by Karen Piper
Part Two: A Teenage Weaponeer
“unite in marriage only those who are biblically qualified”: “On The Scandal of Southern Baptist Divorce,” Southern Baptist Convention Resolution, Orlando, Florida, 2010. Available online at: http://www.sbc.net/resolutions/1205/on-the-scandal-of-southern-baptist-divorce.
“submit herself graciously”: “The Baptist Faith and Message: The 2000 Baptist Faith & Message,” Southern Baptist Convention. Available online at: http://www.sbc.net/bfm2000/bfm2000.asp.
“deadly plague invading our shores”: Quoted in “The LAPD: Chief Gates,” Los Angeles Police Department. Gates used this descriptor frequently throughout his tenure as Chief of Police from 1978 to 1992. Accessed March 1, 2016. https://www.lapdonline.org/history_of_the_lapd/content_basic_view/1114.
“Red Squad” to infiltrate Communists: Joe Domanick, To Protect and Serve: The LAPD’s Century of War in the City of Dreams, Los Angeles: Figueroa Press, 2003.
“Happy Armageddon Rabbit Masher”: “China Lake Honors Bill Porter at Farewell Party,” Rocketeer, January 14, 1993. www.chinalakealumni.org/Downloads/Rocketeer/1993/Rktr01.14.1993.pdf.
“universities teach poverty”: Bill Britt said at the “Free Enterprise Day Seminar” in Portland, Oregon (1990), “That’s why ninety-eight percent of people are broke in this country; they go to universities that teach them poverty.” See Sidney Schwartz, “The Gospel According to Amway: Religion and Politics According to Dexter Yager, Bill Britt, and other Amway Luminaries.” Accessed April 15, 2012. https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Amway/AUS/amwaygospel.htm. These seminars are recorded and can usually be purchased from Amway, now the “School of Tomorrow.”
“When I look at him, I see Jesus”: Quoted in Mike Wallace, 60 Minutes, “Soap and Hope,” CBS, January 9, 1983.
“advance God’s Kingdom”: Benjamin Wermund, “Trump’s Education Pick Says Reform can ‘Advance God’s Kingdom,’” Politico, December 2, 2016. Accessed February 2, 2017. https://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/betsy-devos-education-trump-religion-232150.
“Read the story of Moses”: “Yager Network Marketing Institute,” seminar tape, released 1994. Quoted in Sidney Schwartz, “The Gospel According to Amway.” See also Bill and Peggy Britt, “Free Enterprise Day Seminar,” Boulder, CO, 1990.
“One Kit, Bomb Assembly”: “Secret Weapons of the Secret City,” China Laker 19, no. 1 (Winter 2013).
not the uranium or plutonium: Guy C. Throner, “Project Camel and the Pumpkin Bomb,” China Laker 14, no. 3 (Fall 2008).
“insensitive munitions”: Ian J. Powell, “Insensitive Munitions—Design Principles and Technology Developments,” Propellants, Explosives, Pyrotechnics, February 24, 2016.
TNT or RDX: Proposed Plan for Cleanup Action: Propulsion Laboratory Operable Unit: NAWS China Lake, U.S. Department of the Navy, Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Southwest, China Lake, CA, September 2008.
“The Aug. 15 flood”: “Answers Sought to Questions Raised by Flood on Aug. 15,” Rocketeer, September 14, 1984. www.chinalakealumni.org/Downloads/Rocketeer/1984/Rktr09.14.1984.pdf.
Part Four: The Cold War at Home
“OUT OF CONTROL”: Stan McKenzie, “‘Out of Control’ Party Results in Riot, Arrests,” Register-Guard, May 6, 1989. See also Brian Denson, “Idealism Fuels Anarchists’ Battles,” Oregonian, August 13, 2000.
Bigeye, full of VX: Albert J. Mauroni, Chemical Demilitarization: Public Policy Aspects, Westport, CT: Praeger, 2003. See also Albert J. Mauroni, America’s Struggle with Chemical-Biological Warfare, Westport, CT: Praeger, 2000.
