Napalm in Vieques: Navy should engage in better p.r.
Published on Sunday, July 25th 1999 on The San Juan StarThe more I read, see, and hear about our "national" commitment to get the Navy out of Vieques, the more nauseating the whole thing becomes. Now the front page news are that the Navy has used the chemical substance called Napalm in Vieques. The news carried that this was harmful, toxic, and that it may even cause death.
I cannot see how a branch of the Armed Forces can even consider inflicting death upon the enemy. What's happening? Since when have Armed Forces even considered killing as a mechanism of victory in war? Haven't they heard? Even the Puerto Rico National Guard has ceased and desisted of using live ammo, dead ammo, or anything anywhere near life and death to flex its muscles here.
The next time the National Guard is called to action in defense of our society, they will refrain from using BB guns, since they will have had no experience –at least no recent experience– in the damage they can inflict upon the adversary, let alone the enemy. Unless they go overseas to train, and travel at taxpayer's expense.
Well, frightened as I always am about the use of chemical substances (air, water, rice and beans, thank God, are not chemical substances), I ran to the dictionary to find out what Napalm was. In Hawley's Condensed Chemical Dictionary, page 805, I found Napalm. It says; "An aluminum soap of a mixture of oleic, naphthenic, and coconut fatty acids. Properties: Granular powder; mixed with gasoline, it forms a sticky gel that is stable from -40 to 100C." (emphasis mine)
Of course, mixed with gasoline it is dangerous, a fire risk, and can be used as an incendiary agent. Thank God that none of our motor vehicles run on incendiary agents. If they did, all our roads and highways would be filled with chemical substances that are incendiary agents. No, I did not look up gasoline in that dictionary. If it is the stuff I put in my car, I already know it is harmless.
Coconut fatty acids? That sounds either like what grows on a tree used for political purposes here –therefore, the palm in Napalm– or what I sometimes use in my sunblock lotion. I always suspected Piña Coladas were lethal weapons.
Not content with the technical definition, I went to a regular dictionary, this time the American Heritage Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary. This one had this to say about Napalm: "An aluminum soap of various fatty acids that when mixed with gasoline makes a firm jelly used in flame throwers and incendiary bombs." (emphasis also mine) Thank Heaven that the Navy is using only Napalm in Vieques. I hope no one ever considers bringing in any gasoline!
All I can say is that the Navy's public relations firm better get its act together. If the Navy thinks it does not need a public relations firm, it better check with its Commander in Chief. He has not only a firm; he also has a whole press office, image consultants and campaign managers. If the Navy can be so smug and aloof that it need not consider public relations, it should not only get out of Vieques. It should get out of the United States. Right now, the Navy must consider a public relations campaign for crisis management!
The least the Navy can do is explain what Napalm is. By the way, it may also explain what spent uranium is all about, and how it is often used in uranium-glazed pottery.
I –perhaps the only one among 3.7 million– am convinced the Navy needs Roosevelt Roads. The Navy also needs Vieques and the half million cubic miles of air and sea that goes with it. But if the Navy thinks that the world revolves around the Navy, it better talk to Galileo and to John Paul Jones. What planet are they on? What saddens me is that if I have to be defended by bad neighbors, that makes me a worse neighbor than those whose defense I need.
C'mon, Navy! Assume the role of great military power that you are! Ever heard about civilian offensives? There can be offensives too in providing the information that will boost your case. It does exist. How about a bathymetry of the East Coast of the United States and a bathymetry around Vieques? Unclassified nautical charts are available at Miramar Marina. How about VFR Terminal Area (Aeronautical) Charts that show the extent of Atlantic Fleet Weapons Range Alfa and Bravo? Unclassified aeronautical charts are available at Isla Grande Flying School.
Like the lighthouse says, shed light and people will find their own way. The Navy may even discover that, given the right information, some Puerto Ricans can even be reasonable and intelligent.