If residents in San Juan County think the noise from Navy jets is a serious problem, get ready for what’s coming up.

The Navy is proposing to create an electronic warfare training program that will target areas on the Washington coast with radio frequency radiation. The proposal is to use radar “trucks” in the Olympic National Forest to “light up” radar and allow jets from Whidbey to target those sites with high power jamming beams.

The people on the coast near Pacific Beach and Quinault are very concerned and have held public meetings on the issue. What we should realize is that training exercises using targeted RF beams in the National Forest are not within the scope of forest use let alone concerns about effects on the wildlife and population.

Increased training excercises will result in more low-level flights over the San Juan Islands. Questions have already been asked as to if our area will be someday included in electronic warfare testing. Loud low flights from jets will increase, with RF jamming on an on-going training basis. More training, more noise, more RF radiation.

For more information, please check out: http://goo.gl/OlIq3W or http://goo.gl/oH12tW.

John Titus

Eastsound