San Francisco Chronicle

By Sam Whiting

Of all the ways to celebrate a 60th birthday, putting on a business suit to go get arrested, cuffed, hauled away and booked would not come to mind. But four years later it remains a highlight for retired Air Force Lt. Col. Warren Langley of San Francisco . Picked up at an Iraq war protest on Market Street , he'd do it again for his forthcoming 65th.

On military history

My dad was a POW in the Second World War. I didn't meet him until I was 3. I came from the South. Military was a good thing. The Air Force Academy had just started and I was in the seventh graduating class, in 1965. I spent 15 years active duty, then I taught at the academy. I left the academy in 1980 and stayed in the reserves for eight years, recruiting for ROTC.

On coming West

I'd been working in the securities business and left a trading firm in Chicago to take the job as the president of the Pacific Stock Exchange in 1996.

On his 60th birthday celebration

It was the 18th of January, 2003. My wife said, "What do you want to do for your birthday?" They were having a big march down Market Street , so we went down there. I looked around and I thought, "These are just ordinary people. These aren't left-wing crazy people."

On civil disobedience

I heard about a group called Direct Action to Stop the War that was going to blockade the Pacific Stock Exchange and I decided to help them. They thought I was an FBI spy.

On proving he wasn't a spy

On March 14, 2003, we sat down in the intersection of Montgomery and Bush streets. The police arrested us, I paid the fine over the phone by credit card -- 240 bucks. The thing I learned from all of that is, "People listen to businesspeople. They have a certain credibility." I was the only businessperson who was publicly associated with this. People called me from all over the Bay Area and all over the country. I thought, "I'm not that important." That's when I ran into Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities.

On Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities

It has been around for about 10 years. It was started by Ben Cohen, the ice cream guy. Ben looked around and said, "Where's the peace dividend?" There wasn't one. I joined the board of directors and now I'm the chairman.

On the next action

We have 700 members and we decided it was important to get together in Washington, on April 16 and 17. Then we're sending all our members up to Capitol Hill to lobby their senators and representatives.

On budget excess

The fact that we have 10,000 nuclear weapons where most people think if we had 1,000 we could still blow the world up 10 times. That would save $10 billion. There are just a bunch of things we don't need to fight the war on terror. We only needed them to fight the Russians.

On publicity stunts

We're spending $45,000 to build the Topsy Turvy School Bus in Berkeley . It's a regular school bus with an upside- down bus on top. I'm going to Iowa this summer and drive the bus.

On what could be done with $60 billion

You could give health care to all the kids in the country who don't have it. And, over 10 years, you could build new schools everywhere. And you could do job training. And you could feed all the kids who are hungry all over the world.

On going back to the Air Force Academy

I went to my 40th reunion in 2005.

On classmates giving him trouble

They didn't wait until then. A few guys have written to the alumni magazine that they should take away my pension and throw me out of the alumni association. The biggest group says, "I don't agree with you, but I respect your right to do it."

E-mail Sam Whiting at swhiting@ sfchronicle.com.

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This article appeared on page CM - 4 of the San Francisco Chronicle