THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, February 15, 1997 TAG: 9702150370
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: MONTEREY LENGTH: 42 lines
Ankle-deep snow muffles the sound of Ronald White slamming the pasture gate, but the noise is loud enough to echo from Bullpasture Mountain and disturb the tranquillity of Virginia's least-populated county.
Imagine his fright when a Navy F-14 Tomcat screamed through the valley at 300 mph a few years ago and clipped a power line at the edge of his farm, sending down a shower of sparks.
With that in mind, White is troubled by the military's proposal to increase the number of fighter jet training flights over the area - from fewer than 70 to as many as 2,268 a year.
Most of the jets would be F-15's from Langley Air Force Base in Hampton, whose pilots need to practice flying below mountain ridges to hide from enemy radar.
The Air Force, which has expanded Langley's training responsibilities, said there is no other existing air space nearby that meets its training requirements.
At Langley, Air Force planner Sheryl Parker said the proposal is nowhere near final approval: ``It hasn't even been presented to the FAA yet.''
The estimate of 2,268 flights is ``the worst-case scenario,'' she added. ``We don't anticipate it ever being that high, but we leave that leeway in case there's a wartime situation.''
But residents are protesting the expansion of flyovers, which they say will harm their growing tourism trade, reduce the value of vacation homes, cause cattle to stampede and literally scare flocks of turkeys to death.
Only 2,600 people live in Highland County, but they persuaded their congressman, U.S. Rep. Robert Goodlatte, to get involved and they won the first skirmish.
In a letter to Goodlatte, Col. Stephen D. Bull III acknowledged that residents were given inadequate time to review the proposal and issued a 30-day extension of the comment period. The letter was dated Feb. 6, the day the period was scheduled to expire.
In a letter mailed this week, Sen. Charles S. Robb, D-Va., asked the secretary of the Air Force to extend the comment period for six months.