Hugs, chips for general

Press, 30 January 1982, Page 1

Hugs, chips for general

NZPA Vicenza, Italy The freed United States Army officer, Brigadier-Gen-eral James Dozier, hugged his wife,. Judith, and daughter, Cheryl, yesterday and exchanged belated New Year’s greetings, in an American military hospital in Vicenza, Italy! according to military sources. The sources said that both General Dozier’s wife and daughter had cried at the reunion.

Reporters were not allowed to enter the hospital’s northern V.I.P. wing. Mrs Dozier and Miss Dozier, aged 24, flew in from West Germany to join General Dozier, aged 50. He was rescued by Italian police -commandoes from his Red Brigades kidnappers, who had held him in the gang’s “people’s prison” in nearby Padua for 42 days. Earlier, the United States Ambassador to Italy, Mr Maxwell Rabb, had quoted

General Dozier as saying that he was “very proud of the way that his wife had reacted during the terrible period.” Mr Rabb talked with General Dozier twice by telephone after the release and then flew to Vicenza for a brief visit in person. General Dozier said, “Gee, I’m glad to see you,” when he was met by Major-Gen-eral George McFadden, the commander ■of the Allied base at Vicenza, as General Dozier stepped off the helicopter that had brought him to Vicenza from Padua. The first thing General Dozier requested was a barber to shave his six-week-old beard and mustache and to trim his hair back to its usual crewcut. - After ’ receiving a call from the President, Mr Reagan, General Dozier ordered a cheeseburger,. a large order' of French fries, annd a soft drink. Further report: page 6