Editor,
This is in response to an online comment made in response the Whidbey News-Times Jan. 31 article, “Whidbey area leaders discuss new squadrons, jet noise.”
In his comment, Brad Willey tells anti-noise commenter Garrett Newkirk, “Move if you don’t like it.”
One hundred and six years ago, in 1909, when Garrett’s great-grandparents purchased land at Oak Harbor on Whidbey Island, could anyone have considered there would be a military reservation on Whidbey, only accessible by water?
No bridge, only a ferry close to your home, perfect place to raise a family earning a living off the land through self-sufficiency.
Dugualla Bay dike was successfully completed in 1918. Roosevelt built Deception Pass Bridge in 1935.
Seventy-four years ago, in 1941, the Navy located a military reservation on Whidbey. Waterfront was taken for military recreation; another family farm was taken to provide a stable for the military; many productive farms of the community were taken with slow and little compensation. All of Maylor’s Point was traded for a modest home in the city.
The close-knit community was shattered, becoming refugees, some near retirement, hoping to retire on their land, had to seek another income. Military families moved into seized civilian homes. Wetlands of the reservation were paved for Ault Field runways, burying dreams and never to be used again for farms.
Before paved wetlands, water would seep into the soil. The Navy’s paving of this land created runoff to Dugualla Bay. Aircraft were propeller planes. The drone was tolerable. Old-timers miss the PBYs.
NAS Whidbey was expected to close at the end of the war.
Sixty years ago, in 1955, during the Korean War, there were eight squadrons that were moved to other military reservations. The first jets, A-3D Skywarriors, arrived in 1957, 48 years after Garrett’s grandparents.
Forty-five years ago, in the 1970s, 16 A-6 squadrons were at Whidbey with louder noise — not as intrusive as EA-18G with more flights and higher level of noise.
Thirty-five years ago, in the 1980s, an agreement made between the Navy and the group Whidbey Islanders for a Sound Environment, or WISE, restricting Prowler flights to no later than 10:30 p.m. and no more than two days in a row, and with no flights on weekends. Prowlers were first announced as replacements for the EA-18G in 2007.
Mari Milanoski
Oak Harbor
