Nine Arrested at End of 3 Day Peace Walk to Fort McCoy

Protestors End Walk for Peace at Ft. McCoy

Voices for Creative Nonviolence

Camp Williams is headquarters to the 32nd Brigade Combat Team of the Wisconsin National Guard. The 32nd BCT is currently deployed to Iraq, the largest combat deployment of the Wisconsin Guard since World War II. The 32nd BCT originated as the Red Arrow Division that served the most days in combat of any Army or Army Guard unit during World War II. Camp Williams is located next to the community of Camp Douglas, Wisconsin.

Fort McCoy plays a key role in the mobilization of Army Guard and Army Reserve units deploying to Iraq and Afghanistan. In the spring and summer of 2009 several units are scheduled for mobilization training prior to deployment.

August 9, 2009

TOMAH, Wisconsin – Nine anti-war activists were detained at Mt. McCoy after walking onto the central-Wisconsin base to protest the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the continued U.S. possession of nuclear weapons.

Five of the nine were ticketed and released from the site after being permanently banned from entering the base again.

Four of the group were taken by U.S. marshals to Madison where they face federal trespass charges in U.S. District Court. The four had previously been banned from the base for earlier protests.

All nine were part of a three-day walk for peace that began Aug. 7, near Camp Williams, Wisc..

The walk was also a commemoration of the U.S. atomic attacks bombings of the cities of Hiroshima, August 6, and Nagasaki August 9, 1945, and an appeal for a moratorium on the use of armor-piercing shells made from waste uranium-238 known as “depleted uranium” munitions.

Walkers carried dozens of placards along highways 12 and 21, principle among them were pleas:

to bring all the troops home; to compensate the victims of the U.S. military occupations; to abolish nuclear weapons; and to inform the National Guard troops of all their legal rights.

The four activists being held in federal custody in Madison pending arraignment are Brian Terrell, 53, of Maloy, Iowa; Bonnie Urfer, 57, of Luck, Wis.; Alice Gerard, 52, of Grand Island, New York; and Joy first, 55, of Madison, Wisc.

The five ticketed and released pending arraignment are Gerald Paoli, 49, of Chicago, IL; Janet Parker 41, of Madison; Dylan Parker, 20, of Davenport, IA; Vicki Andrews, 64, of Grand Rapids, MN; and Tom Haebig, 72, of West Bend, Wisc.

-thanks to Voices for Creative Nonviolence