RAYMER, Colo-Few in Colorado know about N8 or N7, or 2, or 3 or N anything. But a 19-year old Colorado Springs resident does now. The teenager who attended a Saturday vigil at the location of the N8 Missile Silo near Raymer in northeastern Colorado and gave his name simply as “Abe” expressed shock upon having learned just days earlier that nuclear missiles are housed locally, “I learned that there’s a nuclear bomb buried below. I was just shocked that there was nobody there. That it was not visible. It was so invisible. You would have never known, even if you’d driven past it, that a death weapon was buried beneath. And I don’t think that’s right.”
Annually groups from around Colorado gather to remind the general public of the 49 nuclear missile sites currently located in Colorado. And the missiles remain on ready-alert, meaning launch-ready by the National Command Authority to kill millions upon hitting a designated target.
It’s the threat that draws people to the site. In October of 2002, Catholic nuns Carol Gilbert, Jackie Hudson, and Ardeth Platte were arrested after they entered the missile site of N8 and poured blood and hammered on the missile housing lid and tracks. They each were sentenced to 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 years in prison. Sister Hudson has since died but Sisters Gilbert and Platte returned to the site in 2015 for the first time to carry on their work. 
Sister Platte told The Nation Report what it was like to be back 13 years later, ” It reminds me of the work we have to do. The military came and we said that this is an illegal site because this missile is threatening to use it against other people and you can never threaten to use nuclear weapons according to the International Court of Justice. So we just taught the military the day they came that it was not something that they should be part of. That it was a crime happening here. This is a crime scene. And it’s still a crime scene.”
Bill Sulzman, a peace activist from Colorado Springs led a discussion at Saturday’s vigil, “The Minuteman Missiles in Colorado were the last to be put in. The very first to be put in were in Montana. There were Titan missiles also in Colorado before this. This got to be the last of the Minuteman Missiles to go in, the last of the 1000 that eventually went in from 1962 to 1967. At some point in the history of the Minuteman they went from one warhead to three. Then they went back to one after the Berlin Wall came down. They took out 550 of the [Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles]. The bombs here are roughly 18-20 times the Hiroshima bomb. It would definitely kill off a city.”
Shortly after the vigil’s conclusion a US Air Force Hummer approached the group from the main road (Colorado Highway 14) and warned the group of potential arrest:
At the time, most participants had left the area already while others were packing to leave. No arrests took place.
Some at the vigil had spent time in prison or had been arrested for protesting at other missile sites in the US. Sulzman was arrested in August of 2000 for protesting at another missile site, N7 near Raymer, Colorado. Vigil organizers said that this vigil in particular remembered “peacemakers who have gone before us, especially those recently departed: Ken Seaman who has been with us at this silo for many years and Amelie Starkey whose funeral is today. We are grateful for their work for peace and justice.”
And for the next generations of those working for peace, Abe said, “I hope the government responds to public outcry.”
