The State - News from May 11, 1987

Peace activists condemned an Air Force plan to expand an emergency nationwide radio network, saying the program makes dozens of towns nuclear targets, rather than serving as a deterrent to a Soviet attack. Testifying in Sausalito at a public hearing on a draft environmental impact statement, members of anti-war groups, which have denounced the $800-million Ground Wave Emergency Network program since its inception three years ago, said the strategy illustrates the government’s belief that a protracted nuclear war can be fought. GWEN is a system of low-powered radio antennas and transmitters designed to help U.S. military communications keep operating despite the electromagnetic effects of a nuclear explosion.