Naming Pohakuloa Training Area for what it truly is June 14, 2019 Hilo Peace Vigil leaflet
Naming Pohakuloa Training Area for what it truly is!
The Military Pohakuloa Training Area (PTA), located in the center of Hawaii Island, is a 133,000-acre live-fire bombing range for all branches of the U.S. military. Even other countries bomb Pohakuloa as part of RIMPAC (Rim of the Pacific) war games conducted every 2 years. At last count at least 24 countries participated. Bombing at Pohakuloa has been going on for more than 75 years.
The U.S. military calls PTA the “Premier Training Area of the Pacific!” The big question is training for what? Is it training for peace, freedom and democracy? Is it training for Ho’oponopono – how to heal and repair the damages of centuries of war? Or is it training for regime changes, endless war, including the end of civilization through nuclear war?
The late Archbishop of Seattle, Washington, Raymond Hunthausen, called the Trident nuclear submarine base in nearby Bangor, Washington the “Auschwitz of Puget Sound.” Auschwitz was the Nazi concentration and extermination camp that killed more than 1 million people. Every Trident submarine can carry hundreds of nuclear weapons each with a destructive power 10 times the nuclear blast that destroyed Hiroshima.
PTA is a training ground for nuclear war ever since the 1960s and perhaps before that. In the 1960s crews were trained at Pohakuloa to fire the Davy Crockett nuclear weapons systems. At the time it was classified Top Secret. They fired Depleted Uranium (DU) spotting rounds to replicate the actual firing of the nuclear weapon. Military testimony before the Hawaii Council in 2008 said that up to 2000 DU spotting rounds for the Davy Crockett were fired at PTA. There have even been unconfirmed reports from several sources that actual Davy Crockett nuclear weapons were exploded at Pohakuloa.
What we do know is that other training for nuclear war has taken place, and is very likely still taking place at PTA, behind a wall of secrecy. It has been confirmed that B-52 and B-2 strategic bombers have flown monthly non-stop from Louisiana, Missouri and Guam to bomb Pohakuloa and return home without ever touching down in Hawaii (except for their bombs). B-2 stealth bombers are now deployed from Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam. One B-2 bomber is named the Spirit of Hawaii!
Help us name Pohakuloa for what it truly is? Call or send us your ideas. Mahalo.
Protect the Earth: Train for Peace Not War!
1. Mourn all victims of violence. 2. Reject war as a solution. 3. Defend civil liberties.
4. Oppose all discrimination, anti-Islamic, anti-Semitic, anti-Hawaiian, etc.
5. Seek peace through peaceful means and work for justice in Hawai`i and around the world.
Malu ‘Aina Center for Non-violent Education & Action
P.O. Box 489 Kurtistown, Hawai’i 96760 Phone (808) 966-7622. Email: ja@malu-aina.org
For more information and to receive our posts go to http://www.malu-aina.org/
June 14, 2019 Hilo Peace Vigil leaflet — week 925 – Fridays 3:30-5PM downtown Post Office
