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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, NOVEMBER 8, 1982
PAGE 12
the U.S. began construction of a naval air station under a 99-year lease.
Other military facilities were constructed as well. In this manner the
u.s. was better equipped to keep open the vital Atlantic shipping lanes
between America and war-ravaged Europe.
And it was at Bermuda that the secret German code of World War II was
broken.
(Mr. Armstrong has spoken quite a lot about this code lately,
drawing a parallel to the Bible being written in code form as a message from
God to those whose minds are opened by the Holy Spirit.)
I believe the
account of this breakthrough is recorded in the book A Man Called Intrepid.
Keeps Eye on Russian Subs
Since the war, Bermuda has played perhaps an even more critical role, this
time in the context of the East/West nuclear standoff. This was explained
to us by Mr. Max Friedersdorf, U.S. Consul General, in his office in
Hamilton, Bermuda's tiny (population 2,000) capital.
(Mr. Friedersdorf,
incidentally, served on the White House staff under Presidents Nixon and
Ford and knows President Reagan well.)
Mr. Friedersdorf pointed out how that P-3 Orion aircraft, stationed at the
U.S. Naval Air Station, fly in shifts over the Atlantic, ranging eastward
from Bermuda, performing continuous anti-submarine surveillance, detecting
the movements of Soviet undersea craft. At another military base in the
archipelago, computers monitor reports filtering back from a network of
sensing devices scattered over the ocean floor between Bermuda and the U.S.
mainland. (In much the same manner, the Swedes detect Soviet submarines in
their coastal waters.)
Mr. Friedersdorf proceeded to explain just how serious this deadly cat and
mouse game really is. There is an area in the Atlantic Ocean where at any
given time, all the time, sit three or four Soviet nuclear-powered
submarines. Each of these submarines sneaks down from Leningrad, goes on
duty, and then returns, all the while below surface in a month-long tour of
duty.
Each submarine holds 16 underwater Polaris-type missiles armed with three
atomic warheads apiece. Each warhead is targeted on a major American East
Coast city, and each warhead--again three to a missile--is far more powerÂ
ful than either of the two weapons which applied the coup de grace to Japan
in 1945. And the traveling time of these missiles would be less than 15
minutes once launched.
As Mr. Friedersdorf added, the American public has no real comprehension of
such activity currently going on, neither is it of similar U.S. submarine
patrols with their warheads targeted on Soviet cities.
Independence: What Then?
The friendly and prosperous people of Bermuda certainly did not choose to
be caught up in the middle of the world's most deadly power struggle.
Nevertheless, such is the reality beneath the apparently calm, multi-hued
waters offshore. Bermudians face another reality, one that bears heavily
on the first.
Inevitably it seems, this self-governing island will go
independent.