Infinite rows of lockers that stretch from floor to ceiling, mundane patterns on the tile floors, colorful posters declaring pep rallies and blood drives, freshmeat dressed to a tee and seniors slopping on sweatpants that may or may not have been washed in a month. ), Ice Harbor Dam (right). Richland Bombers Limitless 1/4 Zip Hoodie $68.00. One participant exclaimed, Lets not talk about the bad things, then changed the subject to presidents who had visited the site and a local graduate who played for the Pittsburgh Steelers. I am proud of Richland High School and I am proud that the allies were able to win WWII. Your favorite beach reads and binge-worthy Netflix shows. The highly controversial mascot has always caused a buzz amongst not only the Richland community, but statewide. [12] In the 1960s, they won the third place game four times in five years. Forget about political correctness, forget about the snowflakes who cry that we are horrible people. It is a bitter pill to swallow and maybe that is why we have been avoiding it for so long. Johnson. Photo courtesy of Walla Walla District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.). She confesses her profuse love for this song, but she doesnt even understand it. The Atom Bomb cannot distinguish its worshipers from its opponents, and does not care about their worship. You reward yourself for studying and consume so much pizza that it actually consumes you. Its industrial and agricultural settlement is imperative" (Dec. 14, 1950). We should never forget the past. Since then, he feels branded by some alumni as a conspirator looking to rewrite history yet again. 558 Followers, 44 Following, 56 Posts - See Instagram photos and videos from Richland Bomber Basketball (@rhsbomberbb) Of course, the pride Richland has in the bomb may have its price, as there may be consequences for a town which has worked with radioactive poisons since 1944.3 I direct attention to the following article: My relationship to the bomb as image begins with my birth in Richland, Washington, in 1950, home of the Richland High School Bombers, where pretty cheerleaders still wear the logo of a mushroom cloud across their bosoms. Thats very, very patriotic, he said. Hanford and the Bomb: An Oral History of World War II, Legend and Legacy: Fifty Years of Defense Production at the Hanford Site, n the Home Front: The Cold War Legacy of the Hanford Nuclear Site, River of Life, Channel of Death: Fish and Dams on the Lower Snake, Center for the Study of the Pacific Northwest, University of Washington. (Reproduced in Grossman, "Hanford," PNQ 85:1, p.8. However, we are having a little trouble selling that dam. The reason for the change in The Richland Villager article of September 13, 1945 was not the bomber, but the national publicity associated with Richland and the atomic bomb. Us. The top five things on your summer bucket list this year. Plutonium manufactured at the site was used in the nuclear bomb detonated over Nagasaki, Japan. Forget about all that crap and think about the average Joe who died because their government chose to not surrender. Richland Bombers Jammer w/ Logo $42.00. The Hanford Reach thus became the last "free-flowing" stretch of the Columbia in Washington state upstream from Bonneville Dam. We wouldn't even be talking about if they didn't bomb Pearl Harbor first. Or President Clinton? A symbol representing that kind of destruction is not a proper mascot for a public high school; also, it is insensitive and demaning towards the civilians that died in Japan from the nuclear bombs that were dropped. Need some creative inspiration? The Cold-War buildup at Hanford also increased the size of the growing metropolitan area known as the Tri-Cities. The video then features a statement by a Japanese exchange student attending Richland. WWII was horrific and terrifying and one of the darkest experiences that has ever happened on this earth. RHS won three state championships in the span of five years between 2000 and 2005. Yet in late 1945 and 1946 the outlook for Hanford remained uncertain as the United States debated the future of atomic weapons and its own role in world affairs. As the region has diversified since its past as a federally owned Atomic City where 90% of the population was either employed by or a dependent of Hanford, the school has since received criticism for its depiction of a mushroom cloud as an unofficial logo for the school, believing that the logo and the mascot to be a shameful reminder of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.[5]. The shift began in 1993, when the schools installed a mural in the courtyard depicting a B-17 from 1944 called Days Pay. The bomber was named by workers from Hanford who rallied together to donate one days wages to purchase a B-17 for the war effort. Prep Sportswear is not affiliated with the Richland High School Bookstore or the RHS Bookstore. In my opinion, I cannot do a better debunking of this argument than Joseph R. Stromberg does here on Antiwar.com: This article refers to Richland as a replacement for the Atomic Boom Town of Hanford. (See Fallout from Bushs Tactical Nukes on the American West.). The Electric Woman by (new pen name) James Scott ~ on Amazon. It had failed to become a major center for nuclear power plants, nuclear research, or the importation of nuclear wastes. We have got to stop kidding ourselves and pretending that the "bombers" are not representing the bombs dropped on the Japanese. There I grew up among my friends