The torturous process of extracting accurate and coherent information from the US Air Force and Holloman Air Force Base regarding the proposal to conduct 10,000 F16 fighter training sorties per annum over Grant County, The Gila National Forest, The Gila Wilderness, and adjacent Aldo Leopold Wilderness continues.
Peaceful Gila Skies – a coalition of Silver City & Grant County businesses and citizens formed in opposition to the proposal – invited Susan Beck to provide a public informational presentation following her visit to Holloman where she made inquiry on a range of questions in this regard. This took place on Wednesday 13 June at WNMU Global Resource Center.
Susan Beck is a retired Air Force colonel with extensive operational experience in this and related fields. Though many fundamental questions of great concern to this community remain unanswered, Ms Beck provided some welcome insight into Air Force and FAA process and procedures.
But after the classic FUBAR process of omitting to inform any Federal, State or Local government officials of Grant County, or its citizens and residents of this proposal, or to schedule public meetings on their scoping process in the largest population center that would be directly affected by their proposal, they have backpedaled unconvincingly to extend the submission of comments on the scoping process. They are expected to initiate their EIS / Environmental Impact Statement later this summer, perhaps in the fall, or even into this winter. More information is provided at…
http://hollomanafbairspaceeis.com/
As the decision making on this proposal will occur within the Pentagon, a pall is cast upon the process given that former New Mexico CD 1 Congressional Representative Heather Wilson (R) is now the Secretary of the Air Force. Having blatantly ignored Grant County in the scoping process, the credibility of the Air Force and Secretary Wilson is, to say the least, strained.
The following are articles and additional sources of information
- PeacefulGilaSkies.org/
Peaceful Gila Skies is a coalition of business owners, community leaders, sportsmen and concerned citizens, united in opposition to the expansion of Holloman Air Force Base’s military training over the Gila region in Southwest New Mexico.
- HollomanAFBairspaceEIS.com
“the official website for the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for Special Use Airspace Optimization at Holloman Air Force Base”
GMCR Special Coverage / War and The Gila 3 – Susan Beck
will be broadcast on the following schedule…
- Saturday / 16 June 2018 / 11am
- Sunday / 17 June 2018 / 6pm
- Monday / 18 June 2018 / 7pm
- Tuesday / 19 June 2018 / 6pm
- Sunday / 24 June 2018 / 6pm
Or listen at your convenience via this link…
Please note that occasional brief dropouts occurred on the wireless mics of the venue.
This is what democracy looks like!
