Prophets of War
The F-35 is corruption, and it's causing suffering in Vermont and all over the planet
The F-35 is the product of a deeply corrupt system of weapons acquisition. A system of lobbying, bribery, cost overruns, subsidies, lax oversight, flawed products, rigged tests, lies, self-dealing, revolving doors, law-breaking, and endless pressure for endless war. But it is also a system that included remarkable "closet patriots"— insiders who spoke out and told the truth.
The corruption and the closet patriots are the subject of the latest episode on Skywatch, a TV program about the F-35 on CCTV. Co-hosts Danaka Katovich and Jimmy Leas interview William Hartung, author of the book, Prophets of War, Lockheed Martin and the Making of the Military Industrial Complex.
The corruption gets intimate in Vermont
At the national level the corruption is about money. We, taxpayers pay and Lockheed receives. But in Vermont neighborhoods, the corruption is personal and intimate: The F-35 blasts nearly 3,000 homes and yards near the airport. It blasts schools, day care centers, and playgrounds. The F-35 physically hurts Vermont children. The F-35 causes pain, crying, hurt, and suffering. And we don’t even know who in Vermont is making all the money.
F-35 jets take off and land a dozen times each day in the densely populated working-class Chamberlin neighborhood of the City of South Burlington. 1,300 children and 5,300 adults live in the extreme-noise oval-shaped area that extends about 2 miles from each end of the runway and about 1/2 mile to each side of the runway. That extreme-noise oval extends over the Chamberlin School and most of its neighborhood, the Chase Street area of Burlington, more than half of Winooski, and the portion of Williston extending from the southeast end of the runway.
If you don’t live in that oval-shaped area, F-35 noise may just be an inconvenience for you. But if you live in that extreme noise zone, it’s pure child abuse. Elder abuse. Human abuse. Pet and wildlife abuse. Hearing, learning, heart, and brain daily hammered. Damaged by repeated exposure to the extreme 115-decibel F-35 noise.
F-35 jets don’t protect you. Just the opposite: The training flights in a city just cause injury, pain, and suffering on a mass scale.
Are you surprised that the areas affected are working-class and high on ethnic minority? That the wealthy neighborhoods are all outside the extreme noise oval?
Talk about global heating
Flood, wildfire, hurricane, drought, extreme temperature: The F-35 is climate killer in chief. Each F-35 burns 22 gallons of jet fuel every minute in straight and level flight. Even more fuel burning on afterburner and in high-g maneuvers. The F-35 jets train for thousands of hours every year, laying waste to the planet.
Training with the F-35 from a runway in a city uses the F-35 in a manner for which it was not designed—directing 115-decibel noise at thousands of working-class families here in Vermont. Training with the F-35 for thousands of hours uses the F-35 as a weapon of mass destruction directed at the planet and all living things on it.
War is not the answer
If the F-35 is used for war the mass destruction of people and despoliation of planet escalate orders of magnitude.
The perpetrators
The perpetrators: Lockheed Martin, Governor Phil Scott, Vermont legislative leaders, Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger, Congressional delegation, local government officials, political parties, news media, and business elites. Some more active, some less. All vicious abusers.
Burlington has the power
Demand that the Burlington City Council use its power as airport owner. Burlington City Councilors have the power to adopt ordinances to:
Establish the FAA noise standard for civilian aircraft as the standard for all aircraft using the airport.
Establish a reasonable fuel efficiency standard for all aircraft using the airport, such as 50 passenger miles per gallon and the equivalent for cargo aircraft.
Establish the military’s own discipline that is supposed to protect civilians from military operations as the standard that all aircraft using the airport must meet.
Protect Vermonters and the planet
Make your voice heard. Vote out the politicians. Build the campaign to protect children and planet from the F-35.
Write or call your public servants and demand an immediate halt to F-35 training in cities.
Governor Phil Scott 802-828-3333 Chief of Staff <Jason.Gibbs@vermont.gov>
Submit your report & complaint to the online F-35 Report & Complaint Form: https://tinyurl.com/5d89ckj9
See all the graphs and in-your-own words statements on the F-35 Spring-Summer 2021 Report & Complaint Form (513 responses): https://tinyurl.com/3svacfvx.
See links to the graphs and in-your-own words statements on all four versions of the F-35 Report & Complaint Form since Spring 2020, with a total of 1670 responses from 658 different people plus 77 more so far on the form that remains active now.
Senator Bernie Sanders 800-339-9834 <Senator@sanders.senate.gov>
Senator Peter Welch 888-605-7270 Chief of Staff <patrick.satalin@mail.house.gov>
Rep. Becca Balint <RepBeccaBalint@mail.house.gov>
Burlington City Council <citycouncil@burlingtonvt.gov>
Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger <mayor@burlingtonvt.gov>
Winooski Mayor Kristine Lott <klott@winooskivt.org>
S. Burlington City Council Chair Helen Riehle <hriehle@sburl.com>
Williston Selectboard Chair Terry Macaig <macaig@msn.com>
VT Senate President Philip Baruth <Philip.Baruth@uvm.edu>
VT House Speaker Jill Krowinski <jkrowinski@leg.state.vt.us>
Attorney General Charity Clark <Charity.Clark@vermont.gov>
States Attorney Sarah George <Sarah.fair.george@gmail.com>
Vermont’s Federal Prosecutor <usavt.contactus1@usdoj.gov>
Adjutant General Brig Gen Gregory C Knight <gregory.c.knight.mil@mail.mil>
Major J Scott Detweiler <john.s.detweiler.mil@mail.mil>
Wing Commander Col Dan Finnegan <daniel.finnegan@mail.mil>
Vermont National Guard Inspector General Lt. Col. Edward J Soychak <edward.soychak@us.af.mil>
US Air Force Inspector General Lt. Col. Pamela D. Koppelmann <pamela.d.koppelmann.mil@mail.mil>
Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall <Frank.Kendall@us.af.mil>