Tuesday, November 01, 2011

The Sound of Freedom

Especially the buckets of mental FOD that complain about TACAIR in and around NAS Oceana and the fight for a decent outlying field to practice in nearby - we all know those letters and emails about noise problems. Airfield has been there 70 years, home 25 years, new owner .... Well, sometimes you have to read the letters/emails very closely.
To: Hubbard, Mark A CAPT CSFWP Commodore
Cc: White, Michael S RDML(S) NPC, Pers-4
Subject: Noise Complaint

Captain Hubbard,

I am having an issue with noise that is generated by aircraft based at NAS Lemoore (and elsewhere), specifically, with their use of a low level military training route that your command is the controlling authority for. Rather than deal with mere underlings, I thought it best to go directly to the source of "where the buck stops." That would be you.

My home is located in a rural area of California's Sacramento Valley. I was unaware that when I purchased this home 21 years ago, it was located directly under the centerline of VR-201 (or VR-202, I can't remember which one it is), at GPS coordinates N39.38.610 W121.48.710, 210' MSL (according to the GPS in my car). Over the last 21 years, I have been subjected to the repeated injustices, insults to my eardrums, and affronts to my sensibilities as an American Taxpayer, that your jets have been responsible for. In the early 90's the use of this low level training route was frequent, but I tolerated it nonetheless. From about 1995 until early this year, use of this route was only occasional and sporadic, so I could generally overlook the issue. However, in the last three weeks, there has been a noticeable increase it its use. Specifically, I have observed the following,

1. August 30th, 1135 AM PDT - A single F-18

2. September 18th, 1430 PM PDT - A single EA-6B

3. September 19th, 1120 AM PDT - A single F-18

4. September 19th, 1145 AM PDT - A single F-18

Here is my specific complaint.....

1. None of these overflights were low enough...

2. None of these overflights were loud enough......

3. And, none of these overflights were fast enough!!!

As an American Taxpayer, I pay good, hard earned money, to provide your young Naval Aviators the best training possible. For that money, I EXPECT to get something for it. If my house is not shaken to its foundation, if the windows do not rattle in their frames, I judge this display of airmanship as incredibly weak. All of these jets listed above, were so high, that I could not tell if the Hornets were Super Hornets or Legacy Hornets (the Electic-6 was unmistakable). These jets were so high, that after one of them flew by, my wife looked at me and said, "That fly-by is so wimpy, you should call it a "Whisperjet".

The ultimate goal is to earn a five-star rating, as viewed by me. To earn a five-star rating, your jets should create enough noise to break at least one window in the house. Not since '92-'93 has that happened. At the time, a flight of eight jets in a combat spread formation passed over my house at about 200' AGL, approximately 500+ knots. This flight consisted of four Hornets, two Intruders and two Turkeys. The thundering noise was awesome! Not only did I have to replace a few windows, but several of my neighbors did as well!! That was a fly-by truly worthy of Naval Aviators.

As a former naval Aviator (back in the day, we flew Lot V Hornets with planning link failures and collapsed landing gear), I am hugely embarrassed for my younger brethren. You and your young naval Aviators should be ashamed, for you have subjected me and my family to the indignity of these transgressions. My son, who is a KC-135 pilot in the Air Force has observed some these so-called "fly-bys", and has said that even his jet makes more noise when it is at 5,000' at cruise power settings.

As you know, to fly the American flag upside down is a sign of distress. Perhaps you should bring in the young Naval Aviators responsible for these affronts to our dignity, and instruct them to wear their Wings of Gold upside down on their flight suits the next time they visit the O'Club, as a sign of their humility and penance for committing these transgressions.

Very respectfully,

Carl A. Raabe VFA-113 (circa '87-'90)
Hat tip P.

24 comments:

  1. ewok40k04:35

    loved that! soon there will be only distant hum of stealthy drones to keep us awake...

