Opinion: Fine print on Burlington F-35 ballot item

By Camron Guthrie

For those residents who support the Vermont Air National Guard, it’s important to read the fine print and vote no on ballot item 6.

A small group led primarily by non-Burlington residents has cleverly authored a deceitful ballot item that the citizens of Burlington will be presented with on March 6. The ballot will read, “Shall we, the voters of the City of Burlington, as part of our strong support for the men and women of the Vermont National Guard, and especially their mission to ‘protect the citizens of Vermont,’ advise the City Council to: 1) request the cancellation of the planned basing of the F-35 at Burlington International Airport, and 2) request instead low-noise-level equipment with proven high safety record appropriate for a densely populated area?”

Crafted to make voters initially feel like a vote of “yes” will support the Guard, a close look reveals that it will not. Aside from its clear intent to mislead, the statement itself is problematic in three additional ways.

The first, as the Vermont Air Guard has clearly stated, there is no alternative mission for the Guard. It has been assigned the F-35 mission by the secretary of the Air Force through the official record of decision, signed by her on Dec. 2, 2013. Ten’s of millions of dollars have already been spent readying the base’s facilities and airmen to accept the aircraft.

Secondly, the ballot item references F-35 noise. The Environmental Impact Statement noise contours clearly show that Burlington is unaffected by any change in noise, and that the aircraft is quieter in South Burlington due to the lack of afterburner usage by the F-35 – a fact that helped spur an 11,000 name South Burlington petition and a City Council resolution in support of basing the aircraft in Vermont.

Lastly, the ballot item infers that the F-35 is not a safe aircraft. Currently, the F-35 is the only fighter aircraft in the U.S. inventory not to have had a single crash, ever. There are over 270 aircraft flying in multiple countries and it has logged over 120,000 flying hours. The combination of a very safe aircraft in the hands of Vermont’s highly respected professionals is a perfect fit for the state.

Nearly four years of public comment were accepted to the record before the decision was made. That decision process was deliberate, transparent, thorough, and is complete. The F-35 mission has been officially assigned to Vermont by the highest levels of the federal government and it is unlikely that a deceitful ballot item will serve any purpose other than to spread misinformation and malign our guardsmen.

Multiple non-binding resolutions, both for and against the F-35, have already been passed by Burlington, South Burlington and Winooski city councils, and all were considered in the decision. The Save our Skies anti-F-35 activists have also made their case in the courts and have been summarily defeated at the local, state, federal and appellate levels.

Socrates has been credited with saying, “When the debate is lost, slander becomes the tool of the loser.” Do not let an intentionally deceitful ballot item hijack your vote for use in slandering our National Guard.

The debate is over and it’s time for the Queen City to move forward in a responsible and constructive way. Please read the fine print, support the men and women of the Air National Guard, and vote no on ballot number 6.

Camron Guthrie lives in Burlington, Vermont.

Original article ➤ https://www.burlingtonfreepress.com