St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 16

3 SEP 2 31990- 0 3C SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 1990 ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH Student Insurance Covers Drugs INDEPENDENCE, Mo. (AP) A new drug-treatment insurance plan being used in the Independence School District may be the first in the country and is being praised by parents and school officials. "I think it's just another way we can help kids," said Robert Duncan, vice principal at Palmer Junior High. "We're trying to respond to a growing concern." The Independence Plan, begun in October 1989 in cooperation with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City, ensures counseling and treatment for students with alcohol or drug problems.

Previously, those students faced a 90-day suspension, and treatment was the family's responsibility. Officials of the Kansas City School District also would like to adopt the program when they get the money. In St. Louis, the public school system does not have a drug-treatment insurance program for students. Blue CrossBlue Shield of Missouri based in St.

Louis, doesn't offer such insurance. Independence officials designed the program to discourage alcohol and drug use, as well as to help those students already addicted. It works in conjunction with several drug education programs already in place. Most importantly, administrators say, it removes barriers to treatment the fear parents have of not knowing what to do when they suspect a child is using drugs or alcohol, the fear that others will find out and that the costs will be high. The participants' names are kept confidential, and everything they say in counseling sessions stays there.

The program cost $55,000 last year, $47,000 of which was raised" through donations and The district saved attorney fees and other costs by eliminating suspension hearings before the Board of Education, and it gained state aid by keeping children in school. The district's special insurance policy with Blue Cross pays for the treatment, which could cost $75 10 $2,000, depending on the intensity and length of treatment. Last school year, 84 students participated in the program. The majority were referred, but four students volunteered and 10 students chose the program to avoid suspension. t-- Sic L- "i in At 50 Off, Our Custom Framing Sale Is Picture Perfect.

The destroyer U.S.S. Aaron Ward lying dead in kamikaze pilots during the battle for Okinawa the water after taking several hits by Japanese on May 3, 1 945. WWII Sailors Recall Kamikazes Survivors Of Battle That Killed 42 Gather For 'Homecoming' Sale the outset. But a third, carrying explosives, crashed into the ship, spraying flaming gasoline. The engine room and fire room were instantly flooded, according to Navy records.

Damage to the ship's steering gear forced it to maneuver in a tight circle. Amid flames and exploding ammunition, crewmen shot down three more Japanese planes. But one dived into the main deck, and another crashed into a bulkhead. The ship struggled to remain afloat during the night and was towed to port the next morning. Naval records indicate losses at Okinawa were greater than any other major World War II fleet action 30 ships sunk, 300 damaged and more than 9,000 men killed, missing or wounded.

The spirit of those fights was captured by author Arnold S. Lott in the book "Brave Ship, Brave Men," a chronicle of the Aaron Ward's battle. As crewmembers assembled to commemorate lost shipmates and hear an address by Navy Rear Adm. Brent Baker, talk turned to the Persian Gulf, Dyhrkopp said. World War II "convinced me that the U.S.

always must maintain a very strong defense," he said. "And if they have to revive the draft if we're going to defend this country the burden should be shared by everybody." Sold for scrap in 1945, all that remains of the Aaron Ward are memories and the ship's anchor, kept by parents of a crewman killed outside Japan, "One of the things that made this ship unusual was that the crew that put it in commission decommissioned it," said Dyhrkopp. The men of the Aaron Ward were joined by their skipper, Capt. William H. Sanders, Jr.

"We don't want the experience lost," Dyhrkopp said. "If you lose history, you're destined to repeat it." By Paula M. Davenport Post-Dispatch Special Correspondent For years, some crewmembers of the destroyer Aaron Ward suffered nightmares over an attack by Japanese suicide planes which turned their World War II radar picket ship into a flaming, floating junk pile outside Okinawa. About 365 men were assigned to the ship. Forty-two of them burned to death or were lost overboard in the 52-minute battle of May 3, 1945.

Last weekend, 80 Aaron Ward survivors and their families gathered for a "homecoming" at the Sheraton West Port Inn in west St. Louis County. "When you go through something like we went through together, almost everyone wants to get it out of their minds the first few years," explained Einar V. Dyhrkopp, now a coal broker in Shawneetown, 111., and a reunion organizer. "Then, as the years go by, you begin to be concerned.

You don't want the experience lost. You want to share what you went through, so people will have some idea of what wars are all about. It's not all glory. You want the story retold." A film crew from WSIU-TV, affiliated with Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, interviewed crewmembers last weekend for a what may become a documentary, Dyhrkopp said. At the time of the attack, Dyhrkopp was a 19-year-old fireman assigned to a boiler room, in the bowels of the ship.

"We'd been under air attack before, but nothing like this," said Dyhrkopp, whose black hair was singed to the scalp. Twenty-five suicide planes waged the offensive just before sunset. The Aaron Ward shot down two of them at Big or small, round or square, short or tall. No matter what size your picture, we can custom frame it perfectly. And with custom framing on sale, you can't afford not to make your picture perfect.

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