The State : Weapons Trains Halted

Munitions trains like the one that severed the legs of a protester will no longer be used at the Concord Naval Weapons Station, the Navy has decided. Beginning today, trucks will replace the trains, the Navy said, adding that the change was not made because of the accident but because protesters ripped up 120 feet of railroad track during a weekend demonstration. About 7,000 people demonstrated on behalf of former Air Force Capt. S. Brian Willson, whose legs were mangled when he knelt on the tracks last week to try to stop a munitions train. Protesters had been staging demonstrations at the base because the trains carry weaponry to ships, some of them ostensibly bound for contra rebels. Willson 47, has been fitted with artificial limbs and is scheduled to be released from the hospital this week, a hospital spokesman said. “He should have the very best care, and obviously the military should pay for it,” Willson’s wife, Holly Rauen, said. Chuck Goodmacher of Nuremberg Actions, the protest group that began the demonstrations, pledged that demonstrators will also try to block the trucks.