If Protestors are Hanging Live Snakes and Toads on Nuclear Missile Silos, What Will They Do Next???? Â
“Katherine,” said Ray, my husband, trying to keep a neutral tone, “ a lieutenant in the U. S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations from Minot just called to speak to you!”
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“What?? Why?”
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“I have no idea, he said he needed to ask you some questions. You are to return his call ASAP.”
My heart froze. It was 2001. I was doing research all around Solen, North Dakota. I had permission from some of the people whose land I was on. In other places, I wasn’t sure who the land belonged to, so I was trespassing. Who was upset with me? What had I done wrong? The Air Force in Minot wants to talk to me?
I researched quickly about Minot Air Force Base and learned that beautiful, pastoral North Dakota covered with lush prairie and rolling hills ideal for grazing cattle and sheep housed a formidable destructive force underground. If the state seceded from the U.S., it would be one of the world’s largest nuclear powers. It has 15 nuclear missile silos, each with ten nuclear-tipped missiles buried 70 feet below ground. If launched they could destroy a large chunk of the world’s population. You see nothing but concrete on the surface, but the silos are protected by a high chain-linked fence topped with barbed wire. Military security officers drive there on a regular basis to check and make certain the facilities are secure from trespassers, terrorists, and environmental activists.
I returned the phone call, having no idea why they needed to speak to me. But the Lieutenant’s calm manner reassured me that I was not in any trouble. He explained why I was called.
Early in July, security officers found snakes, toads, and mice dangling from the barbed wire, still alive and wriggling. Disturbed, they reported it when they returned to the base. Immediately, men were deployed to check all the silos. They were startled to find creepy creatures hanging on thirteen of the silo fences. The Air Force Commander was shaken: Are the activists up to something new now? Was this a sign of an impending attack?
The commander ordered men to watch the areas and to arrest any intruders and look out for suspicious characters. Zealous security details clandestinely and wrote down license numbers of cars that drove past the silos. They interrogated innocent youngsters who bicycled past. They took detailed notes of anything unusual at all, but they found nothing. Still, more critters appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, on top of the silo fences.
One morning, a farmer sat chatting with the security officers parked at one of the missile silos. A bird flew over and pulled off a snake. The farmer remarked, “Yep, that’s a shrike. They put the snake there for their nestlings and now they’re taking it back to the nest.”
“Ridiculous,” thought the security officers, “ This uneducated farmer couldn’t possibly know what he was talking about.” But they had to report any information, no matter how off the wall. So they relayed this to their commanding officer. The administration moved to verify the new information. They phoned the Game and Fish Department in Bismarck.
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“ Is there a bird called a shrike capable of impaling snakes, voles, and other small animals onto barbed wire?”
“Yes indeed, the birds are called loggerhead shrikes. The primary expert in North Dakota at that moment is Katherine Haas, conducting research in Solen.”
The commander wanted me to go to the nuclear missile sites and help them identify the shrikes.
I told the Lieutenant that I was not an expert, my daughter Carola Haas is, and I was continuing her bird research begun with her doctoral thesis. However, I was capable of locating the shrike nests and identifying them.
So it was agreed that they’d send a car down for Ray and me to go to Minot and stay overnight. They also asked if I had a videotape of shrikes for the commander to visually verify the shrikes’ strange behavior. I explained that the Game and Fish folks had filmed a 10-minute news story of my daughter Carola’s research project on shrikes and in the film one could see us banding these beautiful robin-sized birds with sharp curved bills as well as shrikes flying and piercing their prey on thorns and barbed wire. So we could get a copy of the tape there.
Early in the morning the following week, a Jeep Cherokee arrived. Two officers (without obvious rank markings on their uniforms because they said they’d outrank generals if there were a confrontation) stepped out. They had guns and handcuffs strapped to their sides and the Cherokee was equipped with hidden sirens and lights. Ray and I were dressed in slightly torn clothes because we knew we’d be climbing trees where shrikes nested.
When we drove to Bismarck on the way to Minot, we stopped by the video department of the Department of Game and Fish to pick up the tape. When we arrived, the videographer asked, “Could I come along to tape this story of how foolish the Minot folks were to think that it was the protestors who were impaling the creatures?”
The officers got quite upset, “How did you find out? It was top secret! Mr. and Mrs. Haas, you are not to tell anyone about this when we arrive in Minot. If the folks at the motel ask why you guys are here, just say you are visiting.”
We took the videotape and left. At about noon, we stopped at a café for lunch. Ray finished lunch earlier than the rest of us and stepped outside to smoke his cigarette. A customer, who had noticed the guns and handcuffs on the officers, ran to the officers and shouted, “He’s getting away!!!” I guess he thought Ray and I, in our grungy clothes, were prisoners being transported from one jail to another.
Later we arrived in Minot and went to about half the sites, where we identified the shrikes and climbed trees to find their nests and show the officers. The next day we finished surveying the rest of the sites where shrikes had impaled their catch to feed their young. It was an interesting adventure for us.
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Now, as I think back on the events of 2001, and consider the frequent threat of nuclear attack and world annihilation, I can rest assured that at least we are safe from attacks of the dangerous shrikes.