I am at the airport in Portland, Maine heading to northern California for two days of protests at Beale AFB which hosts the Global Hawk surveillance drone and the U-2 high altitude spy plane. Regular protests have been happening at Beale for several years and loads of activists have been arrested there for their non-violent actions.
This is a sort of personal trip for me as I lived on Beale from 1969-1971 when my dad was stationed there. He worked on the spy cameras on the SR-71 Blackbird plane. In 1971 I left Beale to head to the Oakland, California military induction center where I joined the Air Force wanting to be a career man like my dad. After my training I was sent to Travis AFB, also in northern California, which was then an airlift base for the Vietnam War. It was the anti-war activity inside and outside that base that helped turn me into a peacenik.
Looks like there will be two days of protests at Beale gates and then I'll head to San Francisco where I will do a talk on Wednesday, March 9 at 7:00 pm at the S.F. War Memorial Veterans Building (401 Van Ness Ave).
It was great to have you with us at Beale this afternoon and evening. Your presentation after the potluck outside the main gate, around the campfire, was informative and inspired, even though it was interrupted periodically by the U-2s taking off. Thank you so much for coming and sharing your knowledge and experience with us. Sharon Delgado
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