Protesters stalking the white train

Press, 17 July 1984, Page 13

Protesters stalking the white train

A long; pure white, heavilyarmoured' train, known to its opponents as the “Armageddon Express” has become a top target of the U.S. anti-nuclear movement. The white train regularly ' carries nuclear warheads from their assembly, point at the Pantex plant in Amarillo, Texas, to military bases around America, travelling by “secret” routes. To the outrage of Pentagon brass, the routes are always discovered in advance. The white train is met in scores of small towns across the U.S. by silent protesters and prayer-vigil groups opposed to nuclear proliferation.

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The next warhead convoy will leave Texas, “around mid-July,” according to Jim Douglass, a Notre Dame-trained. radical Catholic theologian who masterminds the campaign. He has followers in more than 200 towns from Bangor, the big Trident submarine base in the Pacific northwest, to Charleston Naval Weapons Station on the Eastern seaboard.

Equipped with telephones and a railway map, Mr Douglass has been stalking the train, like some contemporary Ahab, for more than a year now. r ‘We have spies everywhere,” he says. “Our man in Amarillo is a railway worker. He tips us off when it moves.” Then Mr Douglass, aged 46, and his wife, Shelley, aged 39, begin a round-the-clock fourday telephone marathon, alerting supporters along the likely route and monitoring progress. The “Armageddon Express” as they call it, trucked warheads about the country unnoticed for 15 years until Mr Douglass, who lives

WILLIAM SCOBIE

near the Bangor base and has been arrested 15 times in civil disobedience protests, called national attention to it- ■■ ; il < The Douglasses work chiefly through Catholic “peace groups,” but their campaign has sharply divided church leaders. Several high-ranking theologians have attacked efforts to stop the train. However, last February 12 Catholic bishops from communities along the route signed a petition urging parishioners to attend the wayside vigils. Backers also help to pay the Douglasses’ phone bill, which can rise to $lOOO a month.

Mr Douglass calls the white train “an awesome sight” with its gun-turrets and giant missile trucks. “When that thing goes right through your backyard it really brings the arms race home to you.” Why is it white? White reflects sunlight, a Pentagon spokesman explains, and keeps down the temperature around the warheads. (Copyright — London Observer Service.)