Take Action by Submitting Your Comments

Peaceful Skies Coalition has learned that Holloman Air Force Base near Alamogordo is currently a candidate to train pilots of friendly foreign countries, as well as U.S. pilots, to fly the loud F-35 bomber. Other candidates are Air Guard Stations in Boise, Idaho, and Tucson, AZ, both connected to commercial airports, as well as Luke AF Base, also in AZ.

Why should this concern us? If Holloman wins the new mission, its current available practice air space is approximately 130 x 120 miles or 15,600 square miles. At its maximum speed of Mach 1.6 (equivalent to the speed of sound—expect sonic booms!), an F-35 could cross 130 miles in 6½ minutes! Wouldn’t Holloman soon be joining Cannon AF Base in claiming it needs the skies of the proposed 94,000 square miles of northern NM airspace connected to southern CO airspace that comprises the Pentagon’s “51^st State” to practice in?

The fact that foreign pilots must come to the U.S. to learn to fly the F-35 because it’s too crowded where they live should tell us right there that the world is too small for war!

I don’t want to find out that U.S. arms sales reps sweetened the F-35 deal ($200 million each) by promising, “You buy these F-35’s, and don’t worry; it’s O.K., you can come to my house to learn to fly them.” 

Take action by submitting your comments (deadline March 14) to the Draft Training Basing Environmental Impact Statement: aetc.a7cp.inbox@us.af.mil.