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  2. Byron04:38

    The folks in JAX wouldn't mind having that noise back flying around West Jacksonville again, either :) . My house is on a direct path from NAS to Everbank Field where the Jaguars play. That means I'm always outside  just before kickoff while the anthem is being sung. Couple of weeks ago, it was  a pair of Hornets, about 500 AGL in full grunt. When I went back in the house after the flyby, the wife complained about the noise and how it shook the house. I told her, "Hush! that is the sound of jet fuel being turned into the sound of freedom!"

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  3. LT B05:50

    This just in...

    They are pulling your record due to your sarcasm and good humor and trying to figure out how to bring disciplanary action.  Five years in the past wasn't far back enough.  Standby for heavy rolls.  :)

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  4. Wstr06:00

    *listens* Did someone just throw a sewing machine over my house!?

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  5. Surfcaster08:37

    *lob*, throw would be so violent like.

    I remember the German and US F4s and the odd Tornado making runs about eye level with my bus stop (up on the hill) or flying right over the house (on top of the hill, on the economy). Don't get much these days other than the C130Js scaring the crap out of Seagulls - which I'm OK with.

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  6. MR T's Haircut09:00

    MORE COWBELL!  Yea BABY!

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  7. Andy09:12

    So Sal, I see you didn't put up "the rest of the story," (which, Front Porch denizens, is all good); is that to protect the innocent? =-O

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  8. cdrsalamander09:24

    Would you like it next Tuesday?

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  9. Wstr09:50

    Welsh hills are the best place to see Tornados go hell for leather.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGTDqE8xD_4&feature=player_embedded

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  10. Andy10:10

    Why that'd be perfect, sir!  BTW, legend has it that back in the mid-80's as more and more of those who tend towards Alternative World Views moved onto Whidbey Island and OLF Coupeville, they began to make thier presence felt in the local papers, town councils, etc., and object to military aviators, er, aviating about their peaceful centers of pacifism. COMMATVAQPAC (or "ComVacuumPac") had bumper stickers printed and distributed, so I was told, that said: "See the jets? Hear the noise? Get used to it."

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  11. Maogwai Cat10:26

    All we get in Confederate Point is P-3's. Not even an H-60 deigns to darken our sky...

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  12. The Usual Suspect10:32

    The granola munchers/displaced flower children/tech weeenies do indeed inhabit parts of Whidbey and like all whiners of the vocal minority, they do make their presence felt.  They prefer silence - the sound of oppression.  In the summer, you can get an enormous ice cream cone at a roadside produce stand that is right on the eastern approach to NAS Whidbey and watch, hear, and feel the planes coming back from the Boardman Range.  Nothing like that to bring a smile to your face and an appreciation for all this nation is and those who serve to keep it free.

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  13. Byron10:37

    You know the dumb part about Oceana...they closed down Cecil Field and expanded the hell out of Oceana while already feeling increasing heat from the local jack...citizens about jet noise. Need an OLF? No problem, N.Florida  has lots of room, we're right next to the ocean and the very convenient Pine Castle bombing range. Great tax situation, and no signs saying. "Sailors and Dogs, keep off the grass!". But no, we had to close NAS Cecil and move everything to Oceana and Beaufort. Brilliant, just...brilliant.

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  14. Retired JAG10:57

    Can we get the original of this letter posted or linked?  Thanks.

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  15. Kristen14:07

    Andy, friends of my parents moved up to Whidbey a few years ago.  Staunch military supporters.  I'll have to ask them if they've seen that bumper sticker next time I see them.  They'd love it!

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  16. Byron14:19

    And you can hear the "HMMMMMMMMMM" of the engines all night long from there. I live a mile from downtown Jax just off St. Augustine Rd and on a reasonably quiet night I can hear it even that far away (as the crow flies, about 5 miles). Still, I have those events at the football stadium that brings in the F-15's of the Florida Air National Guard, a Hornet or two, one in a while I get a low level from a BUFF and once, just once, a Spirit. Best of all was the Monday Night game where a B1B did a low level and just as it got to the stadium, did a pitch up and hit burner..THAT was awesome!

