Biography
John Heid is an anti-drone activist arrested at Beale Air Force Base for protesting unmanned aerial vehicle operations. Convicted in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia under 18 U.S.C. § 1382 (entering a military reservation) for participating in the School of the Americas Watch (SOA Watch) annual nonviolent civil-disobedience action at Fort Benning, Georgia on September 2002. The action targeted the U.S. Army Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC) — formerly the School of the Americas — which had trained Latin American military officers later linked to assassinations, torture, and massacres including Romero, the four U.S. churchwomen, the Jesuits in El Salvador, El Mozote, and Plan Cóndor. Defendants typically received 3 to 6 months in federal custody plus a fine.
The July 2025 Ground Zero report describes the March 5 Raytheon protest arrest in Tucson and a not-guilty plea to third-degree criminal trespass. At publication a September 2 bench trial was still prospective. This earlier account adds protest and charging context but does not replace the later conviction and community-service disposition already recorded, and supplies no multi-day jail interval. Source: https://www.gzcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/July-2025-newsletter-for-website.pdf#page=2
The January 2026 Ground Zero account confirms the October 27, 2025 sentence of twenty hours of community service following the Raytheon trespass trial. Judge Robert Forman expressly considered a fine and incarceration inappropriate and imposed no probation. Murray’s offer to accept jail instead of a fine did not become a jail sentence; Heid described performing service at the Tucson Catholic Worker breakfast program. Source: https://www.gzcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/GZ_2026_1_January.pdf#page=7
The Winter 1998–99 Nukewatch Pathfinder names Joel Kilgore, John Heid, Bonnie Urfer and Sarah Arndt as arrested for trespassing during the October 4, 1998 Project ELF protest. It reports possible fines or suspension of Wisconsin driving rights, not an imposed jail term or an individual physical-release date. Source: https://www.laka.org/docu/magazines/nukewatch_pathfinder/1998-4-winter.pdf#page=2
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.
Additional original custody evidence
The Trident II Pruning Hooks update confirms John Heid’s actual September 23, 1985 release and says he was helping Suzanne Schmidt and Sheila Parks prepare for trial. Roger Ludwig, George Veasey and Greg Boertje remained imprisoned; their continuing seventh month is not assigned as Heid’s duration. His first jail-admission day and complete served total are not supplied by this issue. This initial pretrial episode is distinct from the later February 1986 verdict and March sentencing.
The Nuclear Resister No.35, October 24, 1985: PDF page 7.
The original individually names John Heid among the six Trident II Pruning Hooks participants arrested April 18, 1985 and continuously held on $18,000 bond at publication. This fills the existing initial custody phase, preserving its independently established later release and bail gap. This John Heid is not the unrelated John Hyde profile.
The contemporary report documents a separate custody episode: Overnight custody for unpaid 2001 protest fine.
