ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, February 14, 1997 TAG: 9702140056
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: MONTEREY
SOURCE: DAVID REED ASSOCIATED PRESS
Ankle-deep snow muffles the sound of Ronald White slamming the pasture gate, but the noise is loud enough to echo from Bullpasture Mountain and disturb the tranquillity of Virginia's least-populated county.
Imagine White's fright when a Navy F-14 Tomcat screamed through the narrow valley at 300 mph a few years ago and clipped a power line at the edge of his farm, sending down a shower of sparks.
With that in mind, White is troubled by the military's proposal to increase the number of fighter jet training flights over the area - from fewer than 70 to as many as 2,268 a year.
The Air Force also wants extend the time allowed for air-to-air combat training, from sunset to 10 p.m., reduce the altitude of routine sorties and expand the borders of the fly zone.
Most of the jets would be F-15s from Langley Air Force Base in Hampton, whose pilots need to practice flying below mountain ridges to hide from enemy radar.
The Air Force, which has expanded Langley's training responsibilities, said there is no other air space within an acceptable flying distance from the base that meets its tactical training requirements.
There are no airports and no big cities within the Evers Military Operations Area, which includes most of Highland County and parts of adjoining counties in Virginia and West Virginia. Much of it is national forest land, including the Ramsey's Draft Wilderness Area, used by hunters, fishermen, mountain bikers and hikers.
The military's environmental assessment concluded that the increasing noise and jet emissions would do no significant harm to the plants, wildlife and air quality and would have no impact on recreational use of the land.
``If you thought it would sound like National Airport, would you want to come here for a quiet, serene walk in the woods?'' said Highland County attorney Melissa Dowd.
At Langley, Air Force planner Sheryl Parker said the proposal is nowhere near final approval: ``It hasn't even been presented to the FAA yet.''
The estimate of 2,268 flights is ``the worst case scenario,'' she added. ``We don't anticipate it ever being that high, but we leave that leeway in case there's a wartime situation.''
But residents protest the expansion of flyovers, which they say will harm their growing tourism trade, reduce the value of vacation homes, cause cattle to stampede and literally scare flocks of turkeys to death.
``We're patriotic and we fully understand the need for having well-prepared pilots,'' said Robin Sullenberger, a cattle farmer and real estate agent from Monterey. ``But this kind of increase is totally outrageous.''
Sullenberger said residents have come to accept the training sorties and sometimes enjoy watching the jets, particularly when they roar through gaps in the mountains going sideways and can be seen at eye level from mountaintops.
``I have been totally mesmerized watching them, and I also have been literally jolted and briefly terrified,'' Sullenberger said.
Three years ago, he had just put a herd of cattle in a feed lot when a low-flying fighter jet caused the animals to stampede and break down six lengths of wooden fence.
``Those scenes you see in the movies with cows stampeding, that's how it was,'' Sullenberger said.
Ivan Puffenberger said he was repairing the roof of a barn one day when a jet came out of nowhere and spooked him and the cattle.
``It was tree-top high,'' he recalled while tapping a sugar maple tree near his farm. ``When that thing came whistling across, it just got the best of me, I tell you.''
White said his son recently invested a lot of money to set up a turkey hatching operation, with more than 8,000 carefully bred hens living in new buildings near the power line.
``The least noise agitates them,'' White said. ``If a truck backfires, they will go into a panic. They start piling on top of each other and smother. We have to pick them off.''
If a jet flies down the valley like the one that hit the power line, particularly at night when no farm hands are around, ``We'll probably lose 500 of them.''
Only 2,600 people live in Highland County, but they persuaded their congressman, U.S. Rep. Robert Goodlatte, to get involved, and they won the first skirmish.
In a letter to Goodlatte, Col. Stephen Bull III acknowledged that residents were given inadequate time to review the proposal and issued a 30-day extension of the comment period. The letter was dated Feb 6, the day the period was scheduled to expire.
In a letter mailed this week, Sen. Charles Robb, D-Virginia, asked the secretary of the Air Force to extend the comment period for six months.
Dowd, the Highland County attorney, said, ``I don't know if the Air Force has ever taken on mountain people before, but we have some mighty feisty ground receptors [the military term for people in a fly zone]. They're ready to tangle.''
LENGTH: Medium: 96 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: DAVID REED\AP. Cattle farmer Ivan Puffenberger saidby CNBThursday that he and other residents of Highland County oppose an
Air Force plan to increase the number of fighter jet training
flights over the area. He said he was repairing a roof one day when
a jet spooked him and his cattle. color.