Page "editorial" Paragraph 821

To the hills, girls

No one who has studied the radical Right can suppose that words are their sole staple in trade.

These are mentalities which crave action -- and they are beginning to get it, as Messrs. Salsich and Engh report on page 372.

Even in areas where political connotations are ( deliberately??

) left vague, the spirit of vigilantism is spreading.

Friends, a picture magazine distributed by Chevrolet dealers, describes a paramilitary organization of employees of the Gulf Telephone Company at Foley, Alabama.

`` If the day should ever come that foreign invaders swarm ashore along the Gulf Coast '', the account reads, `` they can count on heavy opposition from a group of commando-trained telephone employees -- all girls.

Heavily armed and mobilized as a fast-moving Civil Defense outfit, 23 operators and office personnel stand ready to move into action at a minute's notice ''.

According to Friends, the unit was organized by John Snook, a former World War 2, commando who is vice president and general manager of the telephone company.

The girls, very fetching in their uniforms, are shown firing rockets from a launcher mounted on a dump truck ; ;

they are also trained with carbines, automatic weapons, pistols, rifles and other such ladies' accessories.