers, city
officials and private citizens sought to
intimidate, harass and divide the
blacks, but to no avail.
One ancient black lady summed up the
general determination, as she trudged
along on the road, saying, "My feets is
tired, but soul's refreshed."
Preaching a doctrine of nonviolent
resistance, Dr. King told his followers:
"...nonviolent resistance is not a
method for cowards; it does resist...it
does not seek to defeat or humiliate
the opponent, but to win his friendship
and understanding." The minister of
love urged his followers to show love
toward their enemies and to withstand
their blows without striking back.
He counseled them to go willingly to
jail for refusing to accept the unjust
laws, since unearned suffering was es-
sentially redemptive and could bring
about change.
Kelly Ann May
first baby in
1978 on base
Making her debut as the first baby
born in 1978 at the Naval Station Dis-
pensary, Miss Kelly Ann May received her
own special banner.
Kelly took this honor Jan. 5 at 1:40
a.m., weighing 7 pounds and 10 ounces.
Air Controller Second Class Jeffrey
D. May and his wife, Kathy, are her
parents.
The Mays, originally from Mason City,
IA, have lived at Keflavik since Novem-
ber 1976.
AC2 May has served in the Navy three
and one half years and is presently
attached to the Air Operations Depart-
ment, Ground Control Approach Division.
According to Walter Hocketstaller,
clubs' management officer, the new
parents will receive a complimentary
meal at the Top of the Rock Club, in
honor of the occasion.
Blacks begin to change conditions
All over the south, black Americans
started to move toward changing their
conditions.
Dr. King made a call to many well-
known black pastors; they met In At-
lanta and formed the Southern Chris-
tian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
and elected King as their first
president.
As leader of SCLC, Dr. King led
nonviolent protests all over the na-
tion, disregarding his own safety.
His own people criticized him.
Black militants scornfully called
him the "white man's best friend."
But Dr. King never wavered from his
basic belief that love was the
black man's most powerful weapon.
Dr. King's courage won the admiration
of people all over the world. In 1964,
it brought him the Nobel Prize for
Peace. Characteristically, he donated
the $54,000 prize money to the civil
rights cause.
Dr. King came to national attention
when he and others climaxed their plans
with the now great march on Washington,
DC; 200,000 black and white Americans
came to the nation's capital from all
over the country to petition for free-
dom.
They gathered at the Lincoln Memorial
Continued on pago two
(photo by PHC D. L. Brookins)
FOR HER OUTSTANDING WORK at the Naval Station Dispensary, Vicki l. K.err re-
ceived a Superior Professional Performance cash award of $150 last week. The
award was presented by Captain Jack T. Weir, Commander Naval Forces Iceland/
Commanding Officer Naval Station Keflavik.