Three arrested going to Peterson Air Force Base to pray at chapel.

By ANSLEE WILLETT THE GAZETTE



    Three anti-war protesters were arrested Friday while trying to walk onto Peterson Air Force Base to pray at the chapel.

     Doug Gale, 82, and Sisters Esther Kisamore, 65, and Barbara Huber, 73, were served summonses on suspicion of trespassing.

    They were among about 55 protesters who gathered between 3 and 4 p.m. outside the main gate of Peterson Air Force Base off U.S. Highway 24.

    The fourth-annual event was sponsored by the Sisters Witness Against War, a group started by Roman Catholic nuns in Colorado Springs .

    They picked Friday because it was the eve of the 60th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima .

    “It's very important to be here. War has become the business of this nation, and of course, it's wrong. It is wrong,” Huber said minutes before being arrested.

    “We're on a track that is anti-life in every way,” she continued.

    Protesters sang, “We are gentle, angry people” and held peace flags and signs that said, “War — Not in My Name.”

    Some drivers leaving the base honked their horns for the crowd. One man yelled, “Get a life!”

    About 3:45 p.m., protesters inched toward the front gate.

     Gale , Kisamore and Huber kept walking. About a dozen military police swarmed them, while five Colorado Springs police officers and three El Paso County sheriff's deputies watched.

    “We want to go to the chapel,” Huber said.

    Protesters said the chapel should be open to all worshippers, but military police considered them trespassers and arrested them.

    All three are scheduled to appear in court Aug. 29.

Sister Mary Collen Schwarz of Benet Hill Monastary holds a globe Friday that has hearts on it indicating people killed for religious activity around the world during the past two years.