City Government
F-35 Meet Like Watching A Bad Movie Twice
February 27, 2018 
Visitors to public meeting were met by anti F-35 group as they entered venue.
If the Tuesday public meeting at the Wyndham Convention Center on Vista had been an aerial combat mission, the Idaho Air National Guard would have suffered a major ambush from the group opposing the F-35 being based in Boise.
Citizens For a Livable Boise managed to set up a giant “information table” complete with maps, charts, and political-type campaign buttons opposing the F-35. The meeting was the last ditch effort by the Idaho Air National Guard and proponents of attracting the F-35 following the December decision by the Air Force to base the aircraft at Dannelly Field in Alabama and Truax Field in Wisconsin. Environmental Impact Analysis Process (EIAP) studies are underway by private contractors at five locations in case one of the “preferred alternatives” doesn’t work for some reason.
While both sides used mostly the same old maps, statistics, and posters, the GUARDIAN found that none of the Idaho Air Guard people had heard about the USAF separate plans to expand the Mountain Home AFB training range to include the sky over Boise (see previous GUARDIAN post below). We find it somewhat disconcerting that our military officials haven’t told the local flyers of their plans to use lasers and F-15 fighters over Boise to practice “urban warfare” in a realistic setting. The official PROPOSAL
Nine urban centers have been identified for this training: Boise, Mountain Home, Burley, Twin Falls, Grandview, Glenns Ferry, Bruneau, Hammett, and Mountain Home AFB. There will be a scoping meeting March 12, 3:00 – 6:00 pm at the Boise Main Library, Marion Bingham Room 715 S. Capitol Blvd
Public scoping meetings are also being held at the following locations:
March 5, 3:00 – 6:00 pm
Twin Falls Public Library
201 Fourth Avenue East, Twin Falls, ID 83301
March 6, 5:00 – 7:00 pm
Glenns Ferry High School Library
639 N Bannock St, Glenns Ferry, ID 83623
March 7, 5:00 – 7:00 pm
The American Legion Hall
410 Roosevelt Ave, Grandview ID 83624
March 12, 3:00 – 6:00 pm
Boise Main Library, Marion Bingham Room
715 S. Capitol Blvd, Boise, ID 83702
March 13, 4:00 – 6:00 pm
The American Legion (VFW Post 26)
515 E 2nd S St, Mountain Home, ID 83647
March 14, 3:00 – 6:00 pm
Eagle Public Library
100 N Stierman Way Eagle, Idaho 83616
March 15, 6:00 – 7:45 pm
Meridian Library (Main Branch)
1326 W. Cherry Lane, Meridian ID 83642
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Comments & Discussion
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Feb 27, 2018, 11:52 pm
It was a good night for Citizens For A Livable Boise (CLB) and our booth worked out great. Unfortunately, the picture here was taken after the event was over and we had most everything packed up to go.
Thanks to the use of several social media outlets, and news alerts sent to the media CLB far exceeded their goal for getting the community to turn out for this USAF EIS Open House tonight.
Thanks to everyone that attended the meeting and all those that help make this happen.
Citizens For A Livable Boise (CLB) will be doing more of these events in the near future. Stay tuned…
Feb 28, 2018, 7:28 am
Great attendance last night! I worked the CFLB table all night and did not talk to/engage anyone who supported f-35’s in Boise, no one! Instead I heard from numerous, process weary homeowners who could not see any overall positive impact on Boise.
Feb 28, 2018, 7:40 am
Guardian – National Guard leadership knows exactly what Mt Home is doing.
Feb 28, 2018, 8:44 am
This “bad movie twice” story reminds me of Idaho’s expensive effort to land the SuperConducting SuperCollider, many years ago. It was to be located at INL, in the Arco desert. I attended a session at a surveying conference, where a rocket-science genius described the new methods of surveying needed to perfectly position the magnets on this 40-mile-long oval. Then came the Borah quake just 30 miles away from Idaho’s proposed site, raising and/or lowering and/or tilting the earth–killing Idaho’s chances. But they kept plugging away and spending/wasting money! And here we go again, beating the (thankfully) dead horse of the F-35!!!!!!
Feb 28, 2018, 9:05 am
The place was packed. I got there around 20 minutes late and couldn’t find a parking place. Boise citizens are very concerned about losing their health and homes and home value to these NoIse Monster F-35 War Planes.
I think things like the Airshow last fall may have back-fired for the Guard. People heard just how loud many non-F-35 War Planes can be.
The whole thing will be a contractor feeding frenzy. In fact, the contractor for the EIS is an Australian Company called Cardno. So much for Buy American …
I wonder if they would answer media inquiries about just how many people attended.
Feb 28, 2018, 9:35 am
The military machine of the USA has been sucking up an enormous amount of our GDP for my entire lifetime. We’ve been having a hot war in the middle-east since the Iranian revolution with nothing to show for it except huge numbers of casualties and a very robust weapons industry. The USA was involved in WW-II global fighting for about 4 to 5 years. Yet here we are dithering around for 40 years in a regional conflict. We are being scammed.
The Idaho National Guard leadership in concert with political officials having spent my tax money to portray F-35 opposition as unpatriotic is abhorrent. It is a gross failure of duty to serve all citizens. Refurbishing the base to host F-35 will bring large contracts to the same little circle of friends in Boise plus they will get to redevelop the entire Bench. This is greed graft and corruption plain to see.
If the airport was a few miles away almost no one would oppose it. I am a lifelong conservative and this very personal attack from the people who I trusted to be looking out for me and my family has been an awakening. I will teach several generations what’s been learned from this. For those of you with a blind religious-like support of anything and everything our military does, I think you are caught up in an excellent weapons industry marketing campaign and a local developer campaign.
Feb 28, 2018, 9:48 am
I’ve said all along – as has the Boise Guardian – that a real-life demonstration would be the best possible way to give Boise residents an informed viewpoint on jet noise. Let’s hear for ourselves, rather than getting pats on the head from our “public servants” whose priorities might not line up with our own.
A side note: I just got back from a couple days spent in Tucson, AZ. There were frequent flights into and out of Davis Monthan AFB… almost exclusively A-10s. (For an aircraft that’s hopelessly obsolete, they sure seem to be popular!)
Mar 5, 2018, 10:40 am
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2018/03/03/ben-and-jerrys-co-founder-ben-cohen-arrested/392588002/
Looks like Ben (of Ben & Jerry’s) don’t want it in Vermont either.