“381 Burros Are Slain”: “381 Burros Are Slain by Marksmen to Clear Naval Center on Coast,” New York Times, March 10, 1981. See also Thomas J. McGill, “Feral Equine Management at the Naval Weapons Center,” Proceedings of the Eleventh Vertebrate Pest Conference, March 1, 1984, and “500 Horses, Burros Rounded up on Center’s Northern Ranges,” Rocketeer, July 13, 1984.
paisley fabric–covered button: Ralph Vartabedian, “Lab Opposes ‘Gold Plated’ Systems: China Lake Weapons Center Battling with the Navy Brass,” Los Angeles Times, May 1, 1986.
Fort Irwin: Alexandra Zavis, “Ft. Irwin Stands in for Iraq,” Los Angeles Times, August 31, 2009.
Tornado fighter plane: G. Verner, China Lake Accidents, “Incidents & SOC’s, Accident on October 19, 1998,” China Lake Alumni Organization, May 15, 2015. Accessed May 30, 2015. www.chinalakealumni.org/accidents.htm.
amused by its “fables”: See Despina Stratigakos, Hitler at Home, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2015, 151.
survivor Jean Michel: Gerard J. Degroot, Dark Side of the Moon: The Magnificent Madness of the American Lunar Quest, New York: New York University Press, 2006, 21.
According to the Rocketeer: “Thermodynamics Consultant to Leave Pasadena Next Week,” Rocketeer, August 13, 1954. www.chinalakealumni.org/Downloads/Rocketeer/1954/Rktr08.13.1954.pdf.
Noeggerath’s file: Wolfgang C. Noeggerath File, Foreign Scientist Case Files 1945–1958 (Entry A1-1B), boxes 1–186, Records of the Office of the Secretary of Defense (Record Group 330), Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, DC.
“One Bomb, One Target”: Winslow Wheeler, “The Wastrels of Defense: How Congress Sabotages U.S. Security,” Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2004. See also Grant T. Hammond, “Myths of the Gulf War: Some ‘Lessons’ Not to Learn,” Airpower Journal (Fall 1998).
“this will not be another Vietnam”: “War in the Gulf: The President; Transcript of the Comments by Bush on the Air Strikes Against the Iraqis,” New York Times, January 17, 1991.
a copy of What’s Happening?: “The War at Home,” What’s Happening? (now the Eugene Weekly), January 6–13, 1991.
Gulf War syndrome: Christian Nordqvist, “Proof Gulf War Illness Does Exist,” Medical News Today, June 15, 2013. See also “Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans’ Illnesses,” Gulf War Illness and the Health of Gulf War Veterans: Scientific Findings and Recommendations, Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, November 2008.
“I don’t recall”: Janet Cawley and Linda P. Campbell, “Reagan Hazy on Iran-contra: Knowledge of Diversion Is Denied,” Chicago Tribune, February 23, 1990.
“I’m not fooling”: “Reagan’s Iran-Contra Deposition, July 24, 1992,” Washington Post, June 20, 1999.
“My fellow Americans”: Ronald Reagan letter dated November 5, 1994, to “My Fellow Americans,” Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Library, Simi Valley, California.
Part Five: Anything Can Be a Weapon
“We regard the weather as a weapon”: Quoted in Kathy Johnston, “Weather or Not: A Local Cloud-Seeding Program Aims to Make More Rainfall,” Santa Maria Sun 12, issue 30 (September 28, 2011).
Part Six: Off Target
On ABC, the World Trade Center: Peter Jennings, ABC World News Tonight, World Trade Center attack, September 11, 2001.
“Beyond the sanity”: Jalal a-Din Rumi, “Let Me be Mad,” The Essential Rumi: New Expanded Edition, Coleman Barks and John Moyne, trans., New York: HarperOne, 2004.
he was part of Operation Sonnie: Bob Koch, “The O.S.S. Project,” Gung-Ho magazine, June 1989.
Part Seven: Life without Weapons
the biggest oil consumer: Sohbet Karbuz, “How Much Energy Does the U.S. Military Consume?” Daily Energy Report, August 5, 2013. Accessed August 10, 2014. http://karbuz.blogspot.com/2013/08/how-much-energy-does-us-military.html.
