I was on Hwy 78 driving from Mule Creek to Silver City. On the radio was Earth Matters, a talk show on KURU our local radio station. A woman from the Pacific Northwest was talking about how the U.S. Navy had more or less taken over the Olympic Peninsula outside Seattle for training and wargames. The residents were extremely upset. Their homes in the magnificent seaside forests were being buzzed by a new breed of jets called “growlers” which, she said, were the loudest jets ever built. They were flying at low altitudes making unbelievable amounts of noise. There were military convoys driving through the forest to provide targets for the bombers to shoot non-lethal practice weapons at. The jets send out flares which turn into chaff, burned out particles down to the ground creating a fire risk. It sounded like a nightmare !
And then the discussion turned to the Gila Wilderness and another kind of bomb dropped. Holloman Airforce Base is making plans to use the Gila Wilderness, my Gila Wilderness, your Gila Wilderness, as their new training area for their bomber pilots. Plans include an estimated 10,000 training sorties over the Gila Wilderness annually. It is not clear whether each individual sortie involves one jet or more than one jet or how many times they will be flying back and forth across the Wilderness during their flight lesson.
My first reaction to this news was guilt. I know that my government is bombing all over the planet and has been throughout many decades. One horrendous example I just now recalled is the carpet-bombing of Laos, a country which was not involved in the nearby Viet Nam war, causing the rural Laotians to live in caves while their villages and farms were being destroyed. So while my government’s military is currently destroying towns, villages and people in Iraq, Syria, Libya and other nations half way across the world, I live a peaceful and unscathed life in the beauty of Grant County.
Maybe now it is my turn to suffer as my country had made others suffer. How could I complain when others have lost their homes, limbs and family members through American bombs when what I would have to endure was unsettling loud noise (and maybe an increased risk of forest fire ?) As I contemplated the situation, I realized that I need not be the guilty, accepting victim of military madness when it is impacting my own life, no matter to what extent. Reaching out across the Internet, I learned that there are people and organizations in our area who are dedicated to protecting the Gila Wilderness. The New Mexico Wilderness Alliance, Gila Conservation Coalition, Peaceful Skies and others were aware of the Air Force’s plans and are organizing to try to stop it.
Holloman Airforce Base is required, as part of the process of obtaining this airspace for their
flyovers, to hold meetings with effected communities to give them an opportunity to give feedback. They held a meeting in T or C and in Las Cruces, but not in Silver City and the public comment period was officially closed before many Grant County residents even knew about their plans. (The Air Force says that comments posted to their website will continue to be reviewed.) Perhaps as a result of Holloman receiving many emails from Grant County residents or the Grant County Commission’s ear being bent by residents, a meeting was arranged between the Air Force and the Grant County Commissioners. The public was invited. A demonstration against the Air Force’s plans was held outside the county office before the meeting. For me the meeting was a frustrating experience. While two of the commissioners questioned the Air Force spokespersons very pointedly, others were mostly silent. The deep anger I and many citizens there felt seemed to have little avenue for expression in this formal setting. However, during the public comment period people spoke passionately about the Gila being a refuge for lovers of Nature, that many of us had moved here for that reason, that it was the first protected wilderness area ever created not only in the U.S. but in the world, that not only the campers, hikers, hunters and others who live in or visit the wilderness will be impacted but the animals who live there as well, and that the chaff from the flares excreted by the jets have already caused fires in Grant County.
One commissioner asked the Air Force representative what its like to be directly under a military jet flying at altitudes as low as the 500 to 2000 feet that is being proposed. His reply was he had been around many jets landing, taking off, etc and he liked the sound. Later during the public comment period, a veteran who had been in some special forces outfit and had flown on or knew all about military jets, told the commissioners and audience that he had been out hiking in a slot canyon in the Gila when some military jets had flown directly overhead. He was a very strong healthy-looking guy. He said the noise was so loud it practically knocked him to the ground. This vet voiced a very emphatic, “ No!” to Holloman’s plans and received huge applause.
As I am sitting in front of my computer writing this article, in a private inholding in the national forest, I am interrupted by two military jets flying over my little valley. The noise is absolutely deafening and continues for several minutes. I run out and curse them. They appear to be fairly high up maybe two or three thousand feet. What if they were at 500 feet ?! What a synchronistic and painful reminder that this flyover issue is real. If this were to happen on a daily basis or several times a day, it would destroy my peaceful life here.
It is recommended by those organizing against Holloman’s flyover plans that anyone interested in fighting it contact your senators, Congressman Pearce, our County Commissioners (ask them to take a vocal and active stand against the plan) and email comments to the Air Force at http://www.hollomanafbairspaceeis.com/Comments.aspx).
I am told that in Taos people, with the help of the Peaceful Skies organization from up there, were able to stop the military from using the area for training flyovers. Perhaps we can too. But this is the U.S. Military we are talking about so we have to be as LOUD as their damn jets in our protest if we are going to stop them.
Comments