If I Hear Another Complaint about Noise from F16s!!!

Luke AFB is located west of Phoenix in the city limits of Glendale, Arizona. Glendale was once cotton fields and cattle ranches back in the day when Luke Field was not much more than a landing strip and a few buildings. During WWII, it was used by the Army Air Corps to train pilots. When the U.S. Air Force was formed in 1948, the base grew with it and was named Luke Air Force Base, after the WWI fighter ace, Frank Luke, a Phoenix native. I proudly state that I was born at Luke, when my father, a captain and a test pilot at the time, was stationed at the base.

Over the years, Phoenix has grown exponentially. Particularly in the past 20 years, housing and population have steadily encroached the base. There has been much discussion over property rights vs. the rights of maintaining the airspace and public safety surrounding that air corridor. The advancement of homebuilding has gradually eroded the safety cone that the Air Force has always tried to maintain. You wouldn’t want to be sitting in your living room, only to have an F16 drop out of the sky through your roof, would you? Yet property owners have litigated over the issue of their rights to “develop” their land. The battle continues and our most recent governor (and now Homeland Security secretary) Janet Napolitano, worked tirelessly to protect Luke AFB. The base brings millions of dollars into the surrounding cities, county, and state, not to mention its security.

In the week after 9/11, when all flights in the country were grounded and the skies were eerily silent, we here in Phoenix could look up and still see and hear the F16 fighters patrolling the skies. I was never more grateful that they were still on the west side of Phoenix!

Well, my cousin’s husband sent me an e-mail today wherein the letter writer complained about the noise from the F16s as they flew over Arrowhead Mall (in northwest Glendale) Apparently the writer found it disturbing as he or she stated: "Do the Tom Cruise-wannabes feel we need this wake-up call, or were they trying to impress the cashiers at Mervyns early bird special?"

The writer received a response from Lt. Col. Grant L. Rosensteel, Jr.
who explained that they were part of a fly-over honoring Capt. Jeremy Fresques. Capt Fresques was an Air Force officer who was previously stationed at Luke Air Force Base and was killed in Iraq on May 30, 2005 (Memorial Day).

Lt. Col. Rosensteel explained: "A four-ship fly by is a display of respect the Air Force gives to those who give their lives in defense of freedom. We are professional aviators and take our jobs seriously, and on June 15 what the letter writer witnessed was four officers lining up to pay their ultimate respects." He went on to explain that he would "thank them for you, for it was in their honor that my pilots flew the most honorable formation of their lives."

As my mom has gotten older I sometimes take her to the base to do her shopping. Somedays I would just stand outside the commissary staring to the west at the White Tank Mountain range toward the flight line and watch the F16s take off and land. There’s nothing more beautiful to me. No sweeter serenade than their engines screaming just before takeoff from the flightline or the rumbling sound of the afterburners.

I would tell anyone that complains about noise from the F16s that I was there, standing at my father’s grave at the age of six when they blew taps, performed the 21-gun salute, folded the flag and presented it to my mother on behalf of the President of the United States. And yes, I damn well remember the fly-over and the missing man formation. My father’s plane went down within 15 miles of Luke one night a very long time ago. Some things you just never forget. So my heartfelt and most sincere condolences go out to the family of Capt. Fresques. My father was a member of the 56th Fighter Wing.