Word: servicemen
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When Lieut. Alan Shields of the Royal Navy maneuvered his black Capri through rush-hour traffic in Belfast last week, he knew he was in a combat zone: the Irish Republican Army had recently stepped up its terrorism, especially against British servicemen in Northern Ireland. What the 45-year-old officer did not know was that his car had been booby-trapped with explosives. As he pulled away from a traffic light, a powerful blast tore through his car, incinerating Shields and the car in a ball of flame...
Less than 72 hours earlier, in Ballygawley, 40 miles west of Belfast, another I.R.A.-triggered explosion blew up a bus filled with British servicemen returning from furloughs to duty in Northern Ireland. Eight died and 27 were injured. So far this year the I.R.A. has killed 27 British soldiers, including four in Western Europe. The total last year: three. Not since 1979, when 38 soldiers were killed in Northern Ireland, have the outlawed guerrillas been so effective...
...I.R.A. hopes that the mounting toll of servicemen will force Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to withdraw her country's 10,400 troops from Northern Ireland. But the latest violence has infuriated the British and increased the pressure on Thatcher to break the back of the I.R.A. once and for all. Cutting short a family vacation in Cornwall, the Prime Minister ordered a full review of her government's options and told reporters, "Nothing has been ruled...
...controversy over Senator Quayle's military service has recalled one of the shabbier aspects of American involvement in Viet Nam. Middle-class youngsters often managed to duck military induction, while society's less privileged members did most of the fighting. Some 76% of the 2,150,000 servicemen sent to Viet Nam from 1965 to 1973 came from working-class or lower-middle-class backgrounds. Roughly 25% were from families with incomes below the poverty line. Yet college-educated young men stood a 12% chance of being shipped off to the war, in contrast...
...said it was possible that other U.S. servicemen could have been at the club. Navy officials were trying to confirm the number of injured U.S. military personnel, Haney said. He said the initial report of a dead sailor was the result of confusion following the blast...