ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, March 5, 1996 TAG: 9603050050
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: What's On Your Mind?
SOURCE: RAY REED
Q: I was going through my jewelry box and found an old POW bracelet I wore in junior high school. The name on it is Lt. Col. David Zook Jr., and the date he was last seen was 10-4-67. I wonder what happened to him. Did he die, or return, or is he still considered a POW?
B.H., Roanoke
A: Sorry, he didn't return.
Air Force Col. David Hartzler Zook Jr. of West Liberty, Ohio, is named on the wall of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
The pilot of an Air Force transport aircraft, Zook went down Oct. 4, 1967. He was 38 and married.
His date of death was officially recorded as April 28, 1978. He was considered a casualty of hostile action who died while missing. Zook's body was not recovered.
For others who might want to check out a name on one of those POW/MIA bracelets, here's how:
The Library of Congress has an extensive Vietnam-era POW file that's accessible on the Internet. Use this address: http://www.loc.gov/
The names on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, along with some information about the service members, are on America Online, keyword Wall.
Mail-order tax
Q: In recent years, the commonwealth has been attempting to collect the equivalent of sales tax on purchases made from mail-order companies out of state. This attempt has involved a new tax form in the income-tax booklet. Since this seems virtually impossible to enforce, it's natural to ask what the success rate has been.
R.S.J., Lexington
A: Taxpayers have responded, but in small numbers.
Last year, 9,733 Virginians paid about $303,000 in taxes under this form.
Virginia in 1993 began urging everyone to pay this 4.5 percent levy on their untaxed catalog orders. The first year, 15,093 people anted up $447,000.
This year's payment rate is running about the same as last year's, the Taxation Department said. The compliance rate isn't snowballing.
Virginia has scored some success on the other end of catalog transactions, though.
The Taxation Department sent letters to hundreds of mail-order companies in 1993 asking them to collect the tax. Sixty-four companies agreed to make the collections and returned $3.5 million to the state last year..
Penalty's in line
Q: A news report a couple of weeks ago about the punishment of the Virginia Military Institute ``rats'' (freshman class) for a late-night disturbance included confinement to barracks. Is this illegal? The cadets broke only the school's rules, not state or city laws.
J.M., Buchanan
A: This action is done with the consent of the governed.
When a student enrolls at VMI (or any other college, for that matter), the student agrees to abide by the rules of the institution and accept its penalties for violations.
Secondly, the barracks are not a jail. No barrier prevents a cadet from walking out.
Have a question about something that might affect other people, too? Something you've come across and wondered about? Maybe we can find the answer. Give us a call at 981-3118 or e-mail us at RoatimesInfi.Net
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