Download PDF of this full issue: v43n2.pdf (20 MB)

A Farewell to One of Our Own: Remembering Dr. Robert M. Bowman

By Phil Restino

On August 22, 2013 our friend and comrade Dr. Bob Bowman passed away at the age of 78 after a long courageous 8 year battle with cancer. Dr. Bob, as he was so lovingly known to so many, leaves behind his wife of 57 years Maggie Bowman, their 7 children and 21 grandchildren.

Bob was well known as the Pentagon insider who courageously blew the whistle in the early 1980's on the US government's plans to use as an offensive "first-strike" weapon the "Star Wars" missile defense system (aka SDI) which he directed in the 1970's when the program was top secret.

Prior to his work with SDI, Bob Bowman served as a USAF fighter pilot with service in Korea and Vietnam. It was Col. Bowman's war experience in Vietnam that led him to dedicating the rest of his life to working for peace as a member of Vietnam Veterans Against the War and later as a celebrated member of Veterans For Peace, serving as its keynote speaker at 4 separate VFP national conventions.

Colonel Bowman was the National Commander of the non-partisan veterans' organization, The Patriots, whose motto is "Follow the Constitution. Honor the Truth. Serve the People." (See www.ThePatriots.us) That same motto served as a campaign slogan for Bob as he tried to make a difference by running for US President in 2000 and for US Representative in 2006 and 2008.

In 2009 when the new national veterans organization Oathkeepers was founded, Bob Bowman quickly joined as its tenets basically mirrored those of VFP's own "Operation Support and Defend" national campaign launched 2 years earlier and as he recognized the opportunity to bring the politically conservative veteran members of the Oathkeepers and the politically liberal veteran members of Veterans For Peace together around the common goal of ending the illegal, unconstitutional wars. Dr. Bob saw the political division amongst the American people as a major obstacle to achieving peace.

Year after year Bob and his wife Maggie traveled in their motor-home throughout the country on their annual "Patriot Tours" giving talks at events sponsored by groups from the political left as well as the political right. Thankfully his message was captured in videos such as the July 2009 YouTube "Dr. Robert M. Bowman: America is Artificially Divided" and the July 2010 article "Left and Right Together."

Bob Bowman was quick to speak out against the US government's improbable, if not impossible, official theory explaining the conspiracy behind the attacks of 9/11/01. His advanced degrees in Nuclear and Aeronautical Engineering made it difficult to counter his argument that fires fueled by office furnishings and kerosene based jet-fuel could not make 3 steel-framed concrete skyscrapers blow up into dust and fall in nearly free-fall speed in perfectly symmetrical collapses. His experience as a USAF interceptor pilot made it equally as difficult to counter his argument that 4 known to be hijacked jumbo-jet airliners do not fly around in US airspace for more than 90 minutes without being intercepted unless there was a stand-down order on the interceptor planes. Dr. Bowman provides more in-depth interviews concerning both aspects of the 9/11 official theory as can be seen in the 2012 documentary from AE911Truth.org entitled "9/11: Explosive Evidence — Experts Speak Out".

Hopefully after more than 12 years now of the "War on Terror", enough of us will finally see the 9/11 truth as the necessary ingredient to actually stopping the 9/11 wars. In the meantime, those of us who remain in Bob Bowman's home chapter of Veterans For Peace in Central Florida will continue his work for peace by continuing to carry his message.

Phil Restino is a peacetime veteran having served a 2-year enlistment in the US Army Infantry. He is the co-chair and a founding member of the Central Florida chapter of Veterans For Peace, founded in August 2005, and a member of Military Families Speak Out - Florida. Veterans For Peace is made up of military veterans working together for peace and justice through non-violence since 1985. The Central Florida chapter covers from Greater Orlando east to Greater Melbourne and north to Greater Jacksonville. For more information visit the chapter website www.cflveteransforpeace.org or the national VFP website at www.veteransforpeace.org.