You might ask (as many did at a hearing on Sept. 11), “What part of ‘no’ does the Air Force not understand?” They pointed out that a proposal to fly Alamogordo-based jets over the Gila had been shot down at a hearing in December 2019. A new proposal for Arizona-based jets seemed like more of the same.
But it’s a different part of the Air Force that wants what the other part gave up on. There are differences in the proposals. I’m willing to give the Arizona generals the benefit of the doubt. And since their proposal indicated a profound ignorance of our region, I’ll volunteer as their unofficial PR officer to help them start over.
You don’t have to like everything the Air Force has ever done to believe that we should have an Air Force, and that its pilots should be well-trained — which might include being able to fly over desert mountains. Southwest New Mexico and southeast Arizona aren’t exactly like Afghanistan (or like anyplace else), but close enough.
Perhaps some high-level Air Force officers are unfamiliar with the concept that a whole lot of nothing is sacred. After all, there’s nobody there. Why shouldn’t we practice in the Gila Wilderness for national security?
Perhaps they’ve never been to a national park or a national monument, and certainly not to a national wilderness. Here’s my suggestion to help them understand what they’re fighting to defend. Before making any new proposal, the leaders should spend two weeks camping in the Gila Wilderness.
And on Day 13, when they are settling into spiritual bliss, they should be attacked by a DC-10 air tanker dumping 9,000 gallons of pink fire retardant on them from 150 feet.
No! Wait! Did I really suggest that? I meant they should fast and pray until they see God in the form of a sunrise. Maybe that would give them a different perspective.
Seriously, my advice to Air Force leaders is to mark all national monuments and national wildernesses off their maps before they even begin. When they include these areas, it just indicates that they’re not serious. Some of us want to support Air Force training, but if they start by proposing to destroy our way of life, there’s not much to negotiate.
So why not consider a sacrifice zone like the one I experienced near Denver a few years ago? A high school friend likes ATVs, and he took me to a forest rutted with ATV tracks and overwhelmed by roaring engines. The idea was that out of 13 million acres of national forest, Colorado could sacrifice a few hundred for motorized chaos. ATVs could do whatever they wanted there, but if you found one outside the sacrifice zone, you could shoot it.
No! Wait! Did I really suggest that? You couldn’t shoot ATVs. And you couldn’t use handheld rocket launchers to shoot down Air Force jets that strayed over the Gila Wilderness. The Air Force would have an honor system to limit flight testing to some relatively small remote area.
I know that many of my friends would oppose giving up a single acre of the Gila National Forest for jet training. But in fact, the sacrifice zone idea has been tried successfully. If you’ve vacationed in Tucson, you know that the whole city is a sacrifice zone; at any moment your peaceful contemplation can be blasted by the sound of military aircraft. We could give up a remote area smaller than Tucson (preferably in Arizona) if the rest were restricted.
Accommodation on chaff and flares is less likely. Chaff is aluminum- coated silicone fibers that the Air Force drops to confuse enemy radar. We would need a special Toss No Más year to pick up all those fibers. You don’t win friends by deliberately littering the forest.
The Air Force uses flares as a decoy to confuse heat-seeking enemy missiles. They say flares burn out within five seconds and have a low fire risk. But you’ll never persuade people in this area that it’s a good idea to drop fire over our tinderbox forests.
If flares and chaff are supposed to make training authentic, what’s next? Will they bomb towns and shoot down “enemy” aircraft for authenticity? It’s not worth proposing. Test your flares and chaff over Air Force bases, or simulate them with computers.
There’s no guarantee that almost unanimous opposition at a hearing will stop the plan. Alas, my advice will probably never reach the generals. Sen. Martin Heinrich worked behind the scenes to stop the flights from Alamogordo in 2019, but he may not have much influence in Arizona. Environmental lawyers have had some successes, but maybe not this time.
We’ve done our part, but it isn’t necessarily over.
