The Michigan Daily-Saturday, May 29, 1982-Page 11 FOR MOST, SPOR T IS 'ONLY A SPECTACLE' Soviet recruits not physically fit MOSCOW (AP)-A Soviet mechanized infantry battalion mustered recently for physical fitness tests and only five soldiers from one company showed up. Everyone else in the unit either went on sick call or volunteered for other duties, the Soviet Defense Ministry newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda (Red Star) said recently in an article criticizing the physical fitness of the country's military personnel. IT SAID one private took 15 minutes to complete the 1.8-mile cross-country run, four minutes slower than the minimum standard, and the company commander, identified only as Capt. Aitmukhametov, did even worse. "The testing commission waited 21 minutes at the finish line but the cap- tain never appeared," the newspaper said. "Results weren't any better in the other units." Despite a national program to train school-age youths in military skills, Soviet authorities admit that many recruits and career soldiers aren't physically fit. COACHES AND TRAINING facilities are lavished on the relatively small number of Olympic-calibre athletes while ordinary Soviet school children, citizens and soldiers are often shor- tchanged. "For most people sport is still only a spectacle," President Leonid Brezhnev said in his 1980 speech to the Com- munist Party Congress, calling for im- proved sports programs for the masses. A resolution adopted by the Com- munist Party and government last fall disclosed "serious shortcomings" in physical conditioning of draft-age workers and troops. THE DEFENSE MINISTRY was or- dered to "intensify physical training for servicemen and to develop army spor- ts." But recent articles in the state-run press have shown that fitness problems haven't been solved. Young men drafted at age 18or 19 for two years into the army or three in the navy normally are sent directly to ac- tive military units instead of going through basic training. In theory, the recruits have already learned target shooting, rifle maintenance, proper use of gas masks, first aid and other military skills in Soviet schools. The All-Union Voluntary Organization for Assistance to the Ar- my, Air Force, and Navy supervises the school and factory training programs. CONSCRIPTION MEETS the man- power needs of the Soviet Union's stan- ding armed forces-an estimated 3.7 million personnel on active duty, com- pared to 1.9 million in the all-volunteer armed forces of the United States. But Soviet newspaper reports have suggested that the necessary skills are lacking in many draftees. Krasnaya Zvezda's front-page report about lax standards in a mechanized in- fantry battalion-which wasn't iden- tified by name or location-suggested the standards weren't being achieved throughout the Soviet army. MOST OF THE battalion's officers wangled medical excuses to avoid the fitness tests, it said, and the few who did appear failed gymnastics requirements on the vault and bars. Index points to recession relief (Continued from Page 1) congressional action to trim potentially huge federal deficits. April's increase in Commerce's In- dex of Leading Indicators was the first since April1981 for the compilation of 10 individual economic indicators designed to show future trends in the economy. Commerce Secretary Malcoln- Baldrige called the gain "a welcome improvement." But he noted that figures measuring orders for new con- sumer goods and for new plant and equipment were still falling. "UNTIL THE indicators for homebuilding and orders for consumer and business equipment show clear signs of recovery it would be premature to draw any firm conclusions about the timing of a business upturn," Baldridge said. Sandra Shaber, director of consumer economics for Chase Econometrics in Bala Cynud, Pa., said, "we have been saying that the recession is close to bot- tom." The new report, she said, "offers at least some - and let me hedge that as much as I can - some evidence" that recovery could be near. She called the decline in orders "particularly ominous," and said she expects only "very slow growth and probably erratic ......_.1. _ 4., - . ......1, .l ..... 1.c - u eh Daily Photo by DEBORAH LEWIS Now you seehim With muscles rippling, this Ann Arbor jogger breaks out in front of the pack in an informal S.Fifth St. heat. He was later disqualified, however, for an infringement in the rules - he crossed before the "walk" signal. Houston police question oca suspeet Continued from Page 1) and they say they notified Houston authorities when Watts left the area. AFTER THE two Ann Arbor detec- tives arrived in Houston, authorities there raised Watts' bail from $80,000 to $200,000. But Corbett said yesterday that he does not intend to ask that Watts be charged with any of the 1980 murders. "At the present time, we do not have ample evidence to charge him with the, commission of those crimes," Corbett said. "This has been the most frustrating case (I've had) in 28 years of police work," Corbett said. WILLIAM Delhey, Washtenaw County prosecutor, said the trip to Houston by the two Ann Arbor detec- tives did not produce any new develop- ments in the case. "I discussed it with the police Tuesday and today (Friday), and I don't believe anything new has come up at this point," he said. On Sunday, according to Houston police, Watts confronted a 21-year-old woman and forced her to take him to her apartment. Police said when he got into her apartment, he tied up her and her 18-year-old roommate with coat hangers, drew some water in the bathtub, and began forcing the 21-year- old's head underwater. The roommate escaped, jumped from a second-floor balcony, and called police. Police said the 21-year-old was hospitalized for several days, but the other woman was not seriously hurt. WATTS HAS been charged with at- tempted murder, kidnapping, and burglary in connection with the incident on Sunday. Houston police said the special homicide squad investigating the 40 murders was organized on Monday af- ter detectives determined that several women recently killed had all been customers at restaurants and bars in southwest Houston the night before their bodies were found. The head of the squad, Lt. Guy Mason, said the homicide team will study 40 cases dating back to January 1981. Twenty-six of those cases have been ruled homicides and the rest are considered "suspicious" deaths or disappearances. Campus police at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo said Watts is also a suspect in the Oct. 30, 1974 slaying of a WMU female student. Armed robbery in Argo Park A man was robbed at knife point yesterday morning at 5:30 a.m. in Argo Park, on Ann Arbor's north side, accor- ding to police. The man was accosted by three black males, knocked out, and robbed. The man was treated at University Hospital.