The World - News from July 17, 1988

A British brigadier general and a Danish lieutenant colonel drowned while attempting to rescue several children who were caught in rough surf off a beach south of Rome, authorities reported. A spokesman for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization Defense College in Rome, where the two victims were enrolled in a course, identified the officers as Brig. Gen. Russell Maynard, 48, and Lt. Col. Niels Erik Thorn, 47. The spokesman said the two officers and several colleagues and their families were on a beach at Fregene when the children got caught in the surf. Lifeguards and members of the beach party saved the children.