), The creation of a plutonium factory left an enormous footprint on south-central Washington. Richlands pride flooded into the hallways of the local high school. What about President Obama? Richland found pride in the victory and this pride leaked into Richland culture just like the toxic sludge leaked. We have thousands of custom Richland High School Bombers t-shirts, sweatshirts, hoodies, jerseys, bags, backpacks, and other accessories in stock. WWII was horrific and terrifying and one of the darkest experiences that has ever happened on this earth. I wonder how strong a feeling can actually get before it is too much to bear. Advocates of dams expressed little concern for the ecological consequences. View career profiles, stats, photos and video highlights. The Bombers were state champions in 1981, 1999, and 2017, and played in the title game in 1975, 1996, and 2016. Richland High School is a public secondary school in the northwest United States, located in Richland, Washington. You reward yourself for studying and consume so much pizza that it actually consumes you. This is a response to "Ways to Follow Clothing Trends in 2021.. 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. Your favorite summer hobby and how you got into it. Richland BombersRetweeted Alan Hoshida @AHoshidaSports Apr 23, 2019 1st signing ceremony of the season in the books. 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. Improving, advancing, encouraging and promoting the interests of athletics, activities and academics The facilities of were extensively renovated in 1964, and remodeled again in stages between 1995 and 2006. I wonder what its like to be free. Visit the Richland High School Spirit Wear Shop on Prep Sportswear today! In 2019, "Archie" a B-17 Ball Turret Gunner was named the first-ever character mascot at Richland High School. Other nearby towns, including Pasco and Kennewick, had also expanded considerably beyond their 1940 size. 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. You've been studying all day and still don't understand the majority of the terms. In 1988 a handful of teachers and students tried again to change the logo. Richland Basketball Schedule 2022-23 OVERALL 21-6 0.78 Win % DISTRICT 17-0 1st 3A/4A Mid-Columbia HOME12-1 AWAY7-3 NEUTRAL2-2 PF1,947 PA1,441 STREAK2L Ways you can help Make an impact on this team, and help keep MaxPreps up-to-date. As a symbol of life, not death? As a civilian, would you accept being obliterated for a decision that President Trump made? Its industrial and agricultural settlement is imperative" (Dec. 14, 1950). She dances, but she does not hear the same song as me. Scott - Winner, 2015 Beverly Hills Book Awards - on Amazon. (Courtesy Tri-Cities Herald). Perhaps the Cold War would endure at Hanford in the form of productive reactors. Us. We should never forget the past. We really used our best and brightest to unlock the secrets of the atom that, in a way, still hold the world hostage to this incredible terror., But for Pierard, a 1959 local graduate with cloudy blue eyes and a long gray ponytail, the Bombers R-Cloud is an inspiring reminder of a time when Richland, in his mind, saved the world. Worried that technological obsolescence or improved international relations could destroy their one-dimensional economy, residents of the Tri-Cities began pressing the AEC and Congress to diversify Hanford. Wayback Mchine: Two-Sport Ace Gene Conley, SportsIllustrated.cnn.com Baseball Stats Website, Tri City Herald's #2 Sports Story of the Century. CLUB 40, aka ALL Bomber alumni - for 21 years of age and older. Volunteer Schedule last updated on Mar 23, 2023 @ 7:26am (GMT) Or President Bush? Hanfords toxic reach didnt stop at the sites barbed-wire fences: radioactive emissions released into the air fell on fields where livestock grazed. And throughout the 1980s it had generally resisted suggestions that it make clean-up of its own wastes a high priority. Richland High School has all of those qualities and maybe even has some better qualities that make it stand out from the crowd. Most departed by August of 1945, yet the population in the vicinity was substantially higher than it had been before the war. In the 1980s the school became Richland High and adopted a new logo: a bright yellow capital R with a white mushroom cloud billowing up behind it. When I was a child, it was made clear to me that the Atomic Bomb was, at best, a necessary evil. Youve finished packing and found out you passed all of your classes! We are taking pride in the death of the newly weds who dreamt of starting a family together. '83 - Richland Bombers Class of 1983This is a Public Group '84 - Richland High School (RHS) Bombers Class of 84This is a Public Group AND. The football stadium, which is used for both Richland and Hanford High School events, is located immediately adjacent to the grounds of Richland High School, and was named Fran Rish Stadium in his honor in 1986. 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. 