Editor,

I just became aware that the Citizens of Ebey’s Reserve decided in all their wisdom to mount what is being called “Monson’s Charge,” with analogies to Pickett’s Charge at the Battle of Gettysburg, 100 percent contemptuously intentional. Monson’s Charge being a last gasp charge to close Outlying Field Coupeville via a preliminary injunction. Clearly, this is an act of historical ignorance and selfishness by COER, as, according to the Jan. 26, 1967 Whidbey News-Times naval jets started using OLF Coupeville for field carrier landing practice since Jan. 5, 1967.

That’s clearly ample time for aviation easements and predates the Congressional establishment of Ebey’s National Historic Reserve. So clearly legal by both accounts.

There is nothing more dangerous or selfish than COER and their compatriots deciding to purchase peace and quiet not just at the cost of lawfare, but also at the very real genuine risk of endangering human lives. In case anybody forgot, those are American citizens manning those EA-18G Growlers who very much need Field Carrier Landing Practice and a place to train.

Perhaps some of us should question just how valuable Ebey’s Reserve truly is if there is no inclusive narrative to be recognized tying the Reserve to the ongoing presence of the U.S. military.

Remember, I said in 2012 that, if this became an either/or proposition, “Get rid of the national park. Do you want to be the one to have to knock on a door at night and tell someone their kid is dead because they didn’t have a place to practice?”

I do not.

Joe A. Kunzler

Sedro Woolley