Islanders may have noticed a bit of a roar in the sky Wednesday morning when two F-15s quickly passed over Martha’s Vineyard airspace.
The two jets are part of the 104th Fighter Wing which operates out of Barnes Air National Guard Base in Westfield, National Guard public affairs officer Don Veitch told The Times Wednesday.
He said the jets heard were nothing more than a typical training exercise. They’re part of the 21-aircraft 104th Fighter Wing which provides fighter protection for the entire northeast corridor.
“We routinely fly missions as part of the 104 Fighter Wing’s responsibility to keep their pilots trained and ready,” Veitch said. “Our pilots have to maintain their flight standards and they have to dock a certain amount of flight hours each month to maintain their rating.”
The flight plans are made to distribute the flights across the commonwealth over different times and different locations, Veitch said, which could be why some people assume it’s an irregular event. But “this is not an uncommon thing for a state that has a fighter wing in it. . . The [flight] path just happened to go over Martha’s Vineyard today.”
Honestly, I lost my boss on United 175 on 911, there is no excuse for not giving the community a heads up. I as many residences were caught very off guard and were extremely concerned as to what was going on. I thought a commercial plane was landing in my office. Very disappointed to the govt’s indifference to the community’s peaceful norm without a heads up.
How would you have liked the government to notify you? If they did notify you what would you say to them?
Slow news day?
Slow enough to publish meaningless comments.
None more meaningless then yours.
Thank you.
Good to know that they are keeping up on their flight standards and on the ready if it is needed.
As stated above it would be great to have a heads up in the future. We do have many retired military members living here and the sound might set off PTSD for them or even others for that matter.
Oh PLEEEEASE ! The height of absurdity !! Really ? A Single fly over will freak out people ?
Ok
I understand that they are not going to notify us every time. My reason for that comment was for those retired military members with PTSD. Sorry I reacted for concern for our community members who served for our freedom.
It doesn’t bother me at all. I enjoy them and wish I had gotten outside to see them fly over.
I am thankful that they are keeping us safe and are able to continue to be prepared.
Freedom for all.
Bring ‘em back to to the Cape, never should have left here.
Agreed
The Cape needs more bridge traffic?
Better still, base them on the Island.
Really ? A couple of jets do a flyover, and people are angry or scared ? Really?
Do we really expect the air force to notify every town they fly over every time they are airborne ? Or should they just notify the residents of Martha’s Vineyard because we are more hoity toity than the rest of the country ?
And exactly how would they notify us ? Perhaps an Amber alert ?
Exactly. People are afraid of their own shadow these days. The Coast Guard doesn’t “notify” us when they go out on patrols or whatever. Never received a call from the Navy that they are going to sea either now that I think about it.
Finally a reasonable response.
How soon they forget the bombs and mini-guns constantly barraging Nomans through the 80’s. Now 2 jets fly over and everyone is horrified. What is going on?
Those jets are the sound of freedom.
Those jets are designed to kill people.
Sounds like Freedom to me.
Do all jet fighters sound like freedom?
What would the world be like without fighter jets?
Would we just kill each other with clubs?
Well, it would be pretty stupid not having fighter jets if the other guy’s got fighter jets. If we only had clubs to fight wars there’d be someone in a workshop somewhere building swords. The push-pull cycle of parity and the utilization of technological advantage is what drives weapons development, not an inherent evil of mankind.
Amen.
Praise the Lord.
I’ll take those fighter jets anytime they can be swapped for the leaf blowers. A relative constant in our lives. And I do remember the glorious noise of the 4 helicopters bringing the Obamas fthat lew right over my house!
Thanks a lot Obama! I spilled my expensive coffee on my new expensive shirt when they flew over my house. Is there a manager I can complain too?!!
Thank you God for a strong military. I’m glad our servicemen and women are ready for combat. Keep flying over MV fighter jets.
Should fighter jets be based on the Island?
Would that be a step too far?
The cape and islands by virtue of it’s geography puts us on the front lines of whatever shenanigans might be happening offshore. It used to be somewhat routine seeing US Navy aircraft doing submarine sweeps over Cape Cod Bay and Nantucket Sound during the Cold War. We just need to get used to it again, preferably by not taking videos or writing about it so the DoD doesn’t have to keep coming up with less than believable excuses.
Comments are closed.