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. (At roughly the same time, it began releasing previously classified documents that detailed the great extent of pollution in earlier years.) [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. Richland High senior Nonoka Koga, a Japanese exchange student, was surprised by the school's mushroom cloud logo, which is linked to Hanford's role in producing an atomic bomb dropped on her. 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. The local Atomic Ale Brewpub sells pints of Half-Life Hefe and Cerium Saison. Class of '92 in '22 ~ 30 Year Reunion ~ August 5, 6, & 7, 2022, Class of '66 in '22 ~ 56 Year Reunion ~ August 26 and 27, 2022, Class of '67 in '22 ~ 55 Year Reunion ~ September 9-10, 2022, Class of '62 in '22 ~ 60 Year Reunion ~ September 9, 10, 11, 2022, Class of '72 in '22 ~ 50 Year Reunion ~ September 16-17, 2022, Class of '65 in '22 ~ 76th Birthday Party ~ September 16, 17, 18, 2022, 50 Year (postponed twice) Reunion and 70th Birthday Bash, Spudnuts in Richland, ~ better than donuts ~ click to see it on YouTube. 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. The time has come for Richland High School to change the Bomber name. But in Richland, there is an interesting story about the high schools nickname and how peoples opinions about it have changed over the years. It seemed as if the region's economic future was assured. Townspeople referred to their community as Atomic City, A-City, or the Atomic City of the West (Oak Ridge, Tennessee, was the Atomic City of the East), and the city logo contained an image of the atom. 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 High School's baseball team has been highly successful, winning four state titles in eleven years (1999, 2005, 2007, 2009), and another in 2018. At times I tried to keep up with the trends but most of the time I found that I was always late to them. Now comes the great debate that scholars have, whether those were really the only options. 85, No. The Space Needle and Pacific Science Center attest to the future-minded, high-tech, aerospace-oriented thinking around Puget Sound. My whole family got wiped out, she said. While the old excuse for dropping them on the children of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was usually trotted out, It saved thousands of American soldiers,1 the fact is once the Soviet Union had them, it became a universally hated icon. 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. In the photo, he stares into the camera with a look that dares someone to challenge him. But in Richland, there is an interesting story about the high school's nickname and how people's opinions about it have changed over the years. In later 1944 the first reactor started producing plutonium, and in 1945 Hanford began shipping its product to Los Alamos, New Mexico, whence the material was deployed as the fuel for the world's first atomic detonation (the Trinity test at Alamogordo, New Mexico, on July 16, 1945) and the second atomic bomb dropped on Japan (at Nagasaki) on August 9, 1945. Most notoriously of all, the Richland High Bombers, after 1970 or so, adopted an atomic-blast mushroom cloud as the school logo. These existed but they do not make it OK to forget those whom lost their lives. There I grew up among my friends and their parents, workers at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, the birthplace of the . Richland High School is a public secondary school in the northwest United States, . Richland High School Bombers logo (below). '73 - Richland, WA Class of 73 Bombers - (AKA Col-hi, RHS) That name doesn't work. 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. She only survived because she was away from the city the day it hit. Keep up with Richland High School sports with football jerseys, baseball jerseys, and Bombers fan apparel for baseball, basketball, soccer, softball, volleyball, and more. Youll never be out of style. Shirley Olinger sees sides to the Bomber debate that few others can. People who may not have agreed with their government. The city has restaurants, bowling alleys, stores and coffee stands sporting terms like atomic, bomber and bunker. Seattle, 1963, following title page. 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. submitted to the Washington Public Power Supply System an engineering report covering the Hanford Electric Generating Project (left). Petersen also wrote River of Life, Channel of Death: Fish and Dams on the Lower Snake (Lewiston, ID: Confluence Press, 1995).] Since the mid-1960s, Hanford had been seeking a mission that would replace plutonium production as its reason for existence. And the federal government retained the predominant voice in the site's future through the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. I would not peacefully accept myself being blown up because my government made a call to not surrender. 