ustxtxb_obs_1973_04_27_50_00009-00000_000.pdf

Project Sanguine Austin Fellow Texans, Project Sanguine is upon us. Project Sanguine is the F-111 of communications systems. It’s the most peculiar idea the military has come up with since Project Mohole. It’s top ten caliber in the all-time annals of boondogglery. It’s going to cost about $1 billion and there are experts who are betting it won’t work. The state of Wisconsin, where Sanguine was originally to have been built, has refused to accept the thing because it will gum up the environment. So guess who’s getting it now. Project Sanguine is supposed to help the Navy communicate better with its nuclear submarines. It’s a grid system of buried antennas 100 miles long and 70 miles wide. The antennas can send low-frequency radio messages from the earth into the ionosphere a belt of electrically charged gases about 50 miles out in space. The radio waves circle the earth, travelling the lower part of the ionosphere. All the way, part of the wave spills down to the earth. The signals go out on frequencies of only 45 to 75 cycles per second, in a band of the radio spectrum not used for other communications. All this requires 6,400 miles of antennas buried six feet deep and 100 transmitters buried 35 feet deep. The Department of Defense originally planned to put this splendid arrangement in the Chequamegon National Forest in northern Wisconsin. It seems that the Laurentian Shield, a nice stretch of solid rock left behind by a glacier in a hurry, provides an optimum geological subsurface for this kind of antenna grid. But Wisconsonites objected. Even though the antennas run in strips across the grid, you still have to take out a bunch of trees to dig that many miles of trench. Ecologists also predicted that digging that many holes and trenches would upset the soil structure. They further worried that the radio signals would create havoc among the wildlife in the area. Sen. Gaylord Nelson, Rep. Les Aspin and Gov. Pat Lucey, all Democrats, opposed the project. The two Republican congressmen from Wisconsin supported it. However, D.O.D. officials finally gave up and agreed to put the thing elsewhere. According to Washington scuttlebutt, then Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird wanted to run for governor in Wisconsin and thought the project’s unpopularity with the voters would hurt his chances. The history of Project Sanguine in Wisconsin is frought with wonders great and small. When the Navy first announced the project in late summer of 1968, Sen. Nelson commenced to wonder when he had ever voted for such a thing. So Nelson called some admiral who trooped over to the Hill with an aide who had a briefcase shackled to his wrist. They opened the briefcase and in it were lots of newspaper clippings stamped “Top Secret.” The secret clips documented the fact that Sanguine had first been voted in 1958 as part of a general Navy research and development program. In any case, it turns out that the next best thing to the Laurentian Shield, radio communications-wise, is the Llano Uplift and Burnet counties. The Navy Department says everything is hunky-dory: they’re busy developing neutralizers and suppressors to minimize the electrical disturbances created by the transmitters \(the kind of thing that makes birds crash of Engineers, which is no collection of ecology freaks, says the Navy documentation is “inconclusive,” and their test results open to question because the test equipment was above ground rather than imbedded in rock. But what the Navy says is good enough for Sen. John Tower. Tower said that the Navy has told him Sanguine isn’t ecologically harmful and he’ll take the Navy’s word for it. Sen. Lloyd Bentsen has said that if Wisconsin doesn’t want Sanguine, we’ll be glad to take it down here. Rep. 0. C. Fisher says, April 27, 1973 9 Did You Know in Texas a Woman Is Not Considered Legal Guardian of Her Own Children?? The Texas Women’s Political Caucus is a multi-partisan organization, working to solve this and other inequities in Texas. Join the united effort to bring women into all areas of political activity and to improve the status of women in Texas. I want to join the TWPC to make the collective voice of women heard on all important political issues: I enclose $2 for 1973 dues I enclose $1 for the legislative report and newsletter. I wish to contribute to the efforts of TWPC I enclose for organizational dues I wish to organize a Caucus in my community. Please send additional information. Name Address City Zip Phone Special interest 1208 Baylor Austin, Texas 78703 474-1798 TEXAS WOMEN’S POLITICAL CAUCUS TWPC lobbies at the state legislature for these bills: Family Planning Child care Credit discrimination Changing discriminatory laws Family Code, Title II TWPC serves as a voice for women’s rights in the state. TWPC urges and supports women running for political office. TWPC unites Texas women in political actionespecially against sexism, racism and institutional violence and poverty. TWPC maintains a state office, with staff, that serves as a clearinghouse for information concerning women’s groups and activities in Texas. TWPC has 20 local caucuses that work on local community problems and projects. JOIN THE EFFORTJOIN TWPC