“poses immediate risks to U.S. national security”: Jeff Goodall, “The Pentagon and Climate Change: How Deniers Put National Security at Risk,” Rolling Stone, February 12, 2015.
“sixteen thousand years ago”: David S. Whitley, Following the Shaman’s Path: A Walking Guide to Little Petroglyph Canyon, Coso Range, California, Ridgecrest, CA: Maturango Press, 1998.
the shamans were “seeing things”: Patricia A.
Helvenston and Derek Hodgson, “The Neuropsychology of ‘Animism’: Implications for Understanding Rock Art,” Rock Art Research 27, no. 1 (2010): 61–94.
“the tropical oceans”: Howard A. Wilcox, “The Energy-Crunch: Present Trends and Future Prospects for the World and the USA,” paper presented to the Marine Technology Society, Washington, DC, June 12, 1973. Filed with the National Archives and Records Administration, Riverside, California, under “Naval Weapons Center, Weapons Department, China Lake, California, Project Files 1952–1976.”
“Man is unwittingly conducting”: “Restoring the Quality of Our Environment: Report of the Environmental Pollution Panel, President’s Science Advisory Committee,” White House, November 1965. Available online at http://dge.stanford.edu/labs/caldeiralab.
“more garden clubs are getting interested”: Telephone conversation between President Johnson and Walter Reuther, recorded on February 5, 1965, The LBJ Library, Citation No: 6802. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUD2ermIErE.
San Clemente Island: Howard A. Wilcox, “Expected Thermal Effects of a System of Large, Open-Ocean, Mariculture Facilities for Utilizing Solar Energy,” paper presented at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco, California, December 12, 1973.
a portable igloo: Jerry D. Stachiw, “Inflatable Ice Igloo,” in Navy Inventions: Yours for the Asking, Washington, DC: U.S. Navy, 1973. Filed with the National Archives and Records Administration, Riverside, California, under “Naval Weapons Center, Weapons Department, China Lake, California, Project Files 1952–1976.”
“Hidden Knowledge Detector”: Federick N. Dyer, “Hidden Knowledge Detector,” in Navy Inventions: Yours for the Asking, Washington, DC: U.S. Navy, 1973. Filed with the National Archives and Records Administration, Riverside, California, under “Record ID: Naval Weapons Center, Weapons Department, China Lake, California, Project Files 1952–1976.”
“quantum mechanics of H2O”: Memo to “Files” from Rudolph J. Marcus regarding “D.S. Villars Objections to NWC IR/IED Evaluation,” U.S. Government, February 20, 1969. Filed with the National Archives and Records Administration, Riverside, California, under “Naval Weapons Center, Weapons Department, China Lake, California, Project Files 1952–1976.”
“military application of this work”: E. T. Florence, “Technical Review of Naval Weapons Center Independent Research and Exploratory Development Program,” Arlington, VA: Office of Naval Research, November 1973. Filed with the National Archives and Records Administration, Riverside, California, under “Naval Weapons Center, Weapons Department, China Lake, California, Project Files 1952–1976.”
a book titled Hothouse Earth: “Hothouse Earth by Howard A. Wilcox: Kirkus Review,” Kirkus Reviews, October 1, 1975. Accessed October 15, 2015. https://www.kirkusreviews.com.
I called Burrell Hays: Karen Piper, personal interview with Burrell Hays, by telephone, June 5, 2008.
“stepping into The Twilight Zone”: See “Bringing Together the Laboratory and the Fleet: China Lake Military Leadership,” China Lake Museum. Accessed October 15, 2015. www.chinalakemuseum.org.
About the Author
Karen Piper is the award-winning author of The Price of Thirst, Left in the Dust, and Cartographic Fictions. She has received the Sierra Nature Writing Award and the Next Generation Indie Book Award and fellowships from the Huntington, Carnegie Mellon, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. She is currently a professor of literature and geography at the University of Missouri.
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