The overall Hanford story is also contained in a rather triumphalist account by Michele Gerber, Legend and Legacy: Fifty Years of Defense Production at the Hanford Site (Richland, WA: U.S. Department of Energy Office of Environmental Restoration and Waste Management, 1992)], Hanford construction camp (left). Since then, he feels branded by some alumni as a conspirator looking to rewrite history yet again. Lets Not Talk About the Bad Things.. Olingers mother was a resident of Nagasaki when the bomb dropped. It is time to change the Bomber mascot to one that we can deck out our kids in without guilt or question if this is OK. ], Richland city seal in 1958 (left). View career profiles, stats, photos and video highlights. Hanford had ended its plutonium-producing career in 1987, the Tri-City Nuclear Industrial Council had renamed itself the Tri-City Industrial Development Council in 1985, and in 1990 Richland adopted a new city logo that did not include the atom. Richland High School has all of those qualities and maybe even has some better qualities that make it stand out from the crowd. Your friends are all done with their finals and you still have one more to go. Clare Regelbrugge, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Sign in to comment to your favorite stories, participate in your community and interact with your friends. Now comes the great debate that scholars have, whether those were really the only options. By 1992 employment at the Hanford reservation reached an all-time high. Cold War symbols pervade the state of Washington. Teachers questioned their patriotism. Most residents of the region (and maybe even of the Tri-Cities) likely supported the 1992 recommendations of the National Park Service that the Hanford Reach be designated a "federal wild-and-scenic river," to be managed by the U.S. The Richland Bombers were in agreement that the logo is awesome. But she continues to sway from one direction to the next, while I cannot seem to remember how to move. She is from Fukuoka, close to Nagasaki . Richland High School's baseball team has been highly successful, winning four state titles in eleven years (1999, 2005, 2007, 2009), and another in 2018. Richland Bomber Boosters | Richland WA - Facebook The plant generated an ever-increasing amount of plutonium as well as high levels of radioactive and chemical wastes, some of which were "stored" on the Hanford site and some of which were released to the atmosphere, the Columbia River, and surrounding lands. If we truly wanted to celebrate our contributions, we would focus on celebrating scientific and engineering accomplishments that have occurred at Handford that didn't directly cost thousands of people their lives. Sean Ring: Truth Teller, Freedom Fighter and Why You Should Follow Him. As a former manager of the Department of Energys Office of River Protection, Olinger led cleanup efforts at Hanford. New Richland city seal (right). Beyond Despair: An Imaginal Odyssey Into the Soul of Hiroshima. It is a bitter pill to swallow and maybe that is why we have been avoiding it for so long. In 1989, according to one journalist, "as many as 90 percent of the approximately 530,000 fall chinook salmon harvested from the Columbia had been spawned in the Hanford Reach. Last night to party with friends. Richland Chamber of Commerce WELCOME TO RICHLAND. Richland High School Bombers logo (below). Exploring different styles is important, but finding clothes that you feel most comfortable and confident in is even more significant. A symbol representing that kind of destruction is not a proper mascot for a public high school; also, it is insensitive and demaning towards the civilians that died in Japan from the nuclear bombs that were dropped. Happy finals week! We really used our best and brightest to unlock the secrets of the atom that, in a way, still hold the world hostage to this incredible terror., But for Pierard, a 1959 local graduate with cloudy blue eyes and a long gray ponytail, the Bombers R-Cloud is an inspiring reminder of a time when Richland, in his mind, saved the world. Richland Bomber logo, a chalk art drawing photographed at Uptown's Chart Art Festival 2012. I am proud of Richland High School and I am proud that the allies were able to win WWII. Most notoriously of all, the Richland High Bombers, after 1970 or so, adopted an atomic-blast mushroom cloud as the school logo. [12] In the 1960s, they won the third place game four times in five years. Richland High mushroom cloud shocks Japanese student - Tri-City Herald Mushroom clouds found their way onto the school crest, class rings and football helmets. And that's the