and their parents, workers at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, the birthplace of the plutonium bomb later dropped upon the city of Nagasaki, Japan, an incendiary device which killed 70,000 human beings. It seems to me that would put a little dent in the pride around [the mascot], Pritikin said. Beginning in 1943, the site was used to produce plutonium for the bomb that brought an end to World War II. The nuclear facilities at Hanford were built up in separate phases between 1942 and 1982. Or President Bush? Peace activists both local and Japanese, have made suggestions that it might be insensitive to celebrate such an act of destruction: Some students did try to change the high school emblem in the sixties, at the height of Vietnam-era protests. The local Atomic Ale Brewpub sells pints of Half-Life Hefe and Cerium Saison. Map of the Hanford Engineer Works, 1943-1945 (left). Why do we celebrate this? The bomber mascot warps the war into a time filled with only glory and hard work. What about President Obama? Confident that nuclear power plants were the wave of the future, they lobbied the federal government to authorize construction of a ninth reactor at Hanford, one that could produce both plutonium for nuclear weapons and kilowatts for the BPA power grid. The mascot is named after Archie Purcell, a WWII veteran who was a ball turret gunner on the famous B-17 "A Days Pay". And around the state, and the nation, there is a growing sentiment for schools with Native American mascots (Chiefs, Braves, Indians) to change their mascots. Artist unknown. Burbank, CA 91502, Location: 11042 Ventura Blvd, Studio City, CA 91604, Location: 6377 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90028, Location: 1611 N El Centro Ave Los Angeles, CA 90028, Location:1810 Wilcox Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90028, USA, Location: 250 N. 1st St. Burbank CA 91502, Location:14741 Calvert St. Van Nuys, CA 91411, Location: 800 S. La Brea Ave, Los Angeles CA 90036, Songs About Being 17Grey's Anatomy QuotesVine Quotes4 Leaf CloverSelf Respect, 1. 2016 Al Jazeera America, LLC. It seemed as if the region's economic future was assured. One Army Corps spokesperson explained, "We are in the business of building projects. [A good summary of the politics behind the construction of dams on the lower Snake is Keith C. Petersen, "Battle for Ice Harbor: Fish, Navigation, and the Lower Snake River, 1948-1962," Pacific Northwest Quarterly 86 (Fall 1995): 178-88. Improving, advancing, encouraging and promoting the interests of athletics, activities and academics Most notoriously of all, the Richland High Bombers, after 1970 or so, adopted an atomic-blast mushroom cloud as the school logo. Pritikin is a Hanford Downwinder, who watched her parents die from cancer and has thyroid disease that she attributes to the radioactive emissions from Hanford. Just because I am upset about Japanese citizen lives lost does not mean that all my compassion is used up on one group of people. They generally did not regard nuclear wastes as a desirable icon for local towns (although they did see "remediation" of those wastes as an economic opportunity). We cannot change the past and we cannot celebrate it, either. As a former manager of the Department of Energys Office of River Protection, Olinger led cleanup efforts at Hanford. Most residents of the region (and maybe even of the Tri-Cities) likely supported the 1992 recommendations of the National Park Service that the Hanford Reach be designated a "federal wild-and-scenic river," to be managed by the U.S. Lets Not Talk About the Bad Things, Once again, I am reminded of Stanley Kubricks great film, Dr. Strangelove, and especially its subtitle, Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. The good doctor would feel quite at home in Richland. Pre-studying study break at Starbucks. And that's the last major dam site left on the river. Jim Qualheim, student activities director and track coach at the school, said students responded well. Perhaps the Cold War would endure at Hanford in the form of productive reactors. And she dances. RICHLAND, Wash. The workers inside Hanfords nuclear reactors in the early 1940s knew their jobs were important, even if many of them didnt know why. At LogoLynx.com find thousands of logos categorized into thousands of categories. The Columbia Basin News (Feb. 28, 1951), in advocating construction of Ice Harbor Dam along the lower Snake, conceded that salmon runs would be injured but considered that a small price to pay: "If the state is to be maintained as a glorified national park, then the desert will remain desert, and the productive potential must be discarded and forgotten. In the late 1980s the Department of Energy (or DOE), which had emerged in 1977 as successor to the AEC, decided to make a huge commitment to cleaning up the wastes at its nuclear sites. Richland was a cross country power in the early 1970s, winning a then-record five straight AAA state boys' titles under coaches Max Jensen (197072) and Mike Hepper (197374). It is time to change the Bomber mascot to one that doesn't receive weird looks from people outside of Eastern Washington. In April 1963, R. W. Beck and Asc. You can contact us through email at info@a3performance.com, chat with us online, or give us a call at (262) 244-0442! Heres a link about where the nickname came from and the efforts to change or alter the nickname and logos over the years. They called it the R-Cloud. The school was founded