Bath Iron Works, Maine (Oct 18) Veterans for Peace march & rally at Aegis destroyer Christening featuring Granny D. Aegis is outfitted with missile defense systems Assemble Waterfront Park on Commercial St. at 9:00 am. On Oct 18, the U.S. Navy will Christen a new Aegis destroyer called the Wayne E. Meyer (DDG 108) at Bath Iron Works (BIW) in Maine. Rear Admiral Meyer is known as the father of the Aegis program. The Navy boasts that the Aegis space satelite-directed phased array radar gives the ship the ability to track, target and destroy aircraft, cruise missiles, and ballistic missilesto completely dominate a theater of operations.
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The Christening was met by a protest organized by Maine Veterans for Peace and the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space in an effort to express opposition to the deployment of another offensive Aegis ship -- and also to call for the conversion of the BIW. Seventy-five people walked through down-town Bath and demonstrated at the BIW gates. Hundreds of people passed by the demonstrators. There was a subsequent article in the local paper. For the first time ever, a worker from BIW was a featured speaker at the rally held just outside the shipyard gate. Peter Woodruff has worked at BIW for 27 years and told the 75 people assembled that With the development of the Aegis weapons systems on Navy ships (Aegis is the Greek word for shield) the Navy became more reliant on satellites to guide the so-called