Scam alert: Wing Commander provided partial information to reporters about planned extreme-danger F-35 afterburner use in a Vermont City

Providing grossly misleading information to the public that would intensify the already dreadful consequences for children and adults went unpunished

By contrast, a former Vermont Air National Guard Wing Commander got fired immediately just for secretly misusing an F-16 “for a work trip that doubled as a romantic rendezvous with a female Army colonel who worked at the Pentagon.”

Although his plan to use the F-35 afterburner would sharply intensify the vicious assault on the ears and brains of thousands of Vermonters already suffering grievously under the 115-decibel F-35, not even a slap on the wrist has been announced for current Vermont Air National Guard Wing Commander Dan Finnegan’s misleading and self-serving partial disclosure.

At a news conference on October 23, 2024 Finnegan announced the plan as a way to reduce the F-35’s 115-decibel noise in cities at the ends of the runway by 4 decibels. “If it makes a positive improvement for the people in the cities at the end of the runway, then we’re willing to do it,” he told WCAX news.

Col. Finnegan omitted mention of the vast increase in extreme noise taking off with the F-35 afterburner would produce in the Chamberlin School Neighborhood of South Burlington that straddles both sides of the runway. Finnegan daily directs the blatant misuse of the 115-decibel F-35 with takeoffs and landings from a runway in densely populated Vermont city in violation of the military’s own discipline. DoD Directive 2311.01 requires “Distinction,” or separation of such military equipment and such military operations from populated areas.

Because Col. Finnegan did not respond to a personal request for more information on November 3, the news outlet CancelF35.substack.com today formally submitted the following Public Records Act request:

Dear Wing Commander Col. Dan Finnegan,
Under the Public Records Act 1 V.S.A. §§ 315-320 please provide all public records and public documents that reveal, show, or discuss the noise level of an F-35 on takeoff with afterburner.

This public records request includes but is not limited to the public records showing the anticipated 4-decibel reduction in noise level in Burlington and Winooski that you touted in your news conference on October 23, 2024 and that was revealed in this WCAX report:
https://www.wcax.com/2024/10/24/vermont-national-guard-releases-noise-mitigation-plan-f-35s/

I am particularly interested in all public records showing what the increase in noise level will be in the Chamberlin School neighborhood that spans both sides of the runway when the F-35 uses its afterburner.

The increase in noise-level in the Chamberlin School neighborhood is important because it is one of the most densely populated neighborhoods in the State of Vermont, and the current 115-decibel-F-35-noise level there is not good for children or adults.

We have a precedent showing a huge increase in noise level when the afterburner is used: The Air Force disclosed that the maximum noise level of the F-16 increased by over 21 decibels in the Chamberlin School neighborhood when the F-16 used its afterburner for takeoff back in the 2013 time frame.

Here is how the Air Force disclosed that sharp increase in maximum F-16 noise level: The table on Page BR4-23 in the 2013 US Air Force Environmental Impact Statement shows that the maximum noise level of the F-35 is 21 decibels higher than the 94-decibel F-16 when both fly without their afterburner.

Yet the noise contour map on page BR4-31 shows that the average noise level of the F-16 taking off with afterburner is significantly higher than the F-35 taking off without afterburner in the Chamberlin School neighborhood to the sides of the runway. This means that the use of the F-16 afterburner caused an increase of well over 21 decibels in maximum F-16 noise level in the Chamberlin School neighborhood. (The same noise contour map shows a reduction in average F-16 noise level over Winooski and Burlington, past the ends of the runway, because the pilots turned off the afterburner long before reaching those cities.)

Please also provide public records showing increasing F-35 weight, because it’s the weight of the aircraft that drives the need for use of the F-35 afterburner on takeoff, and that weight is likely increasing.

I plan to publish the information you provide in the public records for wide public distribution through the online F-35 news report CancelF35.substack.com.
Thank you
Best regards,
James Marc Leas