as Columbia High School in 1910 to serve the educational needs of the small town of Richland. During the late 1950s and early 1960s, Seattle learned to call itself "jet city," among other "aerospacey" things, as Boeing's increasing production defined the local economy. It has known security flaws and a limited feature set. UW Site Map Center for the Study of the Pacific Northwest, University of Washington. Poster for 1948 Atomic Frontier Days (right). Richland High School is located in Richland, Washington, where the Handford site is located. (Special Collections, University of Washington, Nell Lewis MacGregor papers, box 1. We are taking pride in the death of the newly weds who dreamt of starting a family together. For just as long as Richland students and alumni have shouted that they are proud of the cloud, the R-Cloud has raised eyebrows. I wonder what its like to be free. Americans turned against nuclear power during the later 1970s and early 1980s. Your favorite summer hobby and how you got into it. The high school is decorated with an absurdly large BOMBERS plastered on the side of the gym that can be seen from the opposite side of the Yakima River; atomic clouds litter the buildings; an over-sized, gaudy R-Cloud lays on the center of both gymnasiums. We [built] this bomb that ends the war, she said. Founder, Artistic Director, and horn player of New York Philomusica. Your brain hurts. As devoted as Seattle was to Cold-War symbols, however, it could not match Richland, Washington, bedroom town for Hanford, in its identification with the Cold War. But she does not hear the same song as me. Best of all, you can do it all from the comfort of your own home or wherever you happen to be spending your summer. She dances, but she does not hear the same song as me. Now comes the great debate that scholars have, whether those were really the only options. In 1985, one newspaper said the logo gave the impression that Washingtonians viewed the atomic industry with chilling flippancy. In 1988, Tom Brokaw brought television cameras and a Japanese delegation to watch students vote in favor of keeping the cloud as their mascot. The browser or device you are using is out of date. Nuclear weapons had helped the U.S. bring an end to World War Two and stand firm against the Soviet Union during the Cold War, but they had also exacted a very high environmental cost with which Americans became more preoccupied. Thats our community. In the photo, he stares into the camera with a look that dares someone to challenge him. Shop for the latest selection of Richland High School Bombers fan gear and apparel. Standards have been set for centuries regarding expectations surrounding dress, especially for women. Visit the Richland High School Spirit Wear Shop on Prep Sportswear today! Richland has won three state championships in boys' basketball, most recently in 1979, a team led on the floor by Mark Hoke, Bob Kennedy, and Brian Kellerman. Windshield stickers on cars in the area boast theres a Bomber inside. Previous Seasons All-Time Roster. Again, the Hanford community closed ranks and said the mushroom cloud was a symbol of pride, and that to change it would betray local tradition. Me? It never occurred to any of us that by virtue of living in this stark desert land by the mighty Columbia River we were becoming down-winders, passive recipients of massive radiation leaks from the Hanford Reservation. '83 - Richland Bombers Class of 1983This is a Public Group '84 - Richland High School (RHS) Bombers Class of 84This is a Public Group AND. Contamination from Hanford may at times have created the most radioactive stream in North America, but the Hanford Reach also became one of the last great spawning beds for salmon in the United States. It is estimated that 200,000 Japanese people died when the atomic bombs exploded, and thousands more died later from radiation exposure. One night, at a bridge club, I asked the women what their husbands did and did not tell them about workplace accidents. If you are gonna take my R-Cloud away from me, he said, rolling back his black sweatshirt to reveal a green and gold R-Cloud tattooed onto his right shoulder, youre gonna rip it off my cold, dead arm.. MAXPREPS; CBSSPORTS.COM; 247SPORTS; B. New Richland city seal (right). This was especially impressive considering the football team had won state earlier in that same school year. (732)548-0013/0015. When I see that, I see that vaporized shadow in the cement and I see those melted baby bottles and melted tricycles. And the federal government retained the predominant voice in the site's future through the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. Like, Lets celebrate the fact that we can destroy and kill with this atomic technology. She sees it as a blight on Richland. Richland High has an enrollment of roughly 2,000; its WIAA classification is 4A, for the state's largest schools. Advocates of dams expressed little concern for the ecological consequences. Not the United States government, not the president, us: The people. Moreover, the WPPSS reactors not only ran into enormous cost overruns but also were deemed increasingly unnecessary as forecasts for future demand for electricity were revised downward. Olingers mother was a resident of Nagasaki when the bomb dropped. Outside the. Step inside any 'ole High School. I wonder how strong a feeling can actually get before it is too much to bear. Operation of the Priest Rapids Dam, just upstream from Hanford, causes the river to rise or fall as much as 10 feet over a fairly short time.) The Bombers have 115 players on their Basketball all-time roster. For those who dont know, they are the Richland Bombers, with a logo consisting of an R with a mushroom cloud behind it. Covington.