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  17. andrewdb14:40

    In San DIego that's what we call the jets coming off MCAS Miramar.  I like to think of our downtown adjacent civilian airport as "The Sound of Commerce"

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  18. xbradtc15:05

    Those electric Hornets ARE pretty loud. 

    I grew up at Whidbey. I remember a lot of bumper stickers in the early 80s that said words to the effect of:

    Welcome to Washington, now go home to California

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  19. James16:39

    I just thought of that. Got to hear a F-4 up close once. Let me say with a straight face when a pair of F-18's were doin a airshow across town turning and burning and were still auidable above the traffic..........ok so its a small town was still loud........and a friend asked "have you ever heard anything that loud!?" "I said WHAT?"

    Hehe...sorry.

    Now i live near ft campbell chinooks aint got nothin on the flying brick.

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  20. SouthernAP16:54

    Bryon,

    The problem is that that at OceanBanana the realtors who own the VA Beach City council had them after the A-6's retired and while the F-14's were being retired, down grade a large chunk of property that was in the red zone down a level to yellow. With Yellow going down to Green and so on. That when Cecil was closed down and the Supers started to arrive those idiots who moved out places like Strawberry Point or into developments like Green Run or newer ones were angered when the EIS's upgrade those homes again into the previous nosie/crash hazard zones they had been for the last 30+ years when A-6's and F-4's were flying from Oceana. So those black shoe retirees (of whom most the CCJAN's are) became more pissed at the Navy and not the political puppets who screwed them with falling housing prices.

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  21. SouthernAP17:05

    Andy,

    That isn't a rumor nor legend. I remember as a kid growing up in the Rock as the ANA and some enterprising Tailhook members started to sell those at the air shows, Holland Happening, meetings for "Friends of NASWI", 4ht July and all manner of other small town events. Most of the folks buying them were the military folks and the biggest stores on Pioneeer Way that supported the Military had a sign very similar to that or it was the sign of "Jet Noise! NO! The Sound of Freedom!" It became a very popular slogan that for a while it was even on the welcome to the base sign out on Highway 20 just before the City of Oak Harbor. 

    I also know that for a while Island County sheriffs were busy arresting little old ladies and some of the more liberal Seattlites who had moved into Island County near the approach patterns for Coupeville OLF; the arrests were on federal felony charges of inhibiting the safety of flight. These folks were busy buying 5-10 million candle power spot lights then shinning them at the aircraft from Whidbey that were trying get in night time FCLP's. I had seen it for myself one night hanging out with my dad at Coupeville OLF while he was with VA-128 The Golden Intruders. The plane was flying around and all of a sudden it was lite up like a convict trying to go over the wall by two different spots. The aircrew reported vertigo and the LSO had to send them high into the marshall stack to get thier senses back. Later that weekend in the police blotter was the notice.

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  22. QMC(SW)(ret)17:22

    Man I'd love to see some Navair flybys. I live close to an AF base now and all I get for lowlevels is C-130s and C-17s on their drop training loops. Boring. Seen some F-18s and EA-6s fairly high when they have had large exercises but that is rare.

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  23. NAnonymous22:10

    So you got me.  I thought this would be yet another letter complaining for about jet noise.  Nevermind the hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue that this base brings to what is quite possibly the crummiest piece of real estate in the United States (see recent air quality reports for the central valley).  Thanks for making me laugh, and quite hard at that.

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  24. Actus Rhesus09:56

    Heh.

    One of my units got a noise complaint about some of our blank fire training exercises.  We were on an authorized range, within authorized curfew hours.

    XO wanted to tell the old codger that it was "the sound of freedom".  I intervened and recommended that said disgruntled citizen who "supported us and everything we do, but just didn't see why it had to be in HIS community..." write his Congressman if he was truly that unhappy.

    We give that particular Congressman's staff dog and pony shows multiple times a year.  I'm sure his complaint was their highest priority. :)

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