Veterans For Peace & CODEPINK are collaborating for a powerful peace convergence!
Spring Action 2023, Holloman AFB
RECENT CHANGES:
Last spring we expanded our 14 year Drone Resistance Campaign to include Holloman Air Force Base in southern New Mexico! Our new name is SHUT DOWN DRONE WARFARE! (Previously known as Shut Down Creech) We will continue to return to Creech AFB, Nevada, for fall action weeks, but have moved our spring actions to Holloman AFB, New Mexico. As nonviolent "angelic troublemakers" we declare Zero Tolerance for remote-controlled killing...RESIST!
Check Out Last Year's Spring 2023 Action at Holloman HERE!
SHUT DOWN DRONE WARFARE!
Spring Action Week: April 20-27 , 2024
Holloman Drone Base, Southern New Mexico
Co-sponsored by CODEPINK, Veterans for Peace & Ban Killer Drones
Mark your calendars & Join Us!
Come for all or part of the Action week!
Background:
The campaign to nonviolently stop the US killer drone program orchestrated out of Creech AFB, Nevada has EXPANDED! Our Spring Action in 2023 successfully moved to the southern New Mexico desert, at Holloman Killer Drone Base, the largest US drone training base where over 700+ drone pilots and operators graduate annually! This is an ongoing national mobilization and anti-drone campaign, with participants from across the country. Please join us & bring friends to our Nevada or New Mexico actions. If you can help organize, please contact us!
Why We Will Continue Our Resistance at Creech? Creech
AFB in Nevada is understood to be the “grandfather” of all U.S. drone bases: The covert U.S. drone assassination program started there, and
it remains the central control center in a complex assassin drone base
network. "Shut Down Creech," started in 2009, with
successful bi-annual week-long peaceful protests thru 2022. We believe our persistence has contributed greatly to the rapid turnover of drone pilots and operators in the program.
Our goal is to return to Creech AFB each fall for week-long protests until drone assassination ceases.
Why We Expanded to Holloman? After many years of bi-annual protests at Creech, the drone pilot/operator training program was moved from Creech to Holloman Air Force Base. Was that because our persistent protests at Creech had an impact? Newer recruits are more likely to be influenced by our peaceful and non-confrontational protests. Our innovative vigil themes stir up a "Call to Conscience."
The secrecy of the drone program keeps it from the public
eye. "Drone strikes" are rarely mentioned in the media or by the
military, and the term "Air Strikes” provides convenient “shelter" from
public scrutiny. Our week of action uncovers the secrecy and educates the local community, as well as the base employees! Equally important: The inhumane US drone program causes deep moral injury to our military personnel themselves. We offer alternatives and support to the new recruits and other employees, via signs, banners and leaflets that offer resources for GI support.
What we do know:
-Holloman AFB is the #1 producer of drone pilots and operators in the U.S.! It "graduates more than 700 students annually.” (per Holloman’s website)
-Holloman currently hosts the Royal Air Force RPAS (Remotely Piloted Aircraft System) Formal Training Unit (FTU) and the Italian Air Force RPA training courses.
-Modern
warfare has increasingly become a technical warfare using remotely controlled
killing machines and autonomous weaponry globally. Led by the U.S. and Israel, countries are racing to
obtain the most advanced drones and robotic weapons to compete with a
very frightening global reality. Read attached articles about the role
of drones in Gaza and Ukraine.
U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drones are currently being used in Gaza to assist Israel in surveillance work during it's current genocidal campaign. It is unknown whether these same drones are also being used in targeted assassination in Gaza. We do know that it is a very secret program, and any U.S. military veteran or personnel faces a potential harsh prison sentence if they leak the truth about U.S. drone warfare crimes. Daniel Hale, one such drone whistleblower, is currently serving a 45 month sentence for doing so.
We also know that there are U.S. special forces on the ground in Gaza, covertly assisting Israel in hunting out Hamas in it's network of tunnels. Aaron Bushnell, the 25 yr. old active duty airmen who tragically committed self-immolation on February 25 to expose the U.S. complicity in the genocide in Gaza, revealed this truth to a close friend just a day before his "extreme act of protest." We will put Gaza front and center in our protests at Holloman this spring, and we will publicly pay tribute to Aaron Bushnell for his courageous though very tragic act of protest.
A more violent world is being created in our name, with our tax dollars and it must stop!
Won't You Join Us?
SHUT DOWN DRONE WARFARE!
Diplomacy not War…Stop Militarism for the Planet!
WILL YOU JOIN OUR 2024 FALL ACTION at CREECH AFB, Dates TBD?
-Come for all or part of our spring and fall action weeks. (Combine it with exploring the beautiful southwest)
-We need help! Please contact us and join a “working group.” (Areas
of need: logistics/meal-planning, artistry/banner-making/vigil ideas,
nonviolence and peace-keeper training, legal observers training,
promotional/outreach/social media, entertainment, and much more).
-Will you ask your organization to sponsor or endorse? Please contact us!
-We
will pledge to nonviolent action and do daily am and pm vigils during
commute hours. Risking arrest is voluntary and there are many other roles throughout the week that are equally important. We will also create lots of time in-between for nature,
team-building, and just plain old peacemaking fun!
Hope to see you soon!
SHUT DOWN DRONE WARFARE TEAM,
Creech Action Organizers: Virginia, Denise and Toby
Holloman Action Organizers: Virginia, Ken, Denise, Charles, Toby, Edwina & Greg
RELEVANT ARTICLES:
About Holloman:
-US airman Aaron Bushnell claimed to have classified knowledge of US forces fighting in Gaza tunnels on night before setting himself on fire
-US surveillance drones flying over Gaza to help with hostage search -Families of US troops in shock as they deploy to Gaza coast to build emergency pier -US special forces deployed to help Israel track down hostages held in Gaza
Drones in the Ukraine War:
Drones Program