November 10, 2013
South Burlington, Vermont
To: Secretary Eric K. Fanning – Acting Secretary of the Air Force
and General Mark A. Welsh III – Chief of Staff of the Air Force
Re: Request to withdraw the F-35 from bed-down consideration at the Burlington, VT airport.
Dear Secretary Fanning and General Welsh,
As a U.S. Army veteran of the Vietnam War era, I am writing to urge you to remove Burlington from consideration for bed-down of the F-35 during this basing round. I do not oppose the building of the F-35 but I do oppose the intended quantities due to national domestic fiscal and budgetary problems and cost overruns as well as the plane’s myriad developmental problems.
My family has a proud tradition of serving in our nation’s military. I will reveal that tradition to avoid being considered anti-military – because, in fact, I am quite the opposite. My father fought in the U.S. Army Expeditionary Force in WWI all the way from Paris to the Meuse River in some of the worst battles of that war. He was confined to a British hospital with his face and head totally bandaged for seven weeks from mustard gas exposure – then returned to the battlefield in the Argonne Forest. My brother John flew a total of 31 missions as a navigator of B-17 bombers as part of the U.S. Army Air Corps’ Bloody 100th, which sustained the largest percentage of casualties of all B17 bomber groups over Germany. His plane once crash-landed in France. My brother Leonard was en-route to Japan for an invasion as part of the Army’s 82nd Airborne when the atomic bombs were dropped, ending the war. He served as an occupation troop and developed serious mental problems, partly as a result of his military service. His life ended in a mental institution. My brother Ed served in the Korean War as a military policeman. He returned with a just single kidney, the other having required surgery, acquired tuberculosis after a year and a half stay in a Colorado sanatorium, and had frost-bitten toes. He could never get a job in civilian life after discharge.
So I ask you, just how much does one family have to give for their country to be considered patriotic? Yet I and others like me have been so labeled because of our opposition to the F-35 bed-down proposal for Burlington. And how much does one have to give to their country without being expected to also endure the result of the basing of extremely loud military jets in a densely populated civilian metropolitan area – with all the negative effects resulting from that. I had believed the military existed to protect us – not damage our health and lower our quality of life.
My wife and I live within the 65 dB DNL noise zone of the current F-16s here and within the projected 65 dB DNL perimeter of the F-35s. We have experienced the extreme effects of the noise from these aircraft. When children in the vicinity at times scream and cry and hold their ears when these planes take off, one does not have to revert to health studies showing harm to humans to understand that something is wrong with having these warplanes based in a populated area.
There is a large and growing body of residents in Vermont that is very angry about the politically- rigged and flawed process of selecting Burlington for the top choice among other qualified locations and because of the EIS process in ignored critical substantive data.
http://vtdigger.org/2013/05/21…
I believe there are so many deficiencies and omissions in the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) of such magnitude as to render it illegal. If the FEIS remains as it is, litigation will be warranted. (See attachment for comments to Nick Germanos project manager for EIS.)
Adding to those reasons is the very questionable behavior, distortion, lies, attempts at humiliation of basing opponents amid accusations of being unpatriotic, and near libel from supporters of the F-35. Such simply disgusting behavior is making me ashamed to have served in the military. I have never felt that way, even when raw eggs were thrown at me when I was in uniform in the U.S. during the war in Vietnam. The Vermont Air National Guard (VTANG) itself has led in distorting the arguments of opponents of the F-35 (which have been taken from or derived from the EIS itself) and clearly made an attempt at intimidation at the latest Burlington City Council meeting – all of that on the record. This represents an intrusion of the military into civilian life and decision-makers at the local level. The Air Force is getting a larger black eye out of this than anyone else, and it will get worse. (See attachment – Burlington City Council meeting on Oct. 28.)
Given that the Burlington airport has a short runway, we can draw major lessons from the crash on June 26, 2013, an F-16 Class a Mishap at Luke Air Force Base – a crash very relevant to the F-35 bed-down proposal in Burlington. About 80% of single engine fighter Class A Mishaps turn into crashes. The F-35 has a poorer glide performance than the F-16 due its undersized wing and heavy weight. Burlington has scant unpopulated buffering at either end of the runway – as does Luke Air Force Base – but primarily a heavily-populated residential area, which presents extreme danger to residents. This is exacerbated by Burlington’s shorter runway which barely meets minimum length standards for a safe F-35 take-off. Placing this plane at Burlington would be consciously and unconscionably irresponsible.
To propose bringing this warplane to the Burlington airport, situated in the most populous city and neighborhoods in Vermont, is just plain insane – particularly so early in its cumulative fleet flight hours history. The cost and likely build schedule of these planes will almost certainly not allow the fleet to exceed some 100,000 hours of flight time before their intended deployment prior to 2020 – the time of intended full deployment in Burlington.
The majority of residents in the neighborhoods around the airport have been opposed to bringing the F-35 here for several years now. (If the VTANG members and their friend and families are subtracted out of those 180 persons whom I door-to-door interviewed in January, about 70% are opposed – a more than 2:1 ratio.)
http://vtdigger.org/2013/03/19…
This is a controversy that is dividing our communities in ways never before seen in Vermont. The last Burlington City Council meeting about the F-35 had the largest attendance in the city’s history. And this controversy is spreading across the state.
http://vtdigger.org/2013/10/24…
http://vtdigger.org/2013/10/28…
The opposition to this plane has grown and become increasingly organized with more people expressing opposition to the F-35 bed-down, who never dared before, as well as more frequently to the F-35 itself and they are not being unpatriotic by doing so. That opposition includes many enlisted men and officers, alike, who have served their country honorably.
I, for one, will fight against this plane coming to the Burlington airport until that proposal is defeated or until all avenues of protest are completely exhausted, including multiple law suits, the first of which have already been filed. If we lose on all fronts I will move out of the area.
Sincerely,
Ray Gonda 31 Berkley Street South Burlington, VT 05403
(802) 264-4886
Cc:
General Mike Hostage – Commander, Air Combat Command
Secretary Kathleen Ferguson – Acting Assistant Secretary of the AF for Installations, Environment, and Logistics
Secretary Timothy Bridges – Deputy Assistant Secretary of the AF for Installations
Mr. Gerald Pease – Deputy Assistant Secretary of the AF for Environment, Safety, and Occupational Health
Mr. Mark Pohlmeier – Chief Strategic Basing Division – Air Force Pentagon
Ms. Deborah Lee James – Secretary of the Air Force nominee – President, Technical and Engineering Sector