Biography
Father Frank Cordaro is a former Catholic priest, longtime Des Moines Catholic Worker, and Plowshares activist who has been arrested more than 100 times across his life. On August 6, 1998 — the Hiroshima anniversary — he and three others carried out the Minuteman III Plowshares disarmament action at a North Dakota intercontinental ballistic missile silo. He was convicted and served multiple federal sentences for that and many subsequent actions including SOA Watch line-crossings and STRATCOM/Offutt AFB protests.
Des Moines Catholic Worker and Plowshares peace activist arrested repeatedly over decades for nonviolent disarmament actions against nuclear weapons, including SAC headquarters at Offutt Air Force Base. Convicted multiple times of federal trespass and related charges. Documented in PFOC Breakthrough magazine.
The March 9, 1983 Nuclear Resister individually places Frank Cordaro in Leavenworth serving a sentence stemming from the August 9, 1982 Offutt Air Force Base civil-disobedience action. May 1 was an expected release, not a confirmed discharge. The report does not establish a precise later admission or completed served total.
The Winter 1998–99 Nukewatch Pathfinder names Kathy Shields Boylan, Carol Gilbert, Ardeth Platte, Frank Cordaro and Larry Morlan as the Gods of Metal Plowshares participants who hammered and poured blood on a B-52 at an Air Force weapons display in May 1998. Their Maryland trial began September 22. The report explicitly states that all five were convicted and jailed before sentencing. January 4 was the announced future sentencing date, and a possible year in prison was exposure rather than completed service. Source: https://www.laka.org/docu/magazines/nukewatch_pathfinder/1998-4-winter.pdf#page=5
Birth-date source
- New American Dream biographical profile — identifies Des Moines Catholic Worker co-founder and repeatedly imprisoned peace activist Frank Cordaro and gives February 16, 1951 as his date of birth.
Earlier Offutt prosecution and federal charges
The May 9, 1981 support newsletter, page 3, reports Cordaro, William Douglass and John Hutchens arrested after the December 28, 1980 sign-painting protest at Offutt Air Force Base. State felony criminal-mischief charges were dismissed March 31, 1981 for lack of jurisdiction; federal misdemeanor property-damage charges followed April 15. Cordaro, Jim Dubert and Brett Vanderlinden were also charged April 17 with violating ban-and-bar orders. All five were free on recognizance by the report, which gives no individual physical-release day. June 10 was a scheduled trial. This earlier prosecution is not uninterrupted confinement or an extension of the later Minuteman case; no short-stay case or speculative endpoint is created.
An earlier 1982 SAC-related custody report
The Nuclear Resister No. 13, November 30, 1982, page 5, reports Frank Cordaro arrested October 27 during events around Gary Eklund's Des Moines trial and transferred to jail in Omaha. It reports a November 12 six-month sentence for refusal to pay damages arising from the December 1980 SAC sign action, and continued custody at Douglas County Jail. Bill Douglass and John Hutchins are also named, but a later self-report by Hutchins is only prospective. The editors explicitly caution that they had conflicting accounts. This attributed contemporary report supplies an earlier custody lead, not a verified final-release date or a claim of uninterrupted imprisonment extending into later cases.
1981 SAC probation disposition, distinct from later jail custody
Original page 3 reports that Frank Cordaro, John Hutchens and Bill Douglas received one year of probation and an order to pay for the SAC headquarters sign repainted in the December 28, 1980 action. Cordaro ultimately received unsupervised probation after refusing regular reporting. The article describes neither a new prison term nor a physical remand at that disposition, and does not give the sentencing day. This fills the earlier proceeding’s outcome between the May 1981 charging report and the separate attributed November 1982 nonpayment custody report; it is not a continuous December 1980–1982 prison interval. Printed Hutchens/Douglas names are retained as source context, not silently resolved into aliases.
National No-Nukes Prison Support Collective newsletter No. 9, December 12, 1981, original page 3.
Separate 1983 custody evidence and limits
The SAC/Omaha item individually reports Frank Cordaro and Carl Kabat actually released in early May 1983 after imprisonment associated with the August 1982 Offutt action. This supplies an actual month-level release lead, not a precise day or a proof of uninterrupted custody since August. Cordaro’s existing November 1982 account concerns disputed sign-damage nonpayment and must be reconciled before assigning this release to a particular missing structured episode. No existing case date is overwritten and no duplicate case is created without that bridge.
The March 9, 1983 Nuclear Resister individually places Frank Cordaro in Leavenworth serving a sentence stemming from the August 9, 1982 Offutt Air Force Base civil-disobedience action. May 1 was an expected release, not a confirmed discharge. The report does not establish a precise later admission or completed served total.
The Nuclear Resister No.15, March 9, 1983, PDF pages 12, 16.
The contemporary report documents a separate custody episode: Six months imposed; current confinement confirmed in Jackson County Jail.
