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Issue: October, 1997
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Drill Sergeant Hassna's |
Roseville Flashback
by Steve Hassna
. . .Well, guess what folks? The Vietnam War won't die.!! Our own bombs destined for that war ravaged country (21 million bomb craters at last count), now are turned against us on our own soil. How's that for karma! |
LISTEN UP, TROOPS!
It's the old Drill Sgt. here, and I'm standing next to the wayback machine with Mr. Peabody and his boy, Sherman. Mr. Peabody has agreed to transport us back to an ancient period of U.S. history, a time of chaos and confusion. A shadowy mystical time, almost completely forgotten by scholars and historians and almost everyone else who lived then. Yes troops, we're going back to the early 1970's, to the circus of the absurd (i.e. Vietnam) and Northern California anti-war activism.
Now why did I pick such a strange place in such a strange time? Well, it's because of a little event that happened here in Northern California, on October 7, 1997 in a little town named Roseville near Sacramento, (our state capital), and the subsequent news coverage, or lack of news coverage around this happening. The report in the San Francisco Chronicle was a small picture in the second section of the paper. This is the section that has news of the state and San Francisco Bay Area, real local stuff but not dramatic enough for the front page. You know, letters to the editor and stories like "man bites dog, dog sues", stuff like that.
The picture story goes as follows: "Memories of Vietnam in Placer County". The night sky was lit by the flash from a bomb detonated by a U.S. Army demolition team near Roseville, Placer County, early yesterday morning. The 500 lb. bomb was discovered Tuesday by a railroad construction crew renovating a Union Pacific switching yard. A train load of ammunition bound for the Vietnam War exploded in the same place in 1973. (What they didn't say was that sixteen square blocks had to be evacuated before the bomb was detonated).
The television news did about the same. "A bomb was found in Roseville and blown up by a U.S. Army demolition team. This had something to do with the Vietnam war." Have a nice day! And that was it. Now you would think that a 500 lb bomb that has been buried in the dirt of a railroad yard for twenty four years (which at the time, was a rural area but now is a suburb bedroom community for the state capital), would warrant a little more explaining. Well wouldn't you? I even called a friend in Minneapolis, Minnesota to ask if he had heard about this little event. Not a word, media wise and he works for the largest newspaper in the area. Are you getting my drift on this?
Shortly after the first bombs were found, I talked to my friend Nancy Walton, who was raised in that area. She remembered the train blowing up. In fact, it blew up for two days. Nancy was working for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in Placer County at the time. Her crew was doing an EPA report on a eucalyptus grove near the rail yard that developers were looking at for future housing. This was shortly before the mishap in 1973. She also told me about Antelope, CA, which was a small community at a crossroad; Grange hall and stuff like that, anywhere rural America. Just sitting there not bothering anyone. Then, BANG! and it's topography was severely altered.
Another friend living in Sacramento, reported that a co-worker had just bought a home right across the street from the rail yard, shortly before the 500-pounder was found. This woman now has a real case of the jaws, (that's a military term meaning you are so mad, your jaws lock up and can't speak, you just want to go balistic). Ever have that feeling?
So that's where Mr. Peabody and the wayback machine come in. We're going back to 1972-73 and, as Paul Harvey says, "And now, for the rest of the story". It's times like this I wish I had a lava lamp. I hear they're back in vogue now.
O.K., here goes: 1972, San Francisco Bay Area. The Bay Area was a hotbed of political radicalism with every college and university generating anti-war and political groups on a daily basis. Just like Ann Arbor, Michigan, Madison, Wisconsin and Kent State, Ohio. etc. Isn't education grand! I guess that's why the now-governor of California wants to do away with education altogether (too many people thinking for themselves).
Anyway, the Bay Area was anti-war central. Groups were everywhere, spouting one line after another. I had joined Vietnam Veterans Against the War (V.V.A.W.) that year and was watching and a part of that scene. (Vietnam Veterans Against The War, not to be confused with those meat-heads of the R.C.P. Revolutionary Communist Party, they are not V.V.A.W. in any way shape or form.) I must say it was quite exciting to say the least. There were meetings and events and demostrations, and meetings and leftist political intrigue every day. There was also a large military presence in the area and now and then some really outrageous acts of sabotage against the military by their own ranks.
Yes troops, there was dissension among the ranks of the armed forces. One such act put the U.S.S. Coral Sea ( a BBBiiiGGG aircraft carrier) in dry dock for six months. Seems the Coral Sea was headed back to Vietnam with a new load of bombs. A sailor, no one knows who, (although seaman Pat Chenoweth was accused of the act) dropped a twelve inch crescent wrench into the final drive reduction gear of the ship and that stopped it dead in the water. Now you're asking yourself, how could a twelve inch wrench stop a ship as big as the Coral Sea? Well, this is how it works. There are output shafts from the turbines of the ship's engines. These shafts have gears on the ends that mesh with another gear at the top of the second gear. At the bottom of that gear is yet another gear and shaft that goes out to the propeller, or screw, as it's called. There are two sets of these gears and the middle gears mesh together also. These are called final drive reduction gears. They are vey fine toothed gears with exact tolerances. In many places they are hand filed to insure a proper fit. Now here's the kicker. These second gears, or reduction gears, are about twenty feet in diameter. I got this info from a friend who's a ship fitter. He said that when one of these gears, because of their close tolerances, is subject to F.O.D. (foreign object damage) you have to put the ship in dry dock and literally cut a hole in the hull to remove and replace the unit. And that's how a twelve inch wrench stopped one of the Navy's largest war ships at the time. (At some astronomical cost that we will never know). I understand that after that, locks were put on inspection hatches and guards were posted to watch the locks.
