WHERE WOULD YOU GET YOUR NEWS FROM IF FREEREPUBLIC WASN'T HERE? Thread 3
Posted on 09/18/2001 5:01:35 PM PDT by fjsva
What a difference a week makes.
Last Monday -- it seems so much longer than one week ago -- we ran a front-page story in The Pilot about vexing jet noise problems at the Beach. But by Tuesday, many of us who had habitually griped about the loud F/A-18 Hornets were searching the skies, hoping for a glimpse of one of those lawn darts.
Last Monday we told our readers that one-third of the 425,000 residents of Virginia Beach live in neighborhoods so polluted by jet noise that they are considered by the Federal Aviation Administration to be incompatible with homes, schools and hospitals.
We also reported that 23,000 Beach residents live in areas with an increased likelihood of jet crashes.
Sobering stuff.
But by Tuesday, the whole world knew that those in the greatest danger from jet crashes were not folks who live near the runways of Oceana, but office workers in New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
I've done more than my share of whining about jet noise in the past.
I've even packed up my family to get away from the racket. In 1991, weary from the sounds of F-14 traffic, with two toddlers in tow, we moved out of a neighborhood that was frequently blanketed by jet noise to one farther away from Oceana.
Even there, the occasional sortie over my house in the middle of a compelling episode of ``The Sopranos'' was enough to make me crank up the volume on the TV and mutter about the darned jet noise.
That was before last Tuesday.
On Sept. 11, 2001, I found myself standing outside my house late in the afternoon, listening hard for Navy jets.
No commercial air traffic that day. No military jets that I could see -- or hear -- either.
You'd think the hush would have been welcome. But it wasn't. It was disconcerting.
As the week wore on, naval air activity seemed to return to normal.
I was reassured, rather than rattled.
On Friday, when I finally reached a close friend in New York by telephone, Navy jets were screaming overhead. We could barely hear each other.
She works in lower Manhattan. She watched the twin towers fall. She was part of the frightening stampede out of the financial district.
I held the phone aloft for her to hear the noise even better.
``Sounds good to me,'' she said.
On the Boardwalk this weekend, I saw people pause as Navy jets suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
They shielded their eyes from the sun and smiled as the silhouettes of Hornets streaked across the clear blue September sky.
A few people waved their flags. Some just waved. Others seemed lost in thought.
It wasn't jet noise any longer.
It was the world's finest pilots getting ready. Honing their skills over Virginia's beautiful coastline.
It was the sound of freedom.
And I, for one, was happy to hear it.
Reach Kerry at 446-2306 or at kerry.dougherty@att.net
I was so glad to hear them again on Wednesday. This past week should put an end to the jet noise whiners here in Va Beach?
WHERE WOULD YOU GET YOUR NEWS FROM IF FREEREPUBLIC WASN'T HERE? Thread 3
As you indicated, an F/A-18 is a Hornet. However, it is the F-16 that is a Lawn Dart. Just wanted to clear that up for those unfamiliar with military aircraft.
Lord, guard and guide the men who fly
Through the great spaces in the sky,
Be with them always in the air,
In darkening storms or sunlight fair.
Oh, hear us when we lift our prayer,
For those in peril in the air!
When our neighbors in Jacksonville complained about the Jet noise, my wife would calmly state that "it's only the sound of freedom..."
I think it's still on the large billboard outside NAS Whidbey on Whidbey Island Washington, home of the E6-Bs.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.