The first time I saw the movie Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, Stanley Kubrick’s satirical depiction of Cold War America, I was too young to fully understand it. I watched it a second time while in college during the Clinton years, and found the flick brilliant, even […]
Military
Posted inMarch 31, 2003: Tinkering with Nature
A citizen soldier looks beyond war
During World War II, three infantry regiments and a light artillery unit with mules came together to form a special unit trained for mountain and winter combat — the 10th Mountain Division. The training grounds, Camp Hale, took up most of an s-shaped valley at 9,200 feet in the White River National Forest in central […]
Posted inSeptember 30, 2002: Delta Blues
Environmentalists fight chemical weapons burns
OREGON Plans to burn Cold War-era chemical weapons in northeastern Oregon have environmental groups up in arms. Before burning the more than 3,000 tons of sarin and mustard gas that have been stored at the Umatilla Chemical Agent Disposal Facility since 1962, the Army must first test its furnaces by burning “surrogate” chemicals. At the […]
Posted inJune 24, 2002: The buzz business
Bomb blasting goes bust
CALIFORNIA After more than four decades, Army officials have halted the open-pit burning and blasting of obsolete munitions and rocket motors at Sierra Army Depot near Herlong. The depot’s open-air weapons destruction was challenged in federal court early last year by a coalition of Indian tribes, environmental groups and private citizens (HCN, 8/13/01: Depot neighbors […]
Posted inAugust 13, 2001: No refuge in the Klamath Basin
Depot neighbors are on a short fuse
Pressure mounts against the Sierra Army Depot’s open-air munitions burning
Posted inJune 4, 2001: Tribal links
Tortoises take on tanks
CALIFORNIA In the middle of California’s Mojave Desert, a 15-year-long battle over 131,000 acres of desert may be coming to a head. The proposed expansion of the Army’s National Training Center at Fort Irwin could harm two high-profile local residents, the threatened desert tortoise and the endangered Lane Mountain milkvetch. The expansion area, now managed […]
Posted inFebruary 12, 2001: Mr. Babbitt's wild ride
Bombs make way for ‘burbs
A booming city eyes a silent bombing range
Posted inNovember 6, 2000: 'Re-inhabitation' revisited
Don’t step on a bomb
COLORADO During World War II, up to 17,000 soldiers, including the famed ski troopers of the 10th Mountain Division, trained at Camp Hale near the town of Leadville, Colo. The men learned to ski, climb rocks and bivouac in 30-below weather. David Brower, who wrote the division’s mountaineering manual, was there, as were Vail visionary […]
Posted inMay 8, 2000: After the fall
The burning season begins again
Is a California army depot poisoning its neighbors?
Posted inMarch 27, 2000: The last wild river
Homesteaders sue over ancestral land
Their mesa became home to the Manhattan Project
Posted inFebruary 14, 2000: Land of the fee
From missile silo to theme park
Tourists can explore the home of a Minuteman
Posted inJanuary 31, 2000: Searching for pasture
Incinerator unsafe, says former Tooele manager
A former manager for the Army’s chemical weapons incinerator in rural Tooele County says he was told he would lose his job if he talked about the plant’s environmental problems. During a January press conference, Gary E. Harris made public a list of over 100 questionable activities by the Army and its contractor, EG&G, at […]
Posted inOctober 25, 1999: Monumental chaos
See the secret desert
X-Files fans and conspiracy theorists dream of visiting Area 51, the test site for America’s advanced aircraft and weapons systems – and, some say, the place where UFOs are hidden. Now the curious can visit, sort of. In Los Angeles, an exhibit by the Center for Land Use Interpretation offers an inside look at the […]
Posted inJuly 5, 1999: The new faces of the West
Senator jumps the gun for the military
Lawmakers and environmentalists are up in arms over the future of military training grounds in the West. The excitement began this May when Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., unveiled a proposal to allow the military use of 3 million acres of public land in Arizona and New Mexico. The public land includes the McGregor Range and […]
Posted inJune 21, 1999: The disappearing farm
A grudge against sludge
DEER TRAIL, Colo. – Crowded into a corrugated-steel firehouse, some 50 farmers and ranchers are talking strategy. They have carved a break from their 16-hour, calving-season workdays to battle a common foe, and it’s not a dismal farm economy, nor is it drought. The people gathered in this town 60 miles east of Denver, are […]
Posted inMarch 29, 1999: Wheeling and dealing
Air Force lands a deal
Environmentalists fighting the expansion of a U.S. Air Force training range in southern Idaho lost a round. At issue was a 961-acre tract of grazing land that the U.S. Air Force says it needs for its 12,000-acre Juniper Butte training area (HCN, 4/13/98). Favoring the military, Idaho’s Land Board turned down a $5,000 bid from […]
Posted inMarch 15, 1999: Selling off the Promised Land
Locals work to tame the Air Force
RENO, Nev. – Grace Potorti lives 10 minutes away from the neon lights and slot machines of this “Biggest Little City in the World.” Hers seems an unremarkable home – magnets adorn the refrigerator, two teenage children drift in and out. But from this base, the 40-something Potorti takes on the Pentagon – for the […]
Posted inDecember 7, 1998: Vail and the road to a recreational empire
Top gun seeks more of the high desert
Two years ago, a remarkable coalition formed in rural central Nevada to halt the spread of Navy war games on public lands. Low-flying jets and the military’s hunger for land withdrawals spurred the Sierra Club, the Nevada Cattlemen’s Association, People for the USA, and almost every level of government – from local land-use boards to […]
Posted inAugust 31, 1998: Excavating Ecotopia
Air Force drops a sweetheart deal onto ranch land
In an unorthodox move, the U.S. Air Force plans to offer an Idaho rancher around $1 million to turn his grazing allotment into a bombing range. The deal, which was added to the defense appropriations bill by Idaho Republican Sen. Dirk Kempthorne, would pull Bert Brackett’s cattle off 12,000 acres of Bureau of Land Management […]
Posted inAugust 3, 1998: Tribes reclaim stolen lands
Bombers battled from the ground
When the U.S. Air Force told residents of northern New Mexico that it was considering their blue skies for a new bombing range for B-52s and B-1s, it galvanized local defenses. “In northern New Mexico, with our high level of poverty, the only assets are beauty and tranquility,” says Cliff Bain, who has organized a […]