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This is a big deal and could easily be linkd to vieques and cancer related to depleted uranium munitions.
AP Top News
Navy Bomb Plans Anger Californians
BIG SUR, Calif. (AP) -- Residents are up in arms over a Navy proposal for
nearly 3,000 bombing missions annually on a practice range near Big Sur.
Bombers would come from Lemoore Naval Air Station in California's Central
Valley and from aircraft carriers in the Pacific Ocean, aiming dummy bombs
at a 500-foot bull's-eye painted on the ground at Fort Hunter Liggett in
southern Monterey County.
Cattle ranchers, environmentalists and monks met with top Navy brass
Saturday to protest the flights over some of California's most rustic coast.
''They're talking about a constant bombardment,'' said land owner Wynn
McGrenera.
Navy Cmdr. Charlie Gillman said the bombers will not create as much noise
as anticipated because they will fly high and not reach supersonic speeds.
However, the Navy acknowledged that about 15 percent of the flights will be
at night.
The 165,000-acre fort, used as a training ground for Army reserves and the
National Guard, is a wild stretch of oak woodlands and rolling hills that
newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst sold to the Army in 1940 for
$2.1 million.
Saturday's meeting was part of an environmental assessment.
Members of the Salinan Nation tribe said that the area should be left alone
because it's where their ancestors first lived. A group of 22 Benedictine
monks said they don't want their silence disturbed at the nearby New
Camaldoli Hermitage. And the National Park Service said endangered plants
and animals, such as condors, must be protected.
''It's not in keeping with the future of sustainable tourism,'' said Rep. Sam
Farr, D-Calif.
The Army will make the final decision on whether the Navy can use the
range. Base officials said the Army won't comment until it receives results
from the environmental assessment, expected by fall.
Gillman said pilots from Lemoore currently fly 227 miles to Fallon, Nev., and
159 miles to Superior Valley near Barstow to practice bombing runs. Fort
Hunter Liggett is only 76 miles away and the Navy said the shorter flights
could save about $3 million a year in fuel costs.