DRONE REPLICAS DELIVERED
Submitted by Nick Mottern
Submitted by Nick Mottern
On Sunday, July 15, in the parking lot of Fristch’s Big Boy Restaurant in Huber Heights, Ohio, next to Dayton, George Guerci and I delivered four Reaper drone replicas to anti-drone war organizers who drove there to meet us from Chicago, Wisconsin and Indiana.
Two of the four replicas went to Indiana, one of them for Hoosiers for Peace for an anti-drone tour of their state. The other Indiana replica went Robert Rast, whose son, Navy corpsman Benjamin Rast, was killed accidentally in a Reaper drone strike in Afghanistan in April 2011; that strike also killed Marine Staff Sergeant Jeremy Smith. Robert Rast has set the replica up in his front yard and sits with it, telling those who stop what happened to his son. (See attached photos.)
(It is important to note that for all the vaunted accuracy and great care in killing enabled by the Reaper and Predator drones, Benjamin Rast and Jeremy Smith were killed because of misidentification by the drone “pilots” sitting at consols in the United States. Mr. Rast told me that he has seen the video tape of the combat scene in which his son was killed as viewed by the “eye” of the Reaper that killed his son, and there is no way that anyone could tell friend from foe in what the Reaper “saw”.)
The Wisconsin replica was picked up by David Soumis and Lars Pripp who were glad to get it in time for use at AirVenture 2012, a huge gathering of members of the Experimental Aviation Association (EAA) in Oshkosh, Wisconsin from July 23 – 29. The convention will bring pilots and planes, some very unusual, from across the US, and it is likely that a number may be concerned about the entrance of drones into US airspace that is permitted in legislation signed into law in February.
The Chicago drone was picked up by Joe Scarry, and it will be first used at the Chicago Air and Water Show August 18th and 19th. Joe is also eager to work on expanding the number of groups around the country using the replicas and increasing production.
Tomorrow, Friday, we will begin building the next series of drones to meet requests from Delaware, Hawaii, Albany, NY and Oregon.
In mid-September, we will be returning to Ohio with the Know Drones Tour, visiting Columbus, Dayton and Springfield. That part of Ohio is extremely important to United States drone warfare. The Predator, Reaper and Global Hawk drone programs are managed at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base outside Dayton, and a Predator control base is being created at the Ohio Air National Guard installation at Springfield Municipal Airport. There are 50 firms doing drone related work in the area, and they and local politicians and academic institutions are lobbying the Federal Aviation Administration to establish a drone test area at Springfield or Wilmington, Ohio, as a way of boosting local businesses and increasing jobs. With Congressional redistricting, House leader John Boehner will begin representing the Springfield area.
As indicated above, we intend to try to get the replicas into many more hands to help people do their own drone education tours. If you have skill with tools or know someone who does, please be in touch immediately. This is the moment when we need to get these tools of education to work.
Also, if you have not contributed to the Know Drones Tour, please do so. Any size contribution will be great.
Thank you all for the support and encouragement you have given.
In solidarity,
Nick
