Sunday, October 3, 2010

Bangor Base: Disarmament of Nuclear Weapons



A year ago, Father Bill "Bix" Bichsel and four trespassed onto Bangor (Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor and Strategic Weapons Facility-Pacific). This Friday, they will be arraigned, and sentenced to possibly 10 years of prison and a $250,000 fine.
Bix has been a friend of my family's and community's for a long time. This is not the first time he has been in trouble. It is, however, the first time he has been in trouble with the workplace of my husband's parents. I was actually legally on base this Saturday, and was given a tour. I didn't mention my connection to Bix.

So what is so bad at Bangor that people are going to prison over?

"The Trident submarine base at Bangor, just 20 miles west of Seattle, is home to the largest single stockpile of nuclear warheads in the U.S. arsenal, housing more than 2000 nuclear warheads. In November 2006, the Natural Resources Defense Council declared that the 2,364 nuclear warheads at Bangor are approximately 24 percent of the entire U.S. arsenal. The Bangor base houses more nuclear warheads than China, France, Israel, India, North Korea and Pakistan combined."
"The base has been rebuilt for the deployment of the larger and more accurate Trident D-5 missile system. Each of the 24 D-5 missiles on a Trident submarine is capable of carrying eight of the larger 455 kiloton W-88 warheads (each warhead is about 30 times the explosive force as the Hiroshima bomb) and costs approximately $60 million. The D-5 missile can also be armed with the 100 kiloton W-76 warhead. The Trident fleet at Bangor deploys both the 455 kiloton W-88 warhead and the 100 kiloton W-76 warhead."

Also, Desmond Tutu has said about this group: “We know that nations need teachers, schools, books, drinking water, productive farm land, food and shelter. We do not need weapons of war, and we do not need nuclear weapons which threaten to destroy all of God’s creation."

What exactly did they do?
"The defendants entered Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor in the early morning hours
of November 2, 2009, All Souls Day, with the intention of calling
attention to the illegality and immorality of the existence of the Trident
weapons system. During the action they held a banner saying."Disarm Now
Plowshares : Trident: Illegal + Immoral", left a trail of blood, hammered
on the roadway and fences around Strategic Weapons Facility - Pacific
(SWFPAC) and scattered sunflower seeds throughout the base."

On the other side of it, the guards at the base were ordered to shoot on sight, and were very young men. THey were likely scared, and didn't want to shoot anyone. However, they also didn't know if these trespassers were planning on getting to the nuclear arms or not, or trying to set off any weapons. Which, to me, shows the danger of even having them.

It's really sad and mixed up and confusing.