Word: commandant
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...kicked in the face by one of the hijackers. The blow broke a blood vessel in his left eye that took eight days to heal. Later, Brown and three other captives were locked up for days in an underground room, 20 ft. square, which he believes was a command bunker. Brown, who kept a diary on folded white paper, got to be known as "the Coach" by his fellow hostages because he insisted that they all exercise each day. Brown's contingent devised a game of imaginary golf, playing mind shots on a course laid out verbally by Robert Trautmann...
...born mother Kaori last year by announcing that he did not want her to speak her native tongue when his schoolmates came to visit at their Culver City, Calif., home. "All his friends are American, and in his concept of himself he is American," sighs Kaori. The parents' poor command of English can prove awkward. Children are pressed into service for their immigrant parents in all kinds of circumstances: when the electric company sends a dunning notice, the landlord needs a lease signed, a policeman needs information...
Padilla, a genial, garrulous man of 53, first came to the U.S. in the '50s to escape the oppression of Fulgencio Batista, the dictator of the day. When Fidel Castro overthrew Batista in 1959, Padilla returned home and put himself at the command of the new regime, which sent him to London and Moscow as a correspondent for Prensa Latina, the government press agency. Gradually he became disenchanted; he saw the future of his country in the repressive atmosphere of the East bloc. Poems such as this reflected his unhappy feelings...
...Augean subway ("so loud and dirty"). Davidovich quickly fled to the apartment in Kew Gardens ("quiet, with trees and a fresh smell"). Perhaps the hardest thing to bear was her professional anonymity, the necessity of starting a career over again. "It was very difficult," remembers Davidovich, whose still limited command of English requires her to use an interpreter. "I was very famous in the Soviet Union. I had my public. I did not know if it would be good for me in the United States...
Although several elite brigades of counterinsurgency forces have engaged the contras with devastating effect, the government has not been able to move in for the kill. There are a number of reasons. Despite the assistance of several thousand Cuban military advisers, the Nicaraguan army suffers from "poor command and control," according to a U.S. military expert. Moreover, many Sandinista commanders prefer to stand off and lob rockets and shells rather than close with the enemy. Training is also slipshod: Nicaraguan draftees commonly enter the field after only two or three days of preparation...