Editor,

This letter addresses the letter by Fred Stillwell in your paper on April 18. This gentleman argues that the answer to the noise dilemma generated by Growler practice in and around Coupeville is to buy earplugs.

This is the old “America love it or leave it,” right-wing diatribe that many of us just don’t buy, never have, never will. We need the military, It’s a dangerous world. The training could be moved to a more suitable geographic location. This would be a solution.

Regarding stress and this man’s assertion that landing a supersonic jet fighter on an aircraft carrier in the middle of the night is a pinnacle here, OK, but at least in that scenario there’s an identifiable beginning and end, and perhaps a feeling of some control by the pilot. However, when you’re an innocent civilian living daily on the ground with this ear-splitting sound — it literally makes you duck and cover — there is no feeling of control and there is no discernible end. There is only dissonance ad nauseam.

Moving the flight training as part of a long-range sustainable plan that takes into account the needs of both the military and the civilian population, would also be the sound of freedom, Mr. Stillwell.

Steven V. Horton

Specialist Fifth Class,

24th Infantry Division, 1967-68

Langley