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.. Richland High School Bombers logo (below). Want to spend your summer being creative and making some money on the side? Be the first to hear about new products & deals. One night, at a bridge club, I asked the women what their husbands did and did not tell them about workplace accidents. Your friends are all done with their finals and you still have one more to go. Students wear t-shirts with bombs and atomic clouds, using hashtags like #ProudoftheCloud and #GoBombers. Americans turned against nuclear power during the later 1970s and early 1980s. Or President Clinton? Join our team and let's create something amazing together! 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. '77 - Richlandbombers Classof NineteenseventyseveThis is NOT a Facebook GROUP. The nation needed "to develop every natural resource at its command," the Columbia Basin News opined. Richland is a town whose prosperity rests on an atom bomb factory, a plant for creating plutonium.2 A quote from the Richland Chamber of Commerce Web site: Farming remained the prime industry until World War II when government surveyors arrived and announced that the federal government was assuming ownership of the area. 5 talking about this. Last night to party with friends. How could anybody be?. Through the 1940s and 1950s, decisions by the federal government, made primarily in Washington, D.C., determined the fate of Hanford. Hagley Museum and Library.). The school's logo is a mushroom cloud. Please try again later or using a different browser. I feel my stomach drop like Im on a rollercoaster that only seems to go down. Indeed, the troubles associated with the development of nuclear power had helped to spur the rethinking of those attitudes in the years after 1970. While Washington, D.C., still called the truly important shots at Hanford, the people of Washington state began to feel that their voice could be heard, too, in planning Hanford's future. 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. After Hiroshima, however, the Army broke the news about the Manhattan Project in a carefully orchestrated public-relations effort. Much more than Seattle, Richland and Hanford, products of the atom, were creatures of World War Two and the Cold War. When we chant that we are proud of the cloud or use the hashtag, we are taking pride in the death of a schoolgirl or schoolboy. The unfortunate reality is that the damage is already done. Forget about all that crap and think about the average Joe who died because their government chose to not surrender. We need to remember it for what it is: A time filled with fear, bloodshed, sorrow and hatred. 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. However, we don't celebrate the American lives lost but we do celebrate the Japanese deaths. She even spins. It produced only for military and not civilian purposes. Residents of the Tri-Cities were not really certain that they could depend upon Hanford until 1947, when the federal government (now working through the newly created, civilian Atomic Energy Commission, or AEC) announced plans to expand Hanford by building more reactors there and accelerating the pace of production. Exploring different styles is important, but finding clothes that you feel most comfortable and confident in is even more significant. I forget what is and only know what used to be. At the height of the Cold War, news reporters flocked to Richland to hear the student body chant Nuke em till they glow! across football fields and basketball courts. With its ties to the Manhattan Project and the atomic bomb, Richland High changed the name of its team from the Beavers to the Bombers in 1944. (Seals courtesy City of Richland). Prep Sportswear is not affiliated with the Richland High School Bookstore or the RHS Bookstore. [On Richland's past see John M. Findlay, "Atomic Frontier Days: Richland, Washington, and the Modern American West," Journal of the West 34 (July 1995): 32-41. Former coach Ben Jacobs is the winningest coach in school history with over 400 wins. Richland Bombers.com Links to EVERYTHING Richland Bomber related. The workers building the plant, coming from all around the country, numbered as many as 45,000. By the late 1990s, of course, the atom seemed less appealing than before. The RHS mascot glorifies violence and ignores the tragedy our contributions caused. WWII was horrific and terrifying and one of the darkest experiences that has ever happened on this earth. But Ive found that these are the clothes that I feel most confident and like myself in. I remember feeling relieved when I had a conversation with my boyfriend and he explained that he would love me regardless of what I wear (the only exception being the ill-fitting cat eye glasses I wore in high school but thats beside the point). Covington.