Opinion

Helicopter flyovers small price to pay

Friday, September 26, 2003

Spring calving. Whooping crane migration. Elk hunting season. Rifle deer season. American burying beetle season. Reluctant landowners. That eclectic list includes some of the reasons the Nebraska Army National Guard won't conduct helicopter training in a corridor in Frontier, Dawson and Lincoln counties.

All in all, it means that, at best, the Guard will be able to train there 25 days a year. Add low clouds, rain or snow, and crews may be down to a week or so.

The military likes the hills and canyons of northern Frontier County because they look a lot like the countryside in the Balkan States. Computer simulators are fine, but when it comes to low-level helicopter flight, there's nothing like the real thing.

Col. Thomas Schuurmans of Lincoln said he sent a medical evacuation unit to Kosovo without the training that would have prepared pilots for the steep canyons of the Serbian province.

"We would like to fly out here, because the hills and deep canyons most closely replicate the Balkan region," Schuurmans told attendees at an open house this week in Curtis. Guard pilots now train over rolling hills in eastern Nebraska. "We can use the terrain to mask our movements," Maj. Kevin Bricker of Lincoln, a Guard pilot, told the group.

We can understand landowners' concern. Many of us choose to live in rural Nebraska because we cherish the peace and quiet it affords. Farmers and ranchers have a lot at stake when it comes to property, and they don't need to add frightened animals to the list of challenges that already includes severe weather, predators, disease and (usually) low prices for their livestock and farm commodities.

But the military is bending over backwards to take landowners' concerns into consideration. Maps are being marked outlining property over which helicopters are not welcome, and, the aforementioned restrictions are already part of the plan.

Elk hunting season? And, who even heard of the American burying beetle before the helicopter training issue came up? "We're going to be good neighbors," Schuurmans said. "If you don't want us there, you can tell us."

Everyone makes sacrifices when it comes to national defense. Thousands of military families are finding themselves separated by deployments, careers are being put on hold if not damaged, and a some are even making the ultimate sacrifice. Letting a few helicopters disturb the peace now and then to make sure our personnel are properly trained is well worth the cost.

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