Seven Days reports: "Data Show Vermont Air Guard F-35 Flights Spiked in April," By Kevin McCallum on Fri, Apr 24, 2020 at 2:57 PM  

The Seven Days article is narrowly focused on the facts. F-35 flight facts: The question was, how many F-35 jets took off each week? Did that number spike in the first week of April? The Vermont Guard spokesman misled the  Seven Days reporter for three weeks. The Vermont Guard spokesman told the Seven Days reporter, "no increase." Somehow, the Vermont Air National Guard, its Wing Commander, and its Adjutant General, were lacking eagerness to disclose the facts. Worse, through their spokesman, they said the opposite of the facts. It took a formal request from Seven Days to finally get the truth about the spike in flights that began during the first week in April. All this is revealed in the Seven Days article.

So we have a double dose of government-sponsored disinformation in recent months: The Burlington chief of police lied and got caught by a Seven Days reporter. Now the Vermont National Guard. Again caught, this time by a different Seven Days reporter.

This Seven Days article is not about who has the power to halt F-35 flights. But in the light of the loss of credibility it reveals, let's examine the Wing Commander's April 17 letter to city councils in Burlington, Winooski, and South Burlington. The letter was written in response to adoption 11-1 of a resolution by the Burlington City Council calling on the Governor to order a halt to the F-35 training flights during the pandemic.

The Wing Commander wrote touting the "federal mission" for the F-35 training, suggesting that the Governor lacks the power to halt the flights. But the letter omitted mention of the US Constitutional provision in Art. 1, Sect. 8 that reserves to the states the authority of training the militia. Focusing on mission, he diverted from who has full authority over training the Vermont National Guard.

The US Constitutional reservation of authority of training the militia to the states includes the power to start and to stop the training. It matters not a bit what the purpose or mission of the training is: city, state, federal, global, or cosmic. The authority of training the militia, including when it starts and when it stops, rests 1000% with the Governor, who, under the Vermont Constitution, is the commander in chief of the Guard. His authority over training does not change one bit, regardless of the purpose or the mission of the training. So the Wing Commander was engaging in further disinformation.

As to the F-35 training flights, let's keep the campaign growing to tell the governor to use his constitutional authority over training to bring the F-35 flights to a halt during the pandemic. He won't be breaking new ground: The Air Force, on its own initiative, halted F-35 flights at Edwards Air Force Base last month because of COVID-19. The Navy, on its own initiative, halted F-35 flights at their Patuxent River, Md. facility because of COVID-19. Both as reported in Air Force Magazine in the article, "COVID-19 Halts F-35 Flight Testing Until Further Notice." The COVID-19 pandemic equally requires an immediate halt to the F-35 training flights in a city in the most densely populated part of Vermont where the flights are injuring and distressing families.

Here are two actions you can take:

1. Sign on to a brand new petition: "Boycott Burlington Airport to stop the F-35 flights in a city:" http://chng.it/Jg8Sr22G

2. If you are exposed to the F-35 noise, record your experience by filling out the "F-35 Report and Complaint Form:" https://forms.gle/VPogAzcgZbYamgNG9
Thank you.
Best regards,
James Marc Leas