Red Flag exercises and sonic booms return to Interior
Published Monday, October 6, 2008
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Stumble It!FAIRBANKS — Hear that?
If it sounds like a sonic boom, it could be coming from the fighter jets that will be blasting across Interior Alaska during the next couple of weeks.
Eielson Air Force Base, which sits just southeast of North Pole, periodically hosts training exercises and invites military forces from outside the Fairbanks area to join. Some involve joint training with military forces from other countries.
One of those exercises — dubbed Red Flag-Alaska — will stretch throughout the next few weeks. The domestic, “all-American” training will let fighter pilots from Eielson and Anchorage’s Elmendorf Air Force Base team up to simulate combat situations.
“You get to use all the plays in the playbook. No holds barred,” Air Force spokesman Lt. Frank Hartnett said of the difference between all-domestic and international training exercise. The Air Force previously hosted airmen from countries including Germany, Japan and South Korea in recent exercises.
The training will run through Oct. 17. It will be limited to a 45-minute stretch beginning at 10 a.m. and a 75-minute stretch starting at 3 p.m. on weekdays. It will halt during the weekends.
Pilots involved in the training routinely produce sonic booms from their respective jets — a mix, this time, of F-15s, F-16s and F-22s. A record-number of Fairbanks-area residents complained in April during a similar training exercise that month, something Air Force officials have said prompted them to get the word out in advance of future exercises.
“We want to be good neighbors,” Hartnett said.
The Air Force invited residents looking to file noise complaints during the next few weeks to call Eielson’s public affairs office at 377-2116.
Community Discussion
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If the Air force wants to be a good neighbor, it should make sure that sonic booms are not generated near population centers.
Here we go...........someone who is never pleased..........AKhusky was probably one of those complaining in April when the sonic booms happened.....now that the AF is giving advanced warning, he is still not happy.........some people just cant be pleased.
Let's see how many of you complaining will show up a a support Eilson rally the next time the base gets placed on the closure list. This could happen within a few months and after the federal budget bail out the money just might not be there to keep it open. If Obama wins, I have a feeling he won't be a major supporter of anything Alaskan.
FreeDarfur: Stop playing that card. Alaska is full of uninhabited wilderness that the jets can fly over without disturbing anyone. Instead, they fly over a large city, ignoring the hundreds of complaints and potential noise and safety issues.
For the record, I did not show up to the rally when Eielson was threatened with closure. I will not show up to one in the future. Not because I am opposed to the military presence, but because our military bases need to be located in the best financial and defensive interests of the entire US, not because of the economic interests of Fairbanks.
Eielson was built and has been in service long before Alaska was a state. When it was built it was 25 miles out side what was considered the city. These planes have been flying these skies long before they were capable of making a sonic boom. I'm sure that if there was a simple fix that would save all the complaining the Air Force would have implemented it long ago.
I for one will go to any rally that keeps our Military here. Base or Post closure would Kill our town, hundreds if not thounsands of jobs lost, mine included.
I live very near Base and the planes do not bother me now that I know what the noise is.
The major mission of this base is to train with other countries and do these red flag exercises. The base and the exercises are not going away, and really are they that bad? They are providing advance notice, just got to accept it.
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