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Filed Under:Battle Creek, Boeing, Drones, Michigan, National Guard Base, Protest March, Voices for Creative Nonviolence
Combat DronesTwo X-45A Unmanned Combat Air Vehicles (UCAV) are shown to members of the news media July 11, 2002 at Edwards Air Force Base, California. The X-45A, developed by The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Boeing Company, is the first unmanned system designed from inception for combat missions. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)

CHICAGO (CBS) — Anti-drone activists planned a 160-mile peace march on Tuesday, from Boeing headquarters to a National Guard base in Battle Creek, Michigan.

WBBM Newsradio’s John Cody reports protesters planned to begin their march at 9 a.m. Tuesday at Boeing headquarters, at Randolph Street and the Chicago River, as Boeing manufactures some of the combat drones used by the U.S. military.

Anti-war activist Kathy Kelly, a coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence, said the march is ending at the base for the 110th Airlift Wing because it’s being turned into another drone control center.

Organizers expect the march to take about 12 days.

“We have, over the course of the walk, 44 people committed to being part of it; but there are a good dozen of us that plan on doing the entire 160 miles,” she said.

She questioned use of the term “surgical strike” in connection with drone attacks, because surgery implies healing.

Kelly said the marchers are protesting what she calls proliferation of warfare into civilian areas of the U.S. She asserted controlling drones from within the U.S. actually turns civilian territory into a battlefield, and claimed drone flights from American soil jeopardize local security.

“Technically, the places from which these drones are being operated could be understood to be war zones, because uniformed people are launching attacks,” she said.

Kelly is marching under threat of a her third prison sentence. Her first was for breaking past military barbed wire to plant corn atop a missile silo.