80-year-old sentenced for vandalizing Kings Bay sub base

Kings Bay Plowshares protested nuclear weapons on submarine base

April 2018 booking photo of Elizabeth McAlister (Camden County Sheriff's Office)

ST. MARYS, Ga. – The first of seven defendants of an anti-nuclear weapons group convicted of breaking into and vandalizing Submarine Base Kings Kings Bay two years ago was sentenced Monday to 17 months, which is the time served since her arrest, according to Bobby Christine, U.S. District Attorney for the Southern District of Florida.

Elizabeth McAlister, 80, from New London, Connecticut, was also ordered to pay $33,500 in restitution and serve three years of supervised release.

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McAlister was accused of conspiracy, destruction of property, depredation of government property and trespassing. She was one of seven Catholic activists from a group calling itself Kings Bay Plowshares arrested in April 2018.

A news release on the group’s Facebook page said the group got onto the St. Marys base, carrying hammers and “baby bottles of their own blood.”

The group, which is opposed to nuclear weapons and advocates active resistance to war, tried to “convert weapons of mass destruction,” the release said.

Kings Bay public affairs office spokesman Scott Bassett said at the time that no personnel or facilities were ever threatened but said the base’s security measures were being reviewed after the protesters were able to sneak onto the base.

King’s Bay is the Navy’s Atlantic Ocean Trident port with six ballistic missile subs and two guided missile subs.