Editor,

Myth: Some people don’t think Navy pilots deserve the best equipment and training this country can provide.

Fact: The Navy does a great job training pilots on bases in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Nevada but says it needs the Olympic Peninsula because this would save $5 million per year in fuel costs and 45 minutes of flying time that Navy personnel could spend at home. What are tradeoffs for that $5 million? No cost analysis has been done for fuel savings versus economic and health impacts.

Myth: Emitters are not dangerous.

Fact: A NASA study plus more than 1,000 other scientific reports document the nonthermal impacts of even the lowest-level radiation used by the Navy are harmful. A University of Washington medical researcher’s peer-reviewed scientific paper, titled “Electromagnetic fields act via activation of voltage-gated calcium channels to produce beneficial or adverse effects,” outlines effects of electromagnetic radiation on biological organisms. It was honored as one of the top medical papers of 2013.

Myth: The Navy won’t be causing sonic booms over communities.

Fact: At public meetings, west-enders described explosive booms and broken windows. The Navy’s response, recorded on videotape: Pilots sometimes go supersonic despite the rules against it, and the public should call a complaint hotline. One resident replied she had. The hotline was a recorded message, and a couple months later, she received a postcard in the mail thanking her for her interest in the Navy.

Myth: If it’s raining or windy or cloudy, you won’t hear the jets. This was a statement by the Navy at a public meeting.

Fact: Growler jets routinely make noise well above human pain thresholds. Effects on endangered birds have been neither studied nor documented. In both wildlife and humans, effects from loud noise include hearing loss, increased stress hormones, cardiovascular disease, immune system compromise and psychosocial impacts.

Myth: People who don’t support the Navy’s plan to fly Growler jets over our communities are unpatriotic.

Fact: People who disagree with the status quo of bloated Defense budgets and the constant reminders from jet noise, of the endless buildup for war that will send our sons and daughters into harm’s way because of political decisions, are exercising their right to dissent in a supposedly democratic society.

Karen Sullivan

Port Townsend