As thousands of people swarmed to Peterson Air Force base to check out the aerial maneuvers of the Thunderbird pilots last weekend, the activists walked onto the base and began hammering on an F-18A Hornet fighter plane and pouring human blood on a ground communications station used with the Air Force's Milstar satellite.

Carol Gilbert, Jackie Hudson, Anne Montgomery, Ardeth Platte and Liz Walters have been charged with felony criminal mischief and obstructing government operations. Representing three orders within the Catholic Church, the women face possible prison sentences from two to eight years for the more serious felony counts.

The action was part of a campaign of civil disobedience called Sacred Earth and Space Plowshares, inspired by the Biblical passage (Micah 4:3) that extols the hammering of "swords into plowshares." One of the women arrested last week, 73-year-old Anne Montgomery, was part of the original Plowshares action at a General Electric plant in 1980.

This time, Montgomery and the other activists are protesting the continued bombing of Iraq by U.S. jets and the American military's plan to "dominate and control space" for the purpose of fighting wars.

But Colonel Robin Chandler, a spokesperson for the 21st Space Wing, claimed the activists were detained before making contact with the Milstar/Ground 3 apparatus (though local space-peace activist Bill Sulzman claims the women were able to pour blood on the unit).

As for the protesters' charge of celestial imperialism, Chandler said it didn't ruin the base's otherwise successful air show. "It was a shame they chose that opportunity to stage those protests, but those things happen," she said.