BREAKING NEWS:
We’re expanding our Drone Resistance Campaign to include Holloman Air Force Base in southern New Mexico! Our new name: Shut Down Drone Warfare! (We will return to Creech AFB for our fall actions and back again to Holloman each spring).
SHUT DOWN DRONE WARFARE!
Spring Action Week: April 15 – 22, 2023
Holloman Drone Base, Southern New Mexico
Co-sponsored by CODEPINK, Ban Killer Drones & Veterans for Peace
Mark your calendars & Join Us!
Come for all or part of the week
REGISTER HERE!
Background:
The campaign to nonviolently stop the US killer drone program orchestrated out of Creech AFB, Nevada is EXPANDING! Our Spring Action is moving to the southern New Mexico desert, at Holloman Killer Drone Base, April 15 – 22! This is a national mobilization. Please join us & bring friends. Our organizing is calling for at least 300 people across the country to converge in peaceful resistance! If you can help, please contact us!
Creech AFB in Nevada, is now 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 drones network. Shut Down Creech, our 14 year campaign to resist drone warfare at Creech AFB, with week-long peaceful protests has been successful: Our persistence has contributed greatly to the rapid turnover of drone pilots and operators in the program. We will return to Creech for our fall action week later this year!
Why Holloman and Why Now? The drone pilot/operator training program was moved from Creech to Holloman Air Force Base a few years ago. This explains the noticeably decreased commute traffic and decreased number of Reaper drones flying over the Nevada desert. Newer recruits are more likely to be impacted and called to their 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 presence will uncover the secrecy!
What we do know:
-Holloman AFB is the #1 producer of drone pilots and operators in the U.S.! It “graduates more than 600 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 become a technical warfare using remotely controlled killing machines and autonomous weaponry. 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 the Ukraine war.) A more violent world is being created in our name, with our tax dollars.
The Shut Down Creech organizing team is collaborating with New Mexico Veterans For Peace activists to nonviolently resist drone warfare at Holloman. We are calling our expanded campaign:
SHUT DOWN DRONE WARFARE!
Diplomacy not War…Stop Militarism for the Planet!
WILL YOU JOIN US THIS SPRING? April 15 – 22: TAX DAY to EARTH DAY!<
-Come for all or part of the week. (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).
-A group campground site is reserved nearby. Most activities will take place at Holloman and the campground. Group hotel rates will be available for those who cannot camp. (Hotels close to most activities)
-Will you ask your organization to sponsor or endorse? Please contact us!
-We will pledge to nonviolent action and do daily am and pm vigiling during commute hours. And we will 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,
Virginia, Charles, Denise, Ken, Toby & Greg
RELEVANT ARTICLES:
About Holloman:
– 16th TRS provides combat ready MQ-9 Reaper aircrew
– ‘That place is a dumpster fire’ — Inside the Air Force’s dilapidated Reaper school, which won’t be fixed anytime soon
Drones in the Ukraine War:
– Drone advances in Ukraine could bring dawn of killer robots
Drones Program
–The Pentagon Is Still Lying About the Deadly U.S. Drone Program
