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Show A4 The Salt Lake Tribune NATION Sunday,April 27, 1997 Evenat 90, VA Pharmacy Worker Pilot’s Actions Remain a Mystery to Air Force Has NoIntention of Leaving Job BY QUANE KENYON THE ASSOCIATED PRESS BOISE — FrancesRiceis an extraordinary federal employee. She comes to work every day. Sherarely calls in sick and never takes vacations. She just likes to work, and she has no intention of stopping. Rice also is 90 — believed to be the oldest of 240,000 full-time Department of Veterans Affairs employ- ees. “T've just got employeesfill 1,300 to 1,400 mail prescriptions each day. She sees no need to take vacations or even time off for holidays. I don’t careif I go,” she says. Rice had pneumonia in February 1996 and was out sick about two weeks. But before that, “I wouldn't be afraid to say I've missed about 10 days since 1949.” When she reaches the maximum leave time she can accumu- late, she is quick to give some to other employees. “Two weeks ago, I gave away 80 hoursto a girl who has to have an to be doing something, not operation,” she said.-“If people sitting give it away.” around,” she said About 150 co-workers, relatives and Frances Rice friends helped celebrate her 90th birthday last week. Up until the time the party started, it was just another working day for Rice. Veterans Affairs Secretary Jesse Brown telephoned during the party, calling her “an inspiration to us all.” She also got a framed letter from the director of the Boise VA Hospital commending herservice. Rice nas had an unusual work history. Starting in the 1940s she volunteered one day a weekat the veterans hospital in Boise, usually in the gift shop. She cleaned pri- vate homes most of the time she wasn't at the hospital. After 20 years in the gift shop, she drifted to the pharmacy, where she volunteered to help with the mail, including mailing out prescriptions. Eighteen years later she was hired full time, and she has been thereeversince. Veterans Affairs has no mandatory retirement age. Rice rides the bus to work every day and spends her eight-hour shift handling the mail and helping the Boise VA pharmacy’s 34 areill or short oftime, then will The South Dakota native said Depression-era hard times on a Dust Bowl farm led to her work ethic. She and her husband, Max, came to Idaho in 1933, and for years they ran the hot-lunch pro- gram at a Boise school. Max died in 1982. Now her son Doug of Garden Grove,Calif., is thinking aboutretiring, and daughter Brenda, who lives near Portland, Ore., already has retired. But not Rice. “Until I can't walk, as long as I can doit, I'm going to doit; I really am,” shesaid. Her co-workers don’t think of her as 90 years old. Pharmacist Garry Graham, who started working with Rice in 1965 — even before he went to pharmacy school — says she has few problems, “She’s just worried about mak- ing a mistake,” he said. Frank Talboy, the hospital's pharmacy director, says sheis a fabulous worker. “She’s an example for all of us,” he said. “Her attitude is great and she’s full of enthusiasm. She works hard all the time, she’s always looking for something to do and she’s easy to get along with.” “You wouldn't ever think of her as 90 — if you think of 90 as old,” Talboy said. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS EAGLE,Colo. — A search team appears to have answered the question of where an Air berg.” ir Force officials have said they have no before crashing remains unsolved. Button’s A-10 Thunderbolt peeled off without explanation from a training formation over Arizona, April 2 and headed for Colorado. Aircraft pieces were first discovered last Sunday,and whatare believed to be the frag- evidence that Button was anything but a mod- el officer andpilot. “Discussions with people who knew Button will continue,” White said. “As long as the All three members of a search team found search for the plane has dragged out, and as hard as that’s been for us, the research into how and whythe plane gotthere will go on for much, much longer, and will require much, much morepatience because we don't want to the remains among the debris of Button’s plane on a high mountain slope, said Staff Sgt. jump to any conclusions prematurely.” Mostof the Air Force search team departed mentary human remains of Button were found Friday. for friend, mother or another military calls “national assets” turned out to beright on the money. “We had flown over it a hundredtimes,” Running said. Seen from a Huey helicopter that could not slow down below 40 knots at risk of crashing, it was easy to see why the debris was missed. Muchofit was the samecolor as the brown rocks on thecliff. Meanwhile, Air Force and Guard officers andenlisted men