Biography
George Veasey was a Vietnam War veteran who, after his wartime experience, joined the Jonah House resistance community in Baltimore and committed himself to nonviolent disarmament work. He was a two-time Plowshares activist, participating in the 1982 Trident Nein action and again in the 1985 Trident II Pruning Hooks action at Quonset Point.
Trident Nein dates and separate proceedings
Participant Art Laffin dates the action and arrests to July 5, 1982. The contemporary sentencing report dates the original disposition to November 9, 1982. A sentence is not treated as a verified prison-admission date.
The previously omitted 1982 prosecution has been added independently of the later Plowshares cases.
Sources: Art Laffin, July 2022 eyewitness retrospective; Revolutionary Worker, November 12, 1982, pages 1–2.
Original archival custody and release evidence
The Nuclear Resister issue 12 names all nine participants and reports seven weeks in jail followed by August 26, 1982 recognizance release. Initial custody is July 5–August 26, not an uninterrupted stay through 1983.
A separate record preserves the November 9 disposition and actual release on 1983-03-31. Issue 13 confirms later confinement, but does not explicitly establish its admission day; sentence day has not been substituted for admission. This later duration remains unknown.
Sources: issue 12, October 18, 1982, printed page 4 (PDF page 6); issue 13, November 30, 1982, page 4; issue 14, January 14, 1983, page 3; issue 15, March 9, 1983, printed page 6 (PDF page 8); issue 16, April 17, 1983, printed page 10 (PDF page 11); issue 17, June 6, 1983, page 5.
Earlier White House custody in 1981
The September 19, 1981 newsletter, original page 3, identifies George Veasey serving six months at the Washington, D.C. jail following a June arrest during the White House protests. It does not print his exact arrest or physical-admission day or actual release. This earlier White House custody is distinct from his later Trident cases; six months is the imposed sentence, not independently verified completed service.
National No-Nukes Prison Support Collective newsletter No. 7, September 19, 1981, original pages 1–4
Separate April 1981 conviction while already jailed
The October 30 report says George Veasey was serving the six-month June White House pray-in sentence at the D.C. Jail and was convicted again with Mike Miles, John Sheils, Karl Smith and Sally Kearsley for the April 15,1981 White House blood-pouring action. Charges were destruction of federal property and unlawful entry. Veasey took immediate sentencing: two concurrent 90-day terms, consecutive to his current sentence. The precise sentencing day is not given; a later consecutive sentence is not treated as already completed service, a new admission day or ninety additional actual days served. The two proceedings remain distinct.
National No-Nukes Prison Support Collective newsletter No. 8, October 30, 1981, original page 1.
December 1981 release-month estimate
The January 17, 1982 newsletter, original page 2, names George Veasey among those released from prison during the Christmas season. December 1981 is recorded as a contextual month-level estimate from that wording, as requested; the source does not print an exact discharge day. December 1 is only the storage anchor for a month-precision date, not the actual day of release. No exact custody total is calculated.
The separate additional ninety-day disposition is not converted into ninety actual days served, and later Trident cases remain separate.
National No-Nukes Prison Support Collective newsletter, January 17, 1982, original page 2. The December 12, 1981 issue supplies the preceding custody context.
Separate six days served after the 1983 Nagasaki Day Pentagon protest
The November 15 report individually says George Veasey recently served six days in jail for refusing to pay a fine following the 1983 Nagasaki Day Pentagon demonstration. This supplies actual completed service for a separate 1983 episode, not six days added to an earlier Trident stay. Exact jail-admission and release days and the fine’s sentencing day are not printed.
February 1986 verdict and intervening freedom
The Trident II Pruning Hooks report names Greg Boertje, John Heid, Roger Ludwig, Sheila Parks, Suzanne Schmidt and George Veasey as convicted February 4, 1986 before Judge Thomas Needham of possession of burglary tools, trespass and malicious destruction of property. It expressly says all six were free pending future March 31 sentencing. Thus initial April 1985 detention and later sentenced custody cannot be counted as one uninterrupted interval. Greg’s brief courtroom lockup ended when trial resumed, not a separately established multiday stay. Any existing separately verified later sentence and actual discharge must be preserved; this issue alone supplies neither a first later admission nor final discharge.
The Nuclear Resister No.38, March 10, 1986, original PDF pages 6.
Initial detention, bail gap and later imprisonment distinguished
The contemporary May 1985 original dates this action and initial bond detention to April 18, not April 17. The July 1985 follow-up individually confirms Roger Ludwig and George Veasey remained in pretrial custody on June 17. However, the March 1986 report expressly says all six defendants were free pending sentencing, so the first admission cannot be treated as continuous through later release. The July 18, 1986 follow-up confirms actual March 31 sentencing and both men’s actual release by publication. Most importantly, Roger Ludwig’s signed statement explicitly says that he and George had completed eleven months on their one-year sentence at ACI. Those source-reported eleven actual months are preserved as months, not converted into exact days or added to the original false 439-day span. Exact first pretrial release and later readmission remain unknown. The old June 30 storage value is retained for traceability but only its independently confirmed 1986 year is endorsed here; June 30 itself is not proven by these originals. Initial April custody facts remain preserved in this note, with no separate additive initial-stay total that would double-count the eleven-month report.
Original contemporary report 1; Original contemporary report 2; Original contemporary report 3; Original contemporary report 4.
The contemporary November 12, 1982 report describes Veasey’s original November 9 disposition as one year in jail plus an additional three years suspended and five years probation. This clarifies the original term without replacing the later February 1983 reduction or treating imposed time as completed custody.