By 1972, the military had been experiencing several years of sabotage among the troops. G.I's organizing and resistance and general breakdown of morale, with a good portion of racial problems thrown in to even out the mix. This was clear across the board. From Vietnam to Korea, the U.S. and Europe, the U.S. military was experiencing some of the worst times in its history. All of which was down-played, or not even publicized at all. Something about airing your dirty laundry in public. But it was the sons and daughters of the public who were having the problems and trying to wreck the green machine. Organizations like S.O.S. (Stop Our Ships), F.T.A. (Fuck The Army), and G.I. Resist, were on military bases, while anti-war coffee houses were set up near military bases all around the country.
Now, back to the Bay Area. There were all types of groups involved here, everything from the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC, or Quakers) and W.R.L. (War Resisters League), to the C.C.C.O. (Central Committee for Consicentious Objectors). These people were non-violent pacifist and civil disobedience groups. Then there were Venceremos, Young Sparticus League, Revolutionary Union, Revolutionary Student Brigade, Black Liberation Army and the New World Liberation Front. These were coming from the "pick up the guns", "Kick out the jams," it's party time, (with live ammo) armed revolutionary ideology. There were bombings on a regular basis (P.G. & E. seemed to be a prime target) and letter bombs to public officials. I think Quentin Kopp, now State Senator, received one when he was part of the San Francisco city government. One group in this vein really hit the big time. The Oakland Venceremos became the core group of the S.L.A. (Symbianese Liberation Army) and one of its members is still in prison for his part in all the chaos.
By spring of 1973, things were hot in the Bay Area. The politicals were political, the cops were being cops and the F.B.I. were sniffing around like a male dog with the scent of a female in heat. It was never dull, to say the least.
Into all this rolls one ammo train out of a huge ammo dump in the Nevada desert. No, not Area 51. That's somewhere else. The military was shipping bombs (250, 500 & 750 pounders) by rail over the Sierras to supply depots in the bay area and then to Vietnam where they were distributed to the Vietnamese people at a cost of millions of dollars for the American people, and the lives of the Vietnamese who received them.
This one train load of about eight to ten cars was parked on a siding in the Roseville switch yard to be sent on to the depots in the bay area. The official report was (now this is the Pentagon talking) that a mysterious and accidental fire broke out at (now get this) both ends of the train, resulting in a massive explosion.
Massive is right—people in Stockton and Tracy, 50 miles south, heard the bang. An accidental fire at both ends of the train? I don't think so. It was parked on a siding all by itself, and bang! it went away. No one, as far as I know, was ever arrested or suspect in the accident and nobody or group ever took credit for the explosion. So maybe it was an accident. . .Yeah, right, and I can fly like a humming bird (all 170 lbs. of me).
Now, twenty four years later, a backhoe driver finds one that didn't go off. I wonder how many more are out there. And the backhoe driver, if he had been unlucky enough to detonate this one, he and his backhoe would be doing sub-contract work in Valhalla. Please note: bomb components, especially detonators and timing devices, cannot be shipped with the bomb itself. The detonators and timing devices are put in the bomb just before they are loaded into the aircraft; either in bombay or wing racks. And then, once they are installed and secured, a pin is pulled from the detonator and they are now armed until they reach their target. Nevertheless, these bombs were shipped 24 years ago and their explosives become more unstable and volatile over the years, if they are not stored in the proper environment (six feet south in dirt is not the proper environment!) Even though they do not have their detonators, a spark or sudden jar, could set them off. . . hence we have Valhalla.
Now for the Valhalla update:
On Sunday, October 19, 1997, eight more bombs were found by railroad workers; this was after the military and Union Pacific said the area was clear. . .ooops! I've been trying to get this column in for two weeks but events keep changing and it (the column) keeps getting longer. As of Monday, October 20, 1997, the media printed some real facts about what happened. So, here it goes. The train blew up on April 28, 1973, there were eighteen freight cars involved. (when I said 8-10 cars, it was from memory I had of the time). There were 330 bombs per car. This information comes from the San Francisco Chronicle. Now wait, there's more! Many of the bombs that did not detonate (like the ten that have been found), were blown clear of the explosion site and scattered a half mile away. Two such bombs were embedded in a street, one and a half miles away.
Now folks, according to my calculations, (and I only got through tenth grade math) with 330 bombs per car and eighteen cars, at an average weight of 250 lbs. per bomb, that's 5,940 bombs, with a bomb tonnage of 82,500 lbs. per car and a total for the whole thing of 1,485,000 lbs. of explosives. . .did he say One Million Four Hundred and Eighty Five Thousand lbs. of explosives? No wonder it blew up for two days. Now, that's why no one was talking about the first two bombs. You know, it's no big thing, everything's safe, trust us, don't worry about it. This includes the military and the media. Bad memories of a very bad time. Well, guess what folks? The Vietnam War won't die.!! Our own bombs destined for that war ravaged country (21 million bomb craters at last count), now are turned against us on our own soil. How's that for karma!
O.K. troops, that's it for today. Keep reading those papers and look out for all those contradictions we know and love as the American historical process.
And today's tips are:
See you around the base camp,
Drill Sgt. Hassna Out
copyright Steve Hassna, 1997
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