[6]. Youll never be out of style. Hes not willing to see this symbol dismissed without a fight. What do you see? Their skin was dripping from their bodies.. If we truly wanted to celebrate our contributions, we would focus on celebrating scientific and engineering accomplishments that have occurred at Handford that didn't directly cost thousands of people their lives. Jennifer Kustanovich, SUNY Stony Brook5. While building Hanford the Army and DuPont had also laid out the town of Richland to house the families of Hanford's operations employees during and after the war; the planned community had a population of around 15,000 at war's end. The Hanford Site, near Richland, is where the US government and military performed top secret work to produce plutonium bomb-grade material as part of WWII's Manhattan Project. Octavio DoValle Sr. has been the Richland High School boys soccer coach since 1987. These chains still hold me to someone who left a long time ago. Soon, local children were drinking tainted milk, fish from the Columbia River were contaminated, and the Oregon Health Division deemed it the most radioactive river in the world from World War II to the 1970s. Thousands of people who were unknowingly exposed have filed claims, but very few have seen any compensation. In high school, I worked in a casual restaurant that served soup so I wasnt dressing to impress there either. Other nearby towns, including Pasco and Kennewick, had also expanded considerably beyond their 1940 size. Columbia High was renamed Richland High School as the small farming community continued to develop as weapons production climbed during the Cold War and the town was designated as a first class city in 1958. Only one of the Hanford power reactors was actually finishedway behind schedule and over budgetand the Washington Public Power Supply System went broke. The unfortunate reality is that the damage is already done. Thus during the 1980s and 1990s there appeared a forceful opposition to proposals for dredging or damming more of the Columbia. Its splashed across the center of the shiny gym floor and printed on T-shirts and infant onesies. Throughout my time in college, especially studying abroad, I found that I loved jeans, baggy sweaters, my Air Force 1s that I have worn down to the point its crazy, small rings, and dresses. ), The creation of a plutonium factory left an enormous footprint on south-central Washington. #16045). Hanford was home to the Manhattan Project's B Reactor, the first full-scale plutonium production reactor in the world. Manhattan Project Medal (right) (Courtesy U.S. Department of Energy). The RHS mascot glorifies violence and ignores the tragedy our contributions caused. I would like to preface this article by saying that I dont think Ive ever been known for my style, so take that as you will. Richland city seal in 1958 (left). You've been studying all day and still don't understand the majority of the terms. However, in the 1950s the people residing in the vicinity of Hanford began pushing to have their voices heard, too. Some hoped to return to the vision, laid out most fully during the 1930s and early 1940s, of a stream harnessed to serve the economic needs of the region and the national-security needs of the nation. Please update your browser. That fall, the students of Columbia High voted to change their mascot from the Beavers to the Bombers, and the yearbook for that school year was dedicated to the atomic bomb. To sign up, email glorie@theodysseyonline.com. Hanford's economy kept going during the mid-1980s, spurred by President Reagan's defense build-up and by proposals to make storage of nuclear wastes from other sites an important part of the future. Those bombs actually saved the Japanese culture, he said. [One introduction to wartime Hanford is S. L. Sanger, Hanford and the Bomb: An Oral History of World War II (Seattle:Living History Press, 1989). (By the 1990s, the idea of "free-flowing" had to be relative. Indeed, the troubles associated with the development of nuclear power had helped to spur the rethinking of those attitudes in the years after 1970. The 1999 state champion team, led by future United States World Cup and gold medal-winning goalkeeper Hope Solo, was undefeated and ranked fourth in the nation. Her daughter graduated from Richland High this year. This was part of the Manhattan Project. . Yet the economy of Hanford and the Tri-Cities (if not the environmental quality) again seemed secure, fifty years after the atomic age, and forty-five years after the Cold War, had arrived in Washington. I will treat the situation with respect and dignity and look at the consequences of the atomic bomb. Plastering paintings the size of a gym wall and selling onesies designed for newborns with a bomb on it is a disgrace to those who lost their lives to the very plutonium we built. "The West is the last economic frontier. Senator Henry M. Jackson (D, WA) introduced a bill to this effect in 1956, and ten years later the dual-purpose N Reactor was completed at Hanford. Richland Bombers Brief w/Logo $35.00. I forget what is and only know what used to be. The plant generated an ever-increasing amount of plutonium as well as high levels of radioactive and chemical wastes, some of which were "stored" on the Hanford site and some of which were released to the atmosphere, the Columbia River, and surrounding lands. Peace! the local newspaper headlines cried on Aug. 14, 1945. Our bomb clinched it!, This town just went totally nuts, said Burt Pierard, 74, who remembers beating pots and pans in a parade of children around his neighborhood. The development of a "local" population added an important ingredient to the politics of Hanford. One of Jacobs' notable alumni is Travis Buck of the Cleveland Indians, formerly of the Oakland Athletics. 