From The Bath
Irons Works (The Naval Destroyer Builders In Maine) Archives
By Fritz
Taylor
Yes I am a
Vietnam Veteran and yes as I recently pointed out while I hate the NRA I favor
my Second Amendment right to bear arm. That latter position a personal one because
like the late Doctor Gonzo, Hunter Thompson I like to go to some secluded firing
range and rattle off a few rounds. But whatever vestiges I have of my growing up
in Fulton County, Georgia I “got religion” on the questions of war and peace
through the hellhole of Vietnam experience. Not right away, not completely at first
but now I am comfortable with the twenty plus years I have spent screaming (if
necessary) against the endless wars, the bloated military budgets and the glorification
of the fog war creates in the public, and among soldiers and politicians.
Now I was
strictly Army, Fourth Division so you know I saw some hellish action in Vietnam,
particularly when we were sent to re-enforce up in the Central Highland and I
can tell you plenty about that branch of the service, the waste and the like. You
can always learn sometime new though in this struggle against war and endless
budgets. As I did a few years ago when I through my friendships with Sam Eaton
and Ralph Morris went up to Maine to help out in the annual Maine Peace Walk
sponsored by Veterans for Peace and other local activist peace groups.
That “helping
out” entailed walking half the freaking state of Maine at least on the oceanside,
the side where U.S. Route One slithers down the coast. Over a period of several
days. I had started up in Brunswick, up at Bowdoin College where I met walkers
who had started up I believe in Rangeley which I do not have a clue where that
is except it is pretty far north in Maine with plenty left before you reach the
Canadian border.
When you
mention Brunswick you really automatically mention Bath as I found out. In
little old out of the way Bath, which is a pretty town along the river and close
to the ocean, you have the very large Bath Iron Works which despite its benign
name is the main producer of the Navy’s destroyer fleet, the modern one which goes
for billions a pop. Needless to say the organizers planned a serious stop at
that location along the route to protest these ships being built (and proposing
as an alternative something like a Green New Deal to keep the citizenry usefully
employed). Probably just as naturally our appearance there was met with mixed
reviews depending on whether you worked there or were part of the
gentrification also going on in the area now that Southern Maine had become
very expensive and overrun with foreigners (mostly from Massachusetts and New
York-of course a foreigner in Maine is anybody not born there with certified birth
certificate proof).
That was quite
an experience, learned some stuff but what was, is really important is that over
the past few years a number of mainly Maine citizens have taken it upon themselves
to protest by acts of civil disobedience every time some new destroyer is
launched. Hats off to the sister and brothers of that branch of the resistance
struggle. My kind of people.
