The war of words continued between Luke Air Force Base supporters and the city of El Mirage Wednesday, this time at the Sun City Home Owners Association annual meeting at Fairway Recreation Center. Though District 9 Rep. Debbie Lesko also was a guest speaker, the star of the show was Steve Yamamori.
Yamamori, executive director and CEO of Fighter Country Partnership, extolled the virtues of the F-35 mission while also leveling criticism at El Mirage officials, who remain skeptical about the noise levels the new jets could bring.
“I met with them right at the beginning, before all of this got started, and asked them what we could do to get on the same page,” Yamamori said. “And I will tell you that since then, what they are saying to me has changed three or four times. But that doesn’t stop me from going out into their community to speak directly to their residents.”
Fighter Country Partnership is a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting the families of Luke’s service men and women.
The Glendale air base is the largest fighter wing and only active-duty F-16 training base in the world. Luke is competing to be the future training site for pilots of F-35s, the next generation of fighter jets designed to replace the F-16.
Yamamori, in bringing up the recent feud over the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, deadpanned for the crowd.
“We’ve got problems. I don’t know if you’ve heard, but there’s this city called El Mirage,” he said.
Yamamori criticized El Mirage’s government and its approach from the start.
“This is a city that has been mismanaged for 60 years,” he said. “with a focus on increasing rooftops, not sustainable sources of income.”
Yamamori said he thinks the city is disingenuous in its concerns over noise and is in fact only looking to get paid.
“This is an attempt, I believe, for them to get money out of this process,” Yamamori said. “They have already been to Washington asking for $400 million.”
In spite of the resistance from El Mirage, Yamamori said he believes the odds of landing the F-35 are in Luke’s favor. Eglin Air Force Base in Texas, he said, has met with resistance from the surrounding community and Holloman Air Base in New Mexico is currently home to the F-22.
“If we get the F-35, the future of Luke will be secure for the next 50 years.”
The Department of Defense will have its first public meetings concerning the Environmental Impact Study process for the F-35 in a series of meetings from Feb. 22-26. The meetings will take place in Sun City, El Mirage, Litchfield Park, Wickenburg and Gila Bend.
These “scoping meetings” solicit comment from the public on what issues should be studies in each community and to what degree.
Jeff Dempsey may be reached at 623-876-2531 or jdempsey@yourwestvalley.com.