1 [January 1994], p.13. She called the logo and the. However, we don't celebrate the American lives lost but we do celebrate the Japanese deaths. When I was a child, it was made clear to me that the Atomic Bomb was, at best, a necessary evil. Mushroom cloud logos are proudly displayed throughout the school and the student body used to shout "nuke 'em" at sporting events.[4]. All along at Hanford, they had been contributing to the war effort,producing plutonium that would make up the core of Fat Man. I don't want to focus on whether the US government made the right call. The Bombers won back to back state golf titles in 1968 and 1969. We should never forget the past. Is that how most Bomber fans see the R-Cloud? Richland High School Bombers logo (below). They worried in particular about the local economy, not the health risks presented by Hanford wastes. Please try again later or using a different browser. The music takes control of my vacant body and for a solid three minutes I am nowhere to be found. The money and manpower applied to the waste problem at Hanford did not initially produce encouraging results, and there were charges of gross inefficiency, excess spending, and inadequate technology. This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator. I find it somewhat comical that this symbol is portrayed prominently on the Richland High Web site (Richland High School: Home of the Bombers), while the dresscode on that same site forbids offensive symbols, including symbols of violence. Lets create a culture that celebrates expression rather than forces unrealistic expectations. I finally understand that heartbreak has a sound. Here in Clark County, weve got our fair share of interesting high school mascots (i.e. The Tri-Cities had to face Hanford's future, and the end of the Cold War, without the cushion provided by Washington's powerful Democratic politicians. Hanford had ended its plutonium-producing career in 1987, the Tri-City Nuclear Industrial Council had renamed itself the Tri-City Industrial Development Council in 1985, and in 1990 Richland adopted a new city logo that did not include the atom. Residents could live on Proton Lane, bowl at the Atomic Lanes, and dine at Fission Chips. In 2019, "Archie" a B-17 Ball Turret Gunner was named the first-ever character mascot at Richland High School. Celebrating 15 Years in Business The facilities of were extensively renovated in 1964, and remodeled again in stages between 1995 and 2006. This is a response to "Ways to Follow Clothing Trends in 2021.. Kristen Haddox, Penn State University4. Learn how and when to remove this template message, "Richland High School's bomber mascot and mushroom cloud logo in the news again", "Richland High's mushroom cloud logo surprised a Japanese student. The Richland High School Store allows you to customize Bombers clothing and merch. Richland High School is located in Richland, Washington, where the Handford site is located. The paradoxical result was that the presence of the plutonium plantwhich dispensed a considerable amount of radioactivity to the cold, clear water prevented the damming of more than 50 miles of the river. Tears fall from my face the same way petals fall from wilted flowers. A soulless monster that was out to destroy not only all humanity but possibly all life on earth. (Reproduced in Keith C. Petersen,"Battle for Ice Harbor Dam: Fish, Navigation, and the Lower Snake River, 1948-1962." Were all Bombers and proud of our connection to the atomic bomb, and also proud of Days Pay. Petersen also wrote River of Life, Channel of Death: Fish and Dams on the Lower Snake (Lewiston, ID: Confluence Press, 1995).] He always had a good taste in music and its no wonder this song was his favorite. This page is not available in other languages. The highly controversial mascot has always caused a buzz amongst not only the Richland community, but statewide. You show up to your 8 a.m. final with about three hours of sleep, no coffee and only half of the information you studied readily available in your mind. Some people look at [the R-Cloud] as a peace symbol. By 1943, the Manhattan District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had acquired the towns of Richland, Hanford and White Bluffs, designated the area as the Hanford Atomic Works, and began the development of the atomic bomb. People who supported the war effort and people who despised it. When the Tri-Cities of the 1990s spoke about the technology of the future, they focused not on the atom but on the development of new methods for managing the wastes created during World War Two and the Cold War in the course of plutonium production. [3], Richland's mascot is the "Bomber", officially named for the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress built in Seattle, but also in recognition of the city's contributions as an "Atomic City" in World War Two.
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