Ground Zero WA

The Ground Zero Community launched itself in 1977 with inspiration from Robert Aldridge, who quit his job at Lockheed directing the development of the Trident system's sea-launched first-strike capability, and in response to the US Navy plans to expand the Bangor base to accommodate Trident-class nuclear weapons warships. Protests were organized by GZ founders Shelley and Jim Douglass and others with as many as 1000 people attending at the height of the protests over the Navy appropriation of nearby farmlands for access roads to the enlarged base. Hundreds of protesters were arrested during these early years. Bhuddist monks from Japan participated regularly in memory of Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bomb victims.

The first Trident warship, the USS Ohio, arrived in Hood Canal in 1982 to a protest gathering on shore of several thousand people and a small boat flotilla that was kept away by US Coast Guard boats severing outboard gas lines and threats of fire-hosing.

Then the warheads began to arrive at Bangor on rail cars from the Pantex assembly plant in north central Texas. With the help of train buffs like Tom the likely route of the trains was guessed then confirmed by protesters living along the tracks and the Tracks Campaign was born. When a train would leave Pantex the word was spread up the line and protests to the White Train (initially the cars were white) met the train all along the way to Bangor.

At Bangor large protests took place just outside the base and frequently civil resisters sat on the tracks to block the trains from entering the Bangor Base.

PRESS KIT

Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action (GZ)
16159 Clear Creek Road NW Poulsbo, WA 98370
www.gzcenter.org
info@gzcenter.org <mailto:info@gzcenter.org>

About Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action

Founded in 1977, Ground Zero offers the opportunity to explore the meaning and practice of nonviolence from a perspective of deep spiritual reflection, providing a means for witnessing to and resisting all nuclear weapons, especially Trident.

We seek to go to the root of violence and injustice in our world and experience the transforming power of love through nonviolent direct action.

We are located on 3.8 acres in Kitsap County that shares 330 feet of fence with the Naval Submarine Base Kitsap-Bangor.

The land was purchased in December of 1977 by a collective of people, financed by donations from supporters and was incorporated as a land trust.

Presently, our community meets once a month. Many of us live and work in Kitsap County, have deep roots here and participate in the life of the greater community.

We network with and support the work of peace and justice groups in Seattle, Tacoma, Olympia, as well as other cities in the U.S. and Canada.

Ground Zero sponsors three annual actions at this Trident base. We commemorate Martin Luther King, Jr’s birthday in January, celebrate the original meaning of Mother’s Day, and say “Hiroshima/Nagasaki Never Again” in August.

We also form a Peace Fleet in Elliott Bay while the warships enter during Seattle’s annual Seafair Festival.

In August, 2007 we broke ground to replace our center that was destroyed by fire in April of 2005. The new center, permitted for occupancy in November 2009, is now the personal home for Jackie Hudson and Sue Ablao, also a place for the Ground Zero community to come together, and a place available for use by our neighbors, friends, and compatible organizations.

About Trident

Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor is located 20 miles west of Seattle on the deep waters of Hood Canal. It is the largest active nuclear weapons depot on the West Coast, housing an estimated 2364 nuclear warheads (.

Trident submarines are 560 feet in length. Each Trident submarine is equipped with 24 Trident II D-5 missiles. The U.S. currently deploys 14 Trident submarines with nuclear capability. Eight of these are now based at Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor.

The Trident submarines at Bangor are would be used in any nuclear attack, either as an isolated tactical assault on a specific site, bunker, or weapons location, or in a larger strategic attack. The Bangor-based submarines can launch their weapons in secrecy and operate near Middle East or Asian targets.

The Trident II D-5 missile stands 44 feet high and has a range of 4,600 miles. Each D-5 usually carries up to 8 independently targetable warheads; either the W76 (100 kilotons) or the W88 (455 kilotons). The W88 is the highest yield nuclear warhead in the U.S. arsenal and is the current warhead carried on all the Trident submarines. The bomb dropped on Hiroshima was 14 kilotons.

The U.S. Trident fleet currently deploys 1152 nuclear warheads on the D-5 missile.* The D-5 is capable of traveling over 1,370 miles in less than 13 minutes, allowing for a U.S. nuclear strike anywhere on Earth within 15 minutes.

Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor currently houses more nuclear warheads than England, France, China, Israel, India, Pakistan and North Korea combined.

Ground Zero Newsletters

Learn more about Ground Zero by reading our newsletters, published three to four times a year. Click here <http://gzcenter.org/newsletters/newsletters.html> to access all newsletters.

Ground Zero in the News

Building a Resistance to Nuclear Kitsap, in the Bainbridge Review, January 2009, <http://www.pnwlocalnews.com/kitsap/bir/lifestyle/37682729.html>

The Vigil, in The Seattle Times Pacific Northwest Magazine, 2006, <http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=20060331&slug=pacifictrident02>

Contacts

Jackie Hudson and Sue Ablao 360-286-9036
Anne and Dave Hall 206-545-3562
Leonard Eiger 425.445-2190
Tom Shea 425-831-0033

Photos

Stock photos of Ground Zero events are available. Contact Leonard Eiger at <subversivepeacemaking@comcast.net>.

*Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, The US Nuclear Arsenal 2009, March/April 2009