Under the watchful eyes and video cameras of Air Force security at nuclear missile site G-6 in central Lewis and Clark County, around 20 Montanans on Saturday protested the sentencing of three nuns in Colorado for a similar antiwar action.

The local protest was one of several at missile silos throughout the high plains and came one day after the nuns, Jackie Hudson, 68, Ardeth Platte, 66, and Carol Gilbert, 55, were sentenced in Denver to 30 to 41 months in prison for cutting the fence around a Colorado missile installation last October, beating on the missile cover with hammers and painting a cross with their blood on the structure.

A federal judge Friday sentenced Hudson to 2½ years, Platte to almost 3½ years and Gilbert to two years and nine months. All three were given three years of supervised probation. Prosecutors said they hoped the sentences would deter others from similar protests.

"We're here on a serious mission to support three Catholic nuns who we feel are unjustly in prison for their symbolic actions at a missile site in Colorado," said Frank Kromkowski of the Helena Peace Seekers. "We believe this missile is a violation of international law as a weapon of mass destruction."

Members of the Helena organization were joined by protesters from sister chapters in Butte, Missoula and Bozeman. They caravaned to the silo, about 15 miles northwest of Wolf Creek, after a prayer service Saturday morning at St. Paul's Methodist Church.

Once at the site, the group prayed and chanted before spreading wildflower seeds on the ground outside the fenced ranchland that contains the silo complex.

"We are sowing these seeds to begin to reclaim this ground for legal uses," Kromkowski said.

Then, a half-dozen members of the group entered the gated ranch property and walked around the perimeter of the missile installation, shadowed by security the whole way.

Upon thier arrival at the missile site, the Peace Seekers were met by several members of the Air Force, which had contacted the group earlier in the week and offered medical aid, water and anything else the protesters might need.

At the outset, protesters and Air Force representatives met face to face in something resembling a coin toss before a football game. A military attorney explained the property rights inside each of two fences surrounding the missile and the potential penalties for trespassing on the missile site, while the Peace Seekers explained their mission and their opposition to nuclear weapons.

"We have two priorities - safety and security," said Capt. David Kurle, chief of public affairs for Malmstrom Air Force Base in Great Falls. "The safety of the citizens who have a right to be out here protesting and the security of our facility and equipment."

The missile is one of an estimated nine buried in the county (along with a launch control center) and one of 200 under the command of Malmstrom. The Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile has a range of some 6,000 miles and contains up to three warheads.

The military has 500 active Minuteman silos, with the others scattered on the northern plains near bases in Wyoming and North Dakota.

"I would like to see the United States welcome international inspectors," said former Montana State University chemistry professor Reed Howald. "I don't think (the missiles) are illegal. They were here for a purpose, but that purpose does not exist."

At the end of the protest, Kurle seemed relieved that the event went off without incident.

"It's important in a situation like this that two groups respect each other, and that's what happened today," he said.

"They were cordial, and we have no animosity, expressed or intended, toward them," Kromkowski said of the Air Force presence. "We said to them that they are not our enemy, and we hate to see them in the position of defending this violation of international law."

Similar protests were held in Colorado and Nebraska.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.