last major dam site left on the river. Soon, local children were drinking tainted milk, fish from the Columbia River were contaminated, and the Oregon Health Division deemed it the most radioactive river in the world from World War II to the 1970s. Thousands of people who were unknowingly exposed have filed claims, but very few have seen any compensation. Their skin was dripping from their bodies.. And the federal government retained the predominant voice in the site's future through the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. The sights, sounds, and smells of a summer day in your hometown. It never occurred to any of us that by virtue of living in this stark desert land by the mighty Columbia River we were becoming down-winders, passive recipients of massive radiation leaks from the Hanford Reservation. Moreover, the WPPSS reactors not only ran into enormous cost overruns but also were deemed increasingly unnecessary as forecasts for future demand for electricity were revised downward. But after ordering and returning items multiple times due to feeling uncomfortable in them, I realized that this wasnt my style. But we live with the consequences of this material. Studying for seven hours straight, slightly brain dead and disoriented. The Richland High School Store allows you to customize Bombers clothing and merch. If you are gonna take my R-Cloud away from me, he said, rolling back his black sweatshirt to reveal a green and gold R-Cloud tattooed onto his right shoulder, youre gonna rip it off my cold, dead arm.. Her daughter graduated from Richland High this year. We should never forget the past. One Army Corps spokesperson explained, "We are in the business of building projects. The lyrics seem to parade in one ear and out the other. In April 1963, R. W. Beck and Asc. During the late 1950s and early 1960s, Seattle learned to call itself "jet city," among other "aerospacey" things, as Boeing's increasing production defined the local economy. The unfortunate reality is that the damage is already done. (Logo courtesy Richland High School). Manhattan Project Medal (right) (Courtesy U.S. Department of Energy). There I grew up among my friends and their parents, workers at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, the birthplace of the plutonium bomb later dropped upon the city of Nagasaki, Japan, an incendiary device which killed 70,000 human beings. The video then features a statement by a Japanese exchange student attending Richland. Jeanie Walsh Williamson ('63) ~ aka Barbra Williamson, "Desert Fathers, Uranium Daughters" available at Amazon.com, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_Fullmer, A Michael Peterson 2014 Promotional Viceo, "Drink, Swear, Steal, and Lie" on YouTube, http://www.eurekalert.org/features/doe/2002-07/dnnl-bnt073102.php, http://www.whitworth.edu/Academic/Department/Physics/DepartmentSpotlight/MillerBatelle.htm, Sally O'Neal ('79) ~ Travel & Outdoor Writer, Weekly Column at Sportsman's Guide magazine, "Hiking in the Central Cascades" available at Amazon.com, "Hiking in the North Cascades" available at Amazon.com, "Bicycling Eastern WA & OR" available at Amazon.com, Roger Jaime ('82), aka MR 80s CC Poison "The Bomber", Tari Free ('83) - Disc Jockey in Seattle, http://tman.kube93.com/pages/jock_tarifree.html, The Tragic Clowns - An Analysis of the Short Lives of John Belushi, Lenny Bruce, and Chris Farley, Stories of Hope and Courage - My Experiences with Alzheimer's Disease, http://www.misstricities.org/pastmisstc.htm, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miss_New_York, makes the cover of TIME magazine (9/24/94), in the December, 1989, issue of National Geographic, Miss Tri-Cities and Miss Washington, 2002. Those bombs actually saved the Japanese culture, he said. bomberfootball.org: Richland Bomber Football You reward yourself for studying and consume so much pizza that it actually consumes you. How do you pass that up? However, we are having a little trouble selling that dam. The bomber mascot warps the war into a time filled with only glory and hard work. The nation needed "to develop every natural resource at its command," the Columbia Basin News opined. For years, alumni have fought off R-Cloud detractors in newspaper letters and on the vibrant Alumni Sandstorm website. I understand that. The gold "R" with a mushroom cloud exploding behind it became the face of RHS ever since Columbia High (now Richland High) students voted to change their mascot from the Beavers to the Bombers in the fall of 1945. 