are proud of their work. Ev- four, 500-pound bombsareat the crashsite. The A-10 crashedonly a few flying minutes from an Army National Guard high altitude gling from a helicopter. Though the remains are thoughtto be Button’s, positive identification must wait until training center. they are tested at the Armed ForcesInstitute Guard helicopters will continue training eryone had known for at least a week thatif Button was up there, he could not have sur- of Pathology in Washington, said Capt. Andy White, spokesman for Davis-Monthan Air missions overthe crash site looking for bombs, vived. Oneof the TH-53 crew muttered to a reporter: “It was a piece of cake.” In the tradition of and their recovery or neutralization could begin soon after they are located. The U.S. National Forest Service has closed the major access points to the site in the Holy Cross Wilderness Area. Force Base in Tucson,Ariz., where Button was based. The process takes 48 to 72 hours. Even if the remains are proven to be Button’s, 2 great deal of mystery remains. Maj. Gen. Nels Running, the search’s com- For Running, whoretires Aug. 1 at age 65, the old pilot's expression “there are many bold pilots and many old pilots, but no old, bold pilots,” a colleague rejoined: “If that cake is the dessert, I’m passing.” Feds vs. Locals in Control: Who Will Win the Wild West? GANNETT NEWSSERVICE WASHINGTON— Intherural West, the federal governmentoften seems as welcomeas a Sierra Club hiker in a lumberjack bar. So it’s no surprise that there isa move on among Western conservatives in Congress to transfer power overthousands of acres of nationalforests, deserts and other public land from the federal governmentto thestates. It’s called “local control,” and it’s all the rage amongpoliticians these days from Colorado to Ore- gon. But, in a debate hosted here activist William Perry Pendley, who said Western residents are sick of seeing their livelihoods destroyed by federal environmental laws thatrestrict logging, mining and livestock grazing. “I represent communities that are caught in the crosshairs of federal environmental policy,” said Pendley, president of the Denver-based Mountain States Legal Foundation. “For my friends, the issue is, ‘Hey, do we matter? Do we have any say? Oris it just the federal governmentand national environ- Thursday by the League of Con- servation Voters, supporters and opponents argued over whether mental groups deciding what's best for us?’ The people in the timber towns I work with want to workoutlocal solutions, but they the movementwill help the West or destroyit. aren't allowed to. That's why they're so frustrated and angry.” On one side was property-rights But Jim Baca, former director every three years. DON'T MISS OUT! 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But their attitude toward federal taxpayers is: ‘Give us yourland, give us your money, and leave us alone.’ Onething that both men agreed on: Congress is too timid to pass radical legislation that would transfer federal lands to the states in one feil swoop — although there have been isclated proposals to do just that with BLMproperty. A L Instead, Western conservatives will try to undermine federal land management agencies by giving them less money to do their jobs while allowing private interests more access to public property, Baca predicted. “These smaller things will add up to a weakeningof federal control in the Intermountain West,” hesaid. Deb Callahan, president of the League of Conservation Voters, said all Americans havea stake in the debate. “We need to investigate what local control really means for the environment,” she said, “Will states workin the bestinterests of eitizens or of major polluters? Will rick states take better care of the land than poorstates? 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In the end, the data provided by what the Colorado on Saturday morning, without solving another mystery — whether the plane's Keith Severance, a memberof the team. The remains were found 15 minutes after the team clambered down to the slope from a cable dan- year. Last given Summer, 1994. Thistestis given only once Silverplated 3-pc. dressersets “First the plane peels off from formation, then it flies 800 miles north and crashes among someof highest and craggiestpeaks in the country,” he said Saturday morning. ‘The Air Force took somefiak first because it could not explain Button’s disappearance, and later when sophisticated spysatellites and surveillanceaircraft could not seem to find his jane. own private mission to his “own private ice- Forcepilot crashed his A-10 attack jet high in the Colorado Rockies. But the mystery of why Capt. 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