Satire: A densely populated city is the perfect place for F-35 training flights!

General Gregory Knight and Wing Commander Col. David Shevchik speak candidly

In an exclusive interview with CancelF35.substack.com, top commanders of the Vermont National Guard argued forcefully that Winooski voters were – in the words of Wing Commander Col. David “Caesar” Shevchik – “Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.” By a two to one margin on Vermont’s Town Meeting Day, the City of Winooski had voted to “urge the state to halt the F-35 training in a densely populated area, such as Winooski.”

“Look at the facts,” said Vermont Adjutant General Brig. Gen. Gregory C. Knight. “Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria. Most casualties were civilians.”

“Training means training,” said Col. Shevchik. “We are training to go in with with missiles, cluster bombs, napalm, white phosphorus, agent orange, and maybe even the new B61-12 variable yield nuclear bomb. We know plenty of civilians will be hit.”

“That’s why we in Vermont believe that the F-35 training needs to be where lots of civilians are located,” said General Knight. “It was no mistake that we selected the most densely populated cities in Vermont for the F-35 practice flights. Airmen here, at this airport, surrounded by thousands of homes, get much more out of the training than is available from a runway that is remote from populated areas.”

“Uniquely at BTV,” said Col. Shevchik, “our Vermont Guard F-35 pilots get to take off and land where they know the F-35's 115-decibel noise does serious damage to thousands of civilians. We don’t have to say a word to pilots. They wear two layers of hearing protection. They know that repeated exposure to noise at that level can cause permanent hearing loss and impair the cognitive development of children.”

“Moreover, the fact that the runway aims almost exclusively at working class neighborhoods, where many of the children are black or brown, makes the training totally realistic,” said the general.

“Obviously, to do such ear and brain damaging training in Vermont, we need the full support of the state’s top political leaders,” said Col. Shevchik. “Fortunately, the city location for the F-35 training has their unqualified lock-step support: We can count on the governor, the state senate president, the speaker, the two US senators, the congressman, the mayor of Burlington, and key judges to support the program.”

“Plus the state’s biggest real estate developer,” said General Knight.

“What’s more,” said Col. Shevchik, “the states attorney and the attorney general give us the same impunity they give police officers. So absolutely no worries about an unpleasant investigation and prosecution, no matter the harm to civilians.”

“News media have also played ball with us,” said General Knight. “Amazingly cooperative. Not a word about pain, injury, or distress on local TV or radio. News media has been fabulous at not interviewing people living in the flight path, with only a couple of exceptions. VPR went out of its way to protect me from even a softball question: They let me send in a taped statement. And no reporter ever asks the governor anything about the vast number of noise complaints we receive.

But we almost lost control of an item of crucial importance,” said Col. Shevchik.

“Right. I almost forgot,” said General Knight. “The democracy thing.”

“It came close to beating us,” said Col. Shevchik. “In Burlington, 3 years ago, activists petitioned to get a resolution on the ballot to cancel the F-35. “We coordinated with the mayor and the city’s top business leaders. Frank Cioffi’s group, the GBIC, spent $100,000 on a campaign to defeat the ballot resolution. We went all out, too. We even held news conferences on base and in uniform trying to disparage the resolution.”

“But we still lost the vote,” said the General. “And by a big margin. The disappointment went all the way to the Pentagon. And the Secretary of the Air Force almost pulled the plug.”

“However, by the time petitioners got the F-35 question on the ballot in Winooski earlier this year, our thinking had totally changed,” said Col. Shevchik “We didn’t even bother to mount a campaign. We let the voters have their say unimpeded.”

“Here is why,” said the General: “After the defeat in Burlington, we knew we could not win the vote, no matter what we did. Public support for F-35 flights in a city has evaporated. The noise is so much louder than anyone anticipated. Even sound-of-freedom people don’t really like it.”

“But then we realized that the adverse vote was helping with our training,” said Col. Shevchik. “Look at this article in the Washington Post. The US overthrew elected governments in so many other countries: Iran, Guatemala, the Congo, the Philippines, Vietnam, Chile, Honduras, Venezuela, Ukraine, and many more. Think. What could possibly be a better way to train our members for overturning democracies than by ignoring the will of the people in Vermont’s revered town meeting vote and foisting the F-35 on them without their consent?”

“We just have to be careful about how far we take this,” said the General.

“Right. We don’t want our soldiers and airmen getting the idea that Vermont’s political leaders and Guard commanders are a problem,” said Col. Shevchik. “The UCMJ only permits punishment for disobeying a legal command or order.”

“That is a worry for us, because our project to train with F-35 jets in a densely populated area is running up against crumbling support, as shown by the vote in Winooski,” said General Knight. “Moreover, the public is increasingly complaining that the F-35 training here is causing mass suffering. There seems to be growing awareness that conducting such toxic military operations in a populated area violates military discipline and is illegal. Our own 4000 Vermont National Guard members take their oath to protect Vermonters and to uphold democracy seriously. They respect town meeting. They don’t like hurting children.”

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Write or call your public servants:

Governor Phil Scott 802-828-3333 Chief of Staff <Jason.Gibbs@vermont.gov>

Vermont National Guard's Complaint Line: 802-660-5379

Online F-35 Spring-Summer 2021 Report & Complaint Form:https://tinyurl.com/4zjjn39x

Senator Patrick Leahy 800-642-3193 Chief of Staff <john_tracy@leahy.senate.gov>

Senator Bernie Sanders 800-339-9834 <Senator@sanders.senate.gov>

Congressman Peter Welch 888-605-7270 Chief of Staff <patrick.satalin@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 Becca Balint <bbalint@leg.state.vt.us>

VT House Speaker Jill Krowinski <jkrowinski@leg.state.vt.us>

Attorney General TJ Donavan <DonovanTJ@gmail.com>

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 David Shevchik <david.w.shevchik@mail.mil>