Word: frontier
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...exactly the kind of incident that could have triggered military alerts-or worse-on the volatile frontier between the two Koreas. With a burst of gunfire, North Korean forces downed a U.S. helicopter that had strayed across the demarcation line; within minutes three of the American crewmen lay dead and the one survivor of the flight was taken prisoner. To ward off yet another Korean crisis, the White House moved quickly to defuse the situation created by the accidental incursion and North Korea's brutal response...
...North Carolina, two career Marines charged that the Marine Corps unconstitutionally discriminated when it discharged them for being chronically overweight. Surprisingly, as though a fighting force no longer retained the right to prescribe fitness standards, the Corps backed down and reinstated them. Many such cases clearly fall beyond the frontier of the ridiculous. It is amazing, if laughable, that a young woman in New York City charged sexist discrimination when the Yankees turned her down for a job-bat girl-that would have required her presence in the men's locker room. And where, if anywhere, are the merits...
Hideous Fence. One of the patrol's main tasks was to note the progress the East Germans were making in renovating the hideous fence system they have built along the frontier to stop their citizens from escaping to the West. At one location, about 30 soldiers -guarded by other troops, in standard East German fashion-were sinking concrete pilings, stretching mesh wiring and installing self-firing explosives. Apparently the old system, consisting of two parallel mesh-wire fences with a minefield in front of each, was not considered deadly enough. Thus "improvements" are being made, at a cost...
...system (see diagram), which has now been completed along roughly one-sixth of the frontier, the first fence has been eliminated, while a deep, concrete-lined ditch has been added. It is intended to thwart would-be escapees trying to crash the border in cars or trucks. West of the ditch is a minefield, then a new close-meshed wire fence that begins 3 ft. underground (to prevent tunneling) and rises 10 ft. above the earth...
Despite the overwhelming odds against success, East Germans still keep trying to beat the fence. Last year some 573 fled over the Berlin Wall and across the frontier; in the first four months of this year, an additional 204 made it to the West. But many fail. American patrols have had to watch helplessly as escaping East Germans have been gunned down by the border guards. Under strict orders not to violate East German territory, the G.I.s cannot do anything to help unless the escapees manage to reach West German soil...