T h e neighborhood is like manufacturing districts you might find from San Diego to Seattle, neatly labeled “industrial parks.” If foliage once graced this terrain, it is now a weak memory beneath the Exxon station and O’Brien Elementary School on two corners. To the northwest, acres of low brush proceed drily behind the right angle of fence which is part of the 3-mile perimeter of Boeing Aerospace Co. Today is Saturday, and the plant beyond shows no sign of the 1300 employees who produce two Air-Land Cruise Missiles (ALCM’s) per day. However, across the tracks the house inhabited by the Puget Sound Women’s Peace Camp is busy with final preparations for an encirclement of Boeing by women, to be attempted Monday in protest of the plant’s nuclear weapons manufacture. The original site of the Peace Camp was nearby on park land leased from the City of Kent. It was inspired by an encampment begun in August, 1981 at Greenham Common Royal Air Base 70 mi. west of London in Berkshire, England. There, 40 women and children pitched tents on common lands and have proceeded ever since to coordinate actions intended to stop the NATO deployment of American cruise missiles scheduled to begin in December, 1983. Similar camps have since sprung up near military centers worldwide, not all of them women’s camps like those in Soester- berg, Netherlands; Comiso, Sicily; and at Romulus near the Seneca Falls Army Depot in New York State. In England common lands are a relatively freely available venue for peace camps. In King County, Washington, even public park land must be leased or otherwise formally approved for habitation. When 500 supporters celebrated the opening of the Puget Sound Women’s Peace Camp on the morning of June 18, 1983, the group had only a temporary permit in hand. Three days after joining in the opening day march, Kent mayor Isabel Hogan broke a 3-3 tie in the city council to grant a lease agreement to the camp through September 9, 1983. Hogan has two sons who work for Boeing, one in the Cruise Missile Building. As a Roman Catholic, she had seriously considered the recent Bishop’s Letter regarding the unjustifiability of nuclear buildup. Neither had she acted without considering what the consequences might be in the upcoming election year. “I don’t think it will be a campaign issue," she commented, “ I think people will have forgotten it by then.” Until the Peace Camp began its highly vocal and visible presence, the plant’s employees and the community at large were rarely confronted with the political effects of the work being done at the RUISE THE PUGET SOUND WOMEN'S PEACE CAMP STORY AND PHOTOS BY KATHLEEN REYES plant. In their regular contacts with the workers, the Peace Camp women argue that cruise missile production is a crime as defined by the Nuremberg Charter (see box), and that Boeing employees have a moral and legal obligation to question their part in the process. Some workers argue with equal conviction that their activities are justified by government sanction, or posit that the assembly of a missile capable of killing 2 million people has no greater moral imperative attached to it than the assembly of a household appliance. Nevertheless, referring to the 40-per-month production rate, one employee conceded, “this isn’t toasters.” TTo date over 700 missiles have been shipped by truck to strategic air command bases for B-52 deployment. An ALCM leaves Boeing complete save for the armament it will carry. Though capable of delivering other kinds of bombs, it is designed to bear the W-80, a 270 lb. warhead which is fitted by the Air Force. This explosive unit packs a 200 kiloton punch equal to 200,000 tons of TNT, or 15 Hiroshima bombs. Only a few missile parts, including the slender wings, are manufactured at Boeing. Hence, half of the $1 million per missile price tag goes to outside suppliers. Assembly begins with bolting together aluminum segments that form the fusilage. Because every available pocket within the missile is used to accomodate its 185 gallons of JP-10 dense fuel, the 18-ft., 3000 lb. device has been described as “a cast aluminum fuel tank powered by a tiny turbofan engine,” the motor being about the size of a kitchen trash can. At speeds up to 500 mi/hr., the ALCM can travel its 1500-mi. range at around 200 ft. elevation, below radar detection. Its computer brain reads the terrain so that the missile will steer clear of obstructions until striking, finally, within 100 feet of its target. The Air Force order is expected to total some 1700 cruise missiles, keeping Boeing employees busy through 1985. Allowing for very slight turnover on the cruise staff, and assuming that only % of all the ALCM’s ordered will be fitted with warheads, each cruise missile worker employed by Boeing will correspond to the destructive capacity of 15 Hiroshima bombings. The Peace Camp has existed in a 4- bedroom house since the September 9th expiration of the park land lease. The new arrangement is less expensive than the original, and the house remains fairly spartan, chiefly appointed by a few hangings and many informational signs such as the one on the office file cabinet that reads, “Assume the phone is tapped. Be discrete.” Most women sleep in the ac- reish back yard in tents pitched on slatted platforms or in the yurt, a circular canvas shelter of Mongolian design about 30 feet in diameter with a wood floor. Only a few live continuously at the house. The rest are passing through from nearby, from other states, or occasionally from other nations, and staying from anywhere between a day to several months. 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