Photo by Mark Stroh
from the Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action
Peace activists block highway entrance to the Trident nuclear submarine base at Bangor in 80th remembrance of Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings
Thirty-five people were present on August 11th at a demonstration against Trident nuclear weapons at the Bangor submarine base. The demonstration was in the roadway at the Main Gate of Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor during early morning rush hour traffic.
At around 6:45 a.m. on Monday, demonstrators arrived at the Main Gate and formed a vigil line along the roadway. At around 7:10 a.m., four “peacekeepers” entered the roadway and stopped traffic, while behind them, demonstrators held a banner declaring “Hiroshima-Nagasaki Never Again.” Another banner stated “No More Genocide In My Name.”
Six demonstrators then set themselves on the roadway with images of children who died in the bombings in August 1945. One at a time, demonstrators read the names of the children, and a description of the end of each child’s life.
The images of the children were provided by the Children’s Peace Memorial, established in 2025 by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), to commemorate the 80th anniversaries of the U.S. nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. According to the Children’s Peace Memorial, of the 250,000 people who died, more than 38,000 were children who died in the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The early morning event was peaceful, with good cooperation from personnel with state and federal law enforcement agencies. Drivers, while backed up past the Clear Creek Road NW overpass, were mostly courteous and respectful. The driver of one of the first cars to be stopped shouted to the demonstrators, “Thank you for what you are doing—I hate my job.”
All traffic at the Main Gate entrance was stopped for over six minutes. Washington State Patrol officers escorted demonstrators off the roadway. All six demonstrators were cited for violating RCW 46.61.250, Pedestrians on roadways, and released at the scene.
Ground Zero member Mary Gleysteen stated of the day, “We gather not only to remember, but to act with the urgency the moment demands. Eighty years after nuclear devastation, the threat persists—right here, in the middle of our beautiful Pacific Northwest. This base is a threat to our planet.” One of the event organizers, Michael “Firefly” Siptroth, stated, “Our nonviolent resistance is rooted in Gandhian principles: refusing the logic of violence and insisting on the power of conscience and community to change the world. We urge leaders and military personnel to heed the global call for abolition enshrined in the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which categorically bans nuclear arms and commands us to prevent a similar tragedy.”
The Monday morning event was the culmination of a series of activities at Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action on Saturday and Sunday that involved discernment, discussion, and an interfaith service. Longtime Ground Zero activist Tom Rawson performed with his banjo and guitar on Sunday evening.
Those cited by the Washington State Patrol: Sue Ablao, Bremerton; Susan Delaney, Bothell; Caroline Wildflower, Port Townsend; Deacon Denny Duffell, Seattle; George Rodkey, Tacoma; and Michael “Firefly” Siptroth, Belfair.
Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor, just 20 miles from Seattle, is homeport to the largest concentration of deployed nuclear warheads in the world. The nuclear warheads are deployed on Trident D-5 missiles on SSBN submarines and are stored in an underground nuclear weapons storage facility on the base.
There are eight Trident SSBN submarines deployed at Bangor. Six Trident SSBN submarines are deployed on the East Coast at Kings Bay, Georgia.
One Trident submarine carries the destructive force of over 1,000 Hiroshima bombs (the Hiroshima bomb was 15 kilotons).
Each Trident submarine was originally equipped for 24 Trident missiles. In 2015-2017 four missile tubes were deactivated on each submarine as a result of the New START Treaty. Currently, each Trident submarine deploys with 20 D-5 missiles and about 90 nuclear warheads (an average of 4-5 warheads per missile). The warheads are either the W76-1 90-kiloton warheads, W88 455-kiloton warheads, or W-76-2 8-kiloton warheads.
The Navy in early 2020 started deploying the new W76-2 low-yield warhead (approximately eight kilotons) on select ballistic submarine missiles at Bangor (following initial deployment in the Atlantic in December 2019). The warhead was deployed to deter Russian first use of tactical nuclear weapons, dangerously creating a lower threshold for the use of U.S. strategic nuclear weapons.
The next planned demonstration at Bangor will be in January 2026, in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., if not before.
The Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action was founded in 1977. The center is on 3.8 acres adjoining the Trident submarine base at Bangor, Washington. We resist all nuclear weapons, especially the Trident ballistic missile system.