558 Followers, 44 Following, 56 Posts - See Instagram photos and videos from Richland Bomber Basketball (@rhsbomberbb) UW Site Map Center for the Study of the Pacific Northwest, University of Washington. Hanford's economy kept going during the mid-1980s, spurred by President Reagan's defense build-up and by proposals to make storage of nuclear wastes from other sites an important part of the future. At first, I felt pressured to wear the same, their matching sets, bike shorts, crop tops, and more. The local Atomic Ale Brewpub sells pints of Half-Life Hefe and Cerium Saison. Volunteer Help the coach manage this team. Artist unknown. Residents of the Tri-Cities were not really certain that they could depend upon Hanford until 1947, when the federal government (now working through the newly created, civilian Atomic Energy Commission, or AEC) announced plans to expand Hanford by building more reactors there and accelerating the pace of production. Yet the economy of Hanford and the Tri-Cities (if not the environmental quality) again seemed secure, fifty years after the atomic age, and forty-five years after the Cold War, had arrived in Washington. He always had a good taste in music and its no wonder this song was his favorite. That was history. Vanderbilt's new logo is a tremendous self-inflicted wound - For The Win More than 40,000 adults returned there to spawn [in 1993]making it the healthiest spawning area on the Columbia." Johnson. richland bombers logo Richland High School Bombers logo (below). Prep Sportswear is not affiliated with the Richland High School Bookstore or the RHS Bookstore. One reason was the need for secrecy, for the AEC meant to avoid giving the Soviet Union any unnecessary chance to learn more about Hanford operations. ), The creation of a plutonium factory left an enormous footprint on south-central Washington. Richland Bombers Limitless 1/4 Zip Hoodie $68.00. Tell us about your travels! Heres a link about where the nickname came from and the efforts to change or alter the nickname and logos over the years. Here are some of the topics wed love to hear about: Whether you're an experienced writer or just starting out, we welcome anyone with a passion for writing and a desire to share their perspective. RICHLAND BOMBER BOOSTERS INC RICHLAND, WA 99352-6651 | Tax-exempt since Aug. 2000. Windshield stickers on cars in the area boast theres a Bomber inside. Please update your browser. I sit; prisoner to my own body. Here in Clark County, weve got our fair share of interesting high school mascots (i.e. Peace! the local newspaper headlines cried on Aug. 14, 1945. Our bomb clinched it!, This town just went totally nuts, said Burt Pierard, 74, who remembers beating pots and pans in a parade of children around his neighborhood. The Atom Bomb cannot distinguish its worshipers from its opponents, and does not care about their worship. Richland has won three state championships in boys' basketball, most recently in 1979, a team led on the floor by Mark Hoke, Bob Kennedy, and Brian Kellerman. That fall, the students of Columbia High voted to change their mascot from the Beavers to the Bombers, and the yearbook for that school year was dedicated to the atomic bomb. Today is not OK. A World. I forget what is and only know what used to be. Keith Maupin, a now-deceased alum, issued a report proving that the Bomber name was a direct reference to the Fat Man. Again, the Hanford community closed ranks and said the mushroom cloud was a symbol of pride, and that to change it would betray local tradition. '73 - Richland, WA Class of 73 Bombers - (AKA Col-hi, RHS) That name doesn't work. One night, at a bridge club, I asked the women what their husbands did and did not tell them about workplace accidents. Richland High School has had a strong boys golf program since the late 1960s. Richland Bombers - Official Athletic Website - Richland, WA Richland High School Mid Columbia Conference WIAA RPI Standings 3A Hermiston High School Kennewick High School Southridge High School Walla Walla High School 4A Chiawana High School Hanford High School Kamiakin High School Pasco High School Richland High School Mid Columbia Conference In later 1944 the first reactor started producing plutonium, and in 1945 Hanford began shipping its product to Los Alamos, New Mexico, whence the material was deployed as the fuel for the world's first atomic detonation (the Trinity test at Alamogordo, New Mexico, on July 16, 1945) and the second atomic bomb dropped on Japan (at Nagasaki) on August 9, 1945. Richland Basketball Schedule 2022-23 OVERALL 21-6 0.78 Win % DISTRICT 17-0 1st 3A/4A Mid-Columbia HOME12-1 AWAY7-3 NEUTRAL2-2 PF1,947 PA1,441 STREAK2L Ways you can help Make an impact on this team, and help keep MaxPreps up-to-date.