BURLINGTON — Opponents to the basing of F-35s at Burlington International Airport are holding out hope the mission could be cancelled despite the jets’ scheduled arrival this month.
Around 100 demonstrators gathered Friday evening in Burlington to protest the basing of the jets at the airport. The group protested outside the offices of Sens. Bernie Sanders, Patrick Leahy and Mayor Miro Weinberger.
“I’m here because I want to protect my home, my health,” Nilton Costa, of Winooski, said. “The entire neighborhood is at risk.”
Weinberger, Sanders and Leahy all support basing the jets at the airport, and Leahy’s staff played a substantial role in the F-35 basing process.
Two jets are scheduled to arrive each month starting this month, with the full fleet of 18 in place by next summer. The F-35s are four times louder than the F-16s, which left the airport in April, 33 years after they arrived.
Basing opponents have expressed concerns about the increased noise the F-35s will bring. Noise maps show the total number of homes and people exposed to average noise levels of more than 65 decibels will triple by 2023.
Friday’s protest specifically targeted the offices of local lawmakers, starting outside of Sanders’ office on Church Street then proceeding to Leahy’s office on Main Street before heading back to City Hall.
Protesters held signs specifically mentioning Leahy and Sanders, including signs that read “Bernie, don’t make VT a target,” “Bernie, please don’t let the F-35s harm us,” and “Leahy, why are you sacrificing us?”
In a joint statement to VTDigger last year, Sanders, Leahy and Weinberger said the Air Force’s decision had been held up after several reviews, and if the F-35s don’t come to Vermont they will go somewhere else.
“The Air Force has made it clear that the F-35 is its future — and after a lengthy assessment, it selected Vermont’s Guard to be part of that future,” the statement read.
Bystanders eating dinner on Church Street had a mostly positive reaction to the demonstrators as they marched by, with a group outside of Church Street bar Red Square applauding for the protestors.
Stan Hills, of Burlington, said that Sanders’ speaking out against the military industrial complex “rings hollow” as Sanders continues to support the basing of F-35s at the airport.
“He portrays himself one way in his presidential campaign, but hypocritically ignores the people here that he represents,” Hills said. “He supports military jobs in Vermont, yet glosses over the fact this is all part of the same military industrial complex he tells the nation he is against.”
Protestor Jennifer Decker said that Leahy has ignored constituents who are against the basing.
“They will bring deafening noise, they will cost a lot of money, and they will serve to make the people of northwest Vermont nuclear targets,” Decker said. “It is a complete sell out to the military industrial complex.”
The jets do not currently have a nuclear mission and are not yet capable of transporting nuclear weapons. But the Department of Defense plans on making them nuclear-capable, and local municipalities have objected to a nuclear mission for the jets coming to Vermont.
Supporters argue the F-35 basing at the airport is good for the region’s economy and bolsters the airport. In April 2018, Weinberger said that the region would face, at best “a period of great uncertainty” if the decision to base the F-35s in Burlington was re-opened.
“BIA is one of our economic drivers – its weakening as a result of a reduced VTANG mission would have dramatic and long-term negative consequences for the region,” he said.
Activists have been increasingly discussing their concerns about the use of afterburners after documents obtained by VTDigger show the afterburners, which increase the jet’s thrust and noise on takeoff, could be used as much as ten times more than previously predicted at other bases around the country.
Four F-35s made an unexpected landing at the airport in May, coinciding with the release of the noise map. It’s unclear exactly when this month the jets will be returning.
Janice Solek-Tefft, of Underhill, said she was concerned about the noise, nuclear capability and the effect the jets would have on refugees and immigrants living in Winooski.
Solek-Tefft said said she heard the jets when they landed in May.
“It was so loud, I literally ran out of my house because I thought a plane was crashing,” she said.
