Back in the late 1980s, I was a DSCS-III Planner Analyst (satellite jock) at Falcon AFB (now named Schriever AFB). From time to time, a bunch of protesters would exercise their 1st Amendment rights by standing outside the gate holding signs. No one paid any attention to them. I honestly wondered what they thought they were accomplishing. Did they actually believe that one day, we'd be driving home and say, "Oh my God! I've been wrong all along! I can't do this anymore!" Yeah, right.

Once in a while, the protests were more creative. My personal favorite was when they released a bison inside the gate ("Turn Falcon back to the prairie" or some such idea.) The security police had a tough time chasing down the bison. I'll bet they were hoping the police would shoot the bison. We all got a laugh out of that one. No harm was done, to Falcon or to the bison.