Posted on 02/02/2005 11:33:55 PM PST by Little_shoe
This is where F-16 fighter pilots train for war. The sleek, pointy-nosed "Fighting Falcons" take off and land 150 times a day. They zoom off to the Barry M. Goldwater Range to practice air-to-air combat and drop real bombs on simulated targets.
The Sonoran Desert seems like an ideal, out-of-the-way spot for such noisy and dangerous war exercises. And it was - 60 years ago.
"We were out in the boonies," says Col. Robin Rand, Luke's commander. "For many years, we didn't have to worry about community relations."
Now, they do. The boonies are fast disappearing, and combat training and suburbia don't mix.
From here on the outskirts of Phoenix to Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach, military bases are reaching out to local communities and environmentalists to become better neighbors and ensure that vital training can continue as subdivisions and schools edge closer to base gates.
The U.S. military budget this year includes $12.5 million to encourage buffer zones around military bases. It's the first time Congress has allocated money for that purpose.
The Pentagon (news - web sites)'s campaign to work with nearby communities on growth issues represents "a fundamental philosophical viewpoint change," says Alex Beehler, assistant deputy undersecretary of Defense for environment, safety and occupational health. "The concept of community has really evolved from one looking entirely or mostly inside the fence to look beyond the fence line."
The push carries extra weight this year. Recommendations for a fifth round of base closures will be announced in May as the military continues to streamline.
Bases where local development has encroached on training missions may be more vulnerable to closing because the military can't afford to maintain installations that no longer can perform readiness operations.
The stakes also are high for state and local governments. Base closings drain communities of thousands of jobs and siphon millions of dollars from local economies.
Finding a balance
Fifteen states now allow local governments to restrict development that interferes with the military or ensure that base commanders can weigh in before projects are approved. The challenge for military and local officials alike is balancing growth and the nation's need to train pilots, sailors and soldiers for war.
In Virginia Beach, for example, Naval Air Station Oceana's chief mission is to train pilots to take off and land on aircraft carriers. Those pilots have to fly in at higher altitudes now to minimize noise over heavily populated areas. They can't fully test night-vision goggles because of the blaze of citylights.
"Coming back on an aircraft carrier at night is the hardest thing a pilot has to do," says Capt. Tom Keeley, the base's commanding officer. "We're not flying like we do at sea."
The base is working with Virginia Beach and the nearby cities of Chesapeake and Norfolk on a land-use program. At issue is farmland to the south of the base that the landowners want to develop as residential.
Elsewhere, the Pentagon is launching a large-scale conservation program to buffer bases from development, says Bob Barnes, senior policy adviser at the Nature Conservancy.
The environmental group has worked for years with the military to protect wildlife and natural habitats on the 25 million acres the Defense Department owns and another 5 million acres it manages. Almost 330 endangered or threatened species are on the land. Alliances are forming in:
•Florida. The Defense Department, state and local agencies and conservation groups want to create a buffer zone for the flight paths of five Air Force and Navy bases near coastal towns in the Panhandle. Gov. Jeb Bush and the state Cabinet approved an $18 million deal Tuesday to preserve more than 18,000 acres for military training and wildlife habitat.
• Colorado. Fort Carson, squeezed between Colorado Springs and Pueblo, might have to change artillery and tank-warfare training if nearby ranchland is developed. The Army and conservation groups are working with ranchers to limit building.
• North Carolina. Development is springing up around Fort Bragg, near Fayetteville. The post is home to the Army's Special Operations Command and 82nd Airborne Division.
The Army, the Nature Conservancy, state and federal wildlife agencies and local groups have formed the North Carolina Sandhills Conservation Partnership. So far, it has protected 9,100 acres near Fort Bragg that the Army needs for training and that woodpeckers use as habitat.
Suburbians at the gates
The approach of sprawl is clear from Luke Air Force Base's control tower. The Phoenix metropolitan area that seemed so distant 20 years ago is closing in. Some of the nation's fastest-growing suburbs - Surprise, Glendale, Peoria, Goodyear - surround the base.
F-16s that carry live bombs no longer take off to the north to avoid flying above schools and subdivisions. To cut noise, they stop flying by 9 p.m. in the winter and 11 in the summer.
Retired lieutenant colonel James "Rusty" Mitchell, head of Luke's Community Initiatives Team, works with state, county and city officials to make sure the base and nearby suburbs can thrive side by side.
Efforts to limit development around bases displease landowners who hope to cash in on a hot real estate market. But the specter of another round of base closures this year is driving state and local governments to block growth that interferes with military operations.
"Frankly, there has been an argument that if Luke were closed, it would be better for our economy because of the value of the land," County Supervisor Don Stapley says.
But Luke's contribution is immense, Stapley says. It brings an estimated $1.4 billion a year to the local economy. "We're going to do everything possible to save Luke Air Force Base by diverting growth, by protecting air corridors."
Michael Francis is one of a group of farmers who own 6,000 acres around Luke. Francis wants the federal government to swap their land for acres elsewhere that can be developed. "We've been working to protect our property rights," he says. "We're trying to find a solution."
F-16s fly over the Sun City retirement communities northwest of Phoenix. For many of the retired veterans who live there, the jets' roar is the sound of freedom.
"I look at this as national defense," says Floyd Brown, 76, past president of the Sun City Homeowners Association, which has contributed money toward the save-Luke effort. "Luke has been out there since the '40s, much longer than most of the residents who live out in that desert."
The authors name Haya El Nasser, can be heard frequently at the Cairo airport. :)
In Southside Hampton Roads a group of home owners calling them selves “Citizens Concerned About Jet Noise” is actively trying to get Oceana Naval Air Station to move. These people intentionally bought homes near an active airfield. Many are directly under the flight paths. No one forced them to buy those houses. Oceana has been right where it currently is since 1940.
That doesn’t say much for the intelligence of the home owners.
"For many of the retired veterans who live there, the jets' roar is the sound of freedom."
Our ranch is on a high ridge in an area used by C-130 crews for training, some of it low and fast. As An old Airborne trooper, I called base ops and told `em that this was one terrain feature they could use without fear of complaint. We love it. Give me a rush everytime. Sound of freedom.
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