/OLUME LIV Virginia Military Institute, Lexington, Virginia, Friday, April 5, 1968 Number 23 Conservatives Stand To Gain In 'Choice 68'

If anyone makes a killing! through CHOICE 68, the National ; Collegiate Presidential Primary, it could be the campus conservatives. Although caricatured endlessly as dedicated young fascists obsessed with the mirage of exterminating insidious communism and related socialist end products, the fact re- mains that as a semi-professional political machine in the narrow, conventional sense of the word, the student right is unequaled. National Publicity This professionalism has devel- oped, paradoxically enough, as a result of the incredible publicity that student leftists have received from the national press. Their THE CORPS RETURNED to find the flags again at half mast—this large and usually garish demon- time for Kenneth Michael Frick. 1968, a civil engineer and varsity strations have rudely thrust the athlete from Ford City, Pennsylvania. MAJOR GENERAL ROBERT COFFIN, the Deputy Chief of R and less flamboyant conservatives far D for the Army, spoke last Tuesday in Kilboume into the background—where, in Hail. The General visited VMI to participate in the First Class the leftist scenario, they vegetate Lecture Program. in deserved obscurity. Actually, this guise of consei-va- Mike Frick Slain tive anonymity is deceiving, for the vitality of the student right rests in its dedication to the demo- Gen. Coffin Talks cratic process. Student power for conservatives does not entail the On Spring Leave leftist course of direct or militant social intervenation regardless of On New Weapons law and order. It involves instead, Cadet Mike Frick was shot and finally escaped. He surrendered to power gained and administered killed early last Saturday morning police on Saturday. One co-ed stat- through accepted formulas and es- by KEN WILSON artillery weapons and communica- near Mercer, Pennsylvania. ed that Batley "kept telling us all tablished structures—student gov- AFC Correspondent tions systems. The first classman, a native ol night that he would try to get us ernment, for instance, and national Last Tuesday afternoon the Arm- Armored Vest Fo(rd City, Pennsylvania, w-as vi^i out of it." student organizations such as the ed Forces Club sponsored a lec- On a less grandiose scale, the lag his home over Spring furlough Search Ends Young Americans for Freedom. ture by Major General Robert F. General spoke of the development of a type of "armored vest" for use when the tragedy occurred. He had A massive thirteen ?itate search Campus Conservatives Coffin, Deputy Chief of Research by fighter pilots and infantrymea left VMI early on a Dean's List fur- ended Monday night when six state So while the leftists picket, agi- and Development of the army. on point in Vietnam. He explained lough. troopers and four FBI agents con- tate, the student conservatives try The lecture, given in the new Kilbourne Hall auditorium and ad- that there are nearly five thous- Abduction verged on an abandoned farmhouse to pack the polls and churn out dressed to the First Class members and different projects under the At about 10 PM Friday, Marcli containing the three fugitives. La- the vote. It's a simple, direct pro- of the Armed Forces Club, took R&D program concerning the 29, Cadet Frick, and high school tter, a fifth man was arretted for cess, almost mechanical in fact, place during Military Duty. development of whole new weap- friend Richard Dragan, and two co allegedly serving as an "accessory But that, after all, is how elections The General briefly outlined the ons systems, and the prefection of eds (from Slippery Rock State Col- after the fact." are won—and campus conserva- features and advantages of several small individual pieces of equip- lege) were abducted by four men Ford City High School tives are out to win CHOICE '68. of the weapons being tested or ment. after the couples had accidentally During his senior year at Ford Their chances of doing so are not perfected for use in the specialized General Coffin was quick to ex- witnessed a burglary. The two City High School, Kenneth M. Frick as minimal as some liberals would warfare of Vietnam, as well as for plain the relationship of civilian young men were forced into the attracted the notice of VMI coach like to believe. For the politics of more conventional warfare. His industry to R & D. He pointed out trunk of the kidnapper's car. The Gary McPherson. After a visit to the right today are more the poli- lecture included discussions of that the two are not in competition girls were made to sit up front. Lexington with his high school tics of charisma than any other such topics as new types of heli- but rather use each other's facili- Later, Frick was taken out of the coach, McPherson noted that "Mike political wing on the American copters and gunships for air mo- ties for the testing and perfection car and made ito walk away with wa? impressed by VMI." On the scene. In '64 it was Barry Goldwat- bile operations, and branded out of equipment. Often, as in the case two abductors carrying shovels and basis of this favorable impression er who hypnotically swayed cam- into briefings on the new air de- of the new communications net- a gun. Thereafter the cadet wa« and his outstanding high schoo' pus conservatives, and this year fense systems, armored vehicles. See GEN. COFFIN Page 2 killed and buried in a shallow reputation in , foDtball and the prophet's mantle rests on the grave in an abandoned strip mine . Mike was offered an shoulders of Ronald Reagan. Any Three Escape athletic scholars.hi.p which he at' sizeable student mobilization be- Subsequently, the remain'rt cepted. Frick's academic recon-l hind Reagan will do the liberal three were taken to a farm house was another factor. A member of cause severe damage, and most where Dragon was tied to a chair his school Student Council he was campus conservatives know it. upstairs and the two girls as«a'>lt elected into the National Honor Fragmented Liberals ed. Through the help of one of Society and ranked in the tap 10', A glance at the CHOICE 68 bal- men, Gary Lee Batley, the trio of his high school class. lot would tend to justify optimism. Enters yMI Those liberals dissatisfied with Cadet Frick entered VMI as a Lyndon Johnson's performance as civil-engineering major and was a chief executive have several ex- member of both the varvrty base- tremely attractive candidates from ball and basketball teams. He be which to choose. Predictably longed to both the Newman Club enough, the liberal vote for presi- and the American Society of Civil dent will jjrobably be e.xtensively Engineers for three years. A Dean's fragmented with no overriding nu List vtudent, he was offered a job merical superiority being enjoyed by Bethlohem Steel Coro. He re by any single candidate. mained, quite deliberately, a pri Conservatives, however, can ral- vate throughout his cadetship. ly in convincingly heavy numbers Last summer he coached a hiab around Reagan. True, some ex- school league basketball team in tremists will back Wallace, and Ford City. He had been es')eciillv more moderate conservatives will interested in basketball at VMI support Ni.xon. But the bulk will even though injuries ulagiied him vote for Reagan. The result could throughout his cadetship. be a surprisingly authoritative con- Mike is surviv-ed bv his parents servative victory, one that would Mr. and Mrs. Joset^h Frick. an older rock the leftists more than any- brother, Robert, 25, and a younger thing else. THE PORTRAIT of General Charles Evans Kilbourne, '94. has re sifter. Sherry. He had planned to If the liberals and moderates go cently been moved from Smith Hall to the new Military Science get married after graduation. their usual stumbling ways and Building—Kilbourne Hall. General Kilbourne was the sixth superin- KENNETH M. FRJCK (See KENNETH FRICK page 8) See CONSERVATIVES Page 3 tendent of VMI, serving from 1937 until 1944.