I grew up on military facilities all over the world; most of the locations had a U.S. Air Force base along with a U.S. Army post. Needless to say, there was a lot of airplanes coming and going along with the planes and helicopters practicing various activities.

I went to Fort Campbell (Ky.) High school and experienced a lot of low-level helicopters and various other aircraft. The planes made noise but the helicopters were much louder. Their overflights occurred day and night due to continuous training. This number of overflights occurred during the Vietnam War.

Currently, the military plans to use our area for similar training every other day. There would be planes doing 10-minute overflights in our part of Pennsylvania. If you think about this, they would fly by before the kids could get out to see the planes. I have had a number of flights right over my farm and they are low enough I was saluted by the pilot who was flying a C130 airplane. About the time he saluted he was gone.

Just because the aircraft is low to the ground does not mean the plane was slow. They were overhead less than 30 seconds and then gone.

When I took the dog outside on a recent night a train roared through the valley below our house and went through to Kane. The noise was massive and added to that was the horns blown every time the train crossed any roads. People are used to that sort of racket; it occurs every day around here.

Another constant noisemaker are the medical helicopter flights going to the hospital in Kane. I have seen no damage to the flora and fauna at all. Residents of this area have experienced noise like this for years.

Here on the farm we have experienced a number of low-level flights over the years. Most of the time you hear one of these overflights and you go outside to see the plane — and it is already gone. We have a number horses and, to date, no stampedes occurred from these flights.

I think the concern of some others regarding this is as unwarranted as it is unwise. What if due to a lack of low-level training flights somebody’s son or daughter were to be killed or injured and later it is discovered that the trouble the military had finding places to practice contributed to the tragedy? How truly horrible.

The protests say “not in my back yard” and it says we do not stand with our military if it requires any sacrifice on our part. In order for our military to maintain it’s place as the preeminent fighting force in the world it has to train.

It is a very small thing to ask our citizens to allow 10 minutes every other day in pursuit of the continued excellence we need so much these days

I bet that if the schedule were published a number of days in advance there would be tourists waiting to see these planes.

(William L. Jones lives in the Kane area.)