OCR Text |
Show Weteye Bombs Moved Wednesday bombs either and supported the idea of having them detoxified. Governor Matheson has repeatedly complained about ' Utah being an "easy target" when it comes to being a "dumping" area for military waste material including radioactive waste. The controversial transfer of 888 nerve agent bombs know as "weteyes" began Wednesday morning according accord-ing to U.S. Army public information officials. An official government press release issued Wednesday Wed-nesday morning said two C-141's, U.S. Air Force aircraft, successfully completed comple-ted two flights to Michael Airfield at the Dugway Proving Ground in Utah. As of Wednesday, a total of two missions had been flown, the first one arrived at Dugway at 7:46 a.m. and the second touched down at 8:39 a.m. The Air Force planes used were part of the 63rd Military Airlift Wing out of Norton Air Force Base in San Bernardino, California. The flights were part of the movement of the deadly chemical material from the Rocky Mountain Arsenal in Denver, Colorado to the Tooele Army Depot, Utah. Acording to army officials, the bombs will remain in an "exclusion area" under tight security at Dugway until they are transported to Tooele Depot's south area where the "material will be retained in permanent storage". A total of fifteen flights are planned. Exact flight dates have not been announced for security reasons but Army officials have said the move would be completed by October 10. Congress ordered the move over protests from Colorado Governor Richard Lamm, Colorado Congresswoman Patricia Shroeder and Utah Governor Scott Matheson. Upon learning of the first two flights Matheson commented com-mented he was "happy the flights were concluded without with-out incident but it hasn't changed my feelings about them. I do, however, feel responsible for raising the military's consciousness resulting re-sulting in increased safety precautions." The 888 bombs were leaking and needed to be moved. Matheson had threatened threa-tened to fight the move in court but lost 'his option when Congress voted to proceed with it. The governor wanted the bombs de-toxified at the present facilities in the Rocky Mountain Moun-tain Arsenal. Most of the bombs contain the nerve agent GB, a deadly toxic chemical used in "germ" warfare. Colorado officials didn't want the leaking |