[6]. One reason was the need for secrecy, for the AEC meant to avoid giving the Soviet Union any unnecessary chance to learn more about Hanford operations. But these opportunities had closed by 1987, by which time plutonium production had ceased and decisions had been made not to import nuclear wastes from out of state. Mushroom cloud logos are proudly displayed throughout the school and the student body used to shout "nuke 'em" at sporting events.[4]. During my time abroad, we were encouraged not to wear athletic clothing to fit in with the European culture. Teachers questioned their patriotism. The lyrics seem to parade in one ear and out the other. 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. In the 1980s the school became Richland High and adopted a new logo: a bright yellow capital R with a white mushroom cloud billowing up behind it. Forget about political correctness, forget about the snowflakes who cry that we are horrible people. Infinite rows of lockers that stretch from floor to ceiling, mundane patterns on the tile floors, colorful posters declaring pep rallies and blood drives. New Richland city seal (right). Pacific Northwest Quarterly, Vol. Yet the effects of the Cold War on the region lingered on, both in the mind and on the land and waters. The Manhattan Project brought scientists, engineers and those to support them to the Tri-Cities. In 2016 the school placed second in the state. Their mascot: Bombers. Shop Richland High School Bombers apparel, clothing, spirit wear, gear, and merchandise at the Richland High School Spirit Shop on prepsportswear.com. The school is now part of the Richland School District. Beyond Despair: An Imaginal Odyssey Into the Soul of Hiroshima. The bomber mascot warps the war into a time filled with only glory and hard work. Anonymous callers left threats. It is time to change the Bomber mascot to one that we can deck out our kids in without guilt or question if this is OK. I hear the last words of the song and I lift my head cautiously. Photo credited to Burns & Roe). Richland found pride in the victory and this pride leaked into Richland culture just like the. The Bombers won back to back state golf titles in 1968 and 1969. Terms of Use | Privacy Policy, Fruit of the Loom Men's 5oz Cotton T-Shirt, JERZEES Unisex 50/50 NuBlend 8oz Crewneck Sweatshirt, JERZEES Unisex 8oz NuBlend Hooded Sweatshirt, Fanthread Women's Origin Crew Sweatshirt, Fanthread Men's Origin Hooded Sweatshirt, Fanthread Men's Color Block Hooded Sweatshirt. But Im not proud of the death and destruction brought by the bomb. (Reproduced in Grossman, "Hanford," PNQ 85:1, p.8. This was part of the Manhattan Project. They called it the R-Cloud. #16045). 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. If a student asks, hell talk about what he sees in the logo. 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. After more than five decades of harnessing the river by building dams and dredging its bottom, of using it to cool atomic reactors and carry away radioactive wastes, it increasingly seemed like a good idea to try to leave the Columbia alone. People who supported the war effort and people who despised it. Backpacking across Europe? But even the most ardent supporters have started to bend. Sorry, your comment was not saved due to a technical problem. When Richland teamed up with Pasco and Kennewick to form a chamber of commerce in the early 1960s, it was called the Tri-City Nuclear Industrial Council and it focused on attracting more atomic and space work in particular. Photo by Robley L. Richland High has an enrollment of roughly 2,000; its WIAA classification is 4A, for the state's largest schools. These heady days were numbered. These chains still hold me to someone who left a long time ago. Sean Ring: Truth Teller, Freedom Fighter and Why You Should Follow Him. 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. Richland Bombers Jammer w/ Logo $42.00. 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. All along at Hanford, they had been contributing to the war effort,producing plutonium that would make up the core of Fat Man. Jim Qualheim, student activities director and track coach at the school, said students responded well. Standards have been set for centuries regarding expectations surrounding dress, especially for women. Manhattan Project Medal (right) (Courtesy U.S. Department of Energy). 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. . Thats our community. The gold "R" with a mushroom cloud exploding behind it became the face of RHS ever since Columbia High (now Richland High) students voted to change their mascot from the Beavers to the Bombers in the fall of 1945. 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. The fam bam is here, and you sadly wave good bye to your dorm room. ", In some circles, this attitude toward use of rivers persisted into the 1980s. Swinging back and forth to the strums of the guitar gently echoing, she smiles. In 1943, families in two entire towns -- White Bluffs and Hanford -- were forced to move nearly overnight to make way for the 586 square mile Hanford Site, a mysterious .
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