. . . we have a lot of it around Virginia Beach.
Virginia Beach is the home of Naval Air Station Oceana, and is the Navy's east coast master jet base. It's been the home of just about every type of aircraft the Navy has flown since WWII, including: SB2C Helldiver, F6F Hellcat, TBF Avenger, F4U Corsair, A-4 Skyhawk, F-4 Phantom II, A-6 Intruder, F-14 Tomcats and finally, the F/A-18 Hornet.
Each new type of aircraft seemed to be louder and louder, and the city expanded closer and closer to the airbase. Now, noise is a huge issue. I don't mind the "sound of freedom," but there are a lot of NIMBYs around.
The latest flap is over the need for an outlying landing field. In order to maintain top-notch pilots, the Navy needs a place for them to practice aircraft carrier landings - among other critical maneuvers. The NIMBYs have arisen again. Every time the Navy suggests a possible location, the pitchforks and torches come out and the locals storm the castle.
Then, a local "genius" decided he had the perfect solution: anchor a retired aircraft carrier offshore and let them practice there. Since carrier landings at night are probably the second scariest things a fighter pilot has to do - perhaps behind dodging a SAM - I could not believe anyone could be that abysmally dense, or that the local rag could be stupid enough to publish his idea.
I submitted a response laced with a bit 'o sarcasm, admittedly rare for me (yeah right) and to my everlasting surprise, they published it this morning:
RE 'CHALLENGES FOR the Navy' (Sunday Forum, April 20): Yet another letter writer suggests the 'smart solution' for an outlying landing field for NAS Oceana is to use a retired carrier? If that's so smart, how about driver's training on I-264 at rush hour, in the rain with bald tires?
I am now a legitimately published smartass.
1 comment:
Oh I know this one so well...the NIMBY's in particular!When I lived in Scotland jet noise was a massive issue, the Air Force used the area for honing their skills, inparticular their low flying skills, mostly daily in Tornados but we were lucky enough to enjoy the antics of many different craft over time.....and some pretty impressive flying :o) I say lucky but whilst I loved it, feeling I had my own private air show on a thrice daily basis most of the locals did nothing but complain and moan about the noise and their percieved 'danger'. I often argued/wondered if they would prefer that these guys practiced over a highly populated city area as opposed to the open countryside...or if indeed they would just prefer that our flyers attempted combat situations without practice at all!!!
I blogged my annoyance at the NIMBY's in this issue years back:
http://jmw500.blogspot.com/2004/11/not-in-my-back-yard.html
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