The Skeeter Daddle Diaries

The recent news that the Whidbey Naval Air Station was applying for permits to convert Camano’s north end air strip for its Growler fleet to practice ‘touch and go’ came as a complete surprise at the last Commissioner hearing this week. At that meeting a Col. Thackeray stressed the importance of alternative practice strips necessary to assure flight readiness. His announcement that federal permits had already been approved, a matter the Colonel insisted was fast tracked as a national priority, caused considerable commotion. County permits and EPA certification were the final steps prior to initiating improvements to runways and tarmac as well as construction of a small control tower and the upgrade of current facilities.

Island County commissioners, blindsided by the news, asked why they had been kept out of the process until now, but were told the plans were on a need-to-know basis. National security, the Colonel said, was paramount and a speedy resolution of the permits would insure NAS Whidbey would have the additional training the Growler force required in these perilous times of international instability.

One commissioner voiced concerns over jet noise, a subject of recent controversy on Whidbey. Col. Thackeray assured them the jets would not fly between midnight and 6 a.m. unless of course a national emergency dictated additional flight times, but hours of operation weren’t completely finalized yet although they would be soon. “Trust your government,” the Colonel declared at the conclusion of the meeting. “We fully understand Camano Island’s concerns and we’ll do our best to be a good neighbor while also maintaining military readiness.”

Down here on the patriotic South End, the Sound of Freedom will no doubt prove too far north to be heard. The old sign on Whidbey, PARDON OUR NOISE, IT’S THE SOUND OF FREEDOM, got replaced years ago by one that omitted the apology. All I can say is freedom is pretty loud but hopefully the North End residents’ patriotism will be a bulwark against the decibels of slow moving reconnaissance jets dropping their property values down to sea level. Me, I’m just glad nobody put an airstrip south of Elger Bay. Yet….

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This entry was posted on Saturday, April 1st, 2023 at 2:37 pm and is filed under rantings and ravings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.