Trident protest at Kings Bay Sept. 6

Trident protest at Kings Bay Sept. 6
September 1997

The Kings Bay Nuclear Submarine Base at St. Marys, Georgia will see a protest gathering on Saturday September 6 to coincide with the commissioning of the 18th and last of the fleet of Trident Submarines, the $1.5 billion USS Louisiana. The Trident II program cost $36 billion.

These submarines are mobile sea based missile launch platforms, each carrying 24 Trident D5 missiles. Each missile has 14 warheads. These cold war holdovers are direct threats against population with surprise launch capacity from offshore of whatever chosen adversary/target, and were seen as highly destabilizing to disarmament talks because of their covert capability.

Then there is the inexcusable cost of producing such a weapon. The Metanoia Community had been spearheading the efforts at King's Bay for over 10 years, and will for this event as well. The base is planning a "New Orleans" type celebration for the commissioning of the USS Louisiana; the protest "will attempt through signs, leaflets, and our presence to question national priorities that ignore 'the least of us'.

The protest will be Saturday Sept. 6 from 10 am-noon, followed by a group picnic at the nearby Sugar Mill park on Spur 40, 1/2 mile north of Kings Bay Road protest site. Protesters' vehicles will be able to park there prior to the protest, then walk from the main gate to the protest site. To quote the organizers: 'Will we make a choice for the future or we will continue to blindly support the "military industrial complex: as just one more example of corporate greed, corporate welfare and "pork barrel" politics as usual?'

For more information call Metanoia at 904-262-5071. Kings Bay, Georgia is located just across the Florida line off of I-95, about 2 1/2 hours from Gainesville. The Gainesville Chapter of Veterans for Peace regularly support these events, and invites your participation.