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Highlands Today

Lying About Bombs?

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Robert L. Beadle

Published: November 10, 2007

In the Highlands Today front page story of Oct. 31, statements were made which strongly appear to be lies.

Jim Brantley, spokesman for the U.S. Fleet Forces Command, said:

1. "Although this exercise involved bomb replicas, live bombs will be dropped in less than a year." This statement does not preclude that live bombs are not being dropped currently.

2. "The noise generated from live bombs shouldn't be much louder than operations out there now." This statement does not preclude that live bombs are not now being dropped. In fact, it enforces the fact that they are now being dropped!

Dick Cutshall, director of Avon Park Air Force Range, said:

1. "They used bombs without explosives that mark where the bomb would land. These bombs do not make any noise."

If these statements are true, then what were all the explosive sounds generated from the bombing range the last few days?

They were not thunder noises. These explosions heard by citizens of Avon Park, synchronized with the passing over of jets.

Moreover, in the Tampa Tribune letters to the editor on Oct. 31, was a letter from a person, who has lived at the bombing range for the past 25 years. She complained, "It sounded like they were dropping nukes on the practice field. It was literally shaking the foundation of the house."

If these were "replica bombs" without explosives, what was shaking the foundation of her house, and what were the loud 'nuke-like sounds' she was hearing?

My concern, in writing this letter, is whether or not the military is lying about the real bombs not beginning to be dropped until next summer or fall of 2008.

I attended the public hearings in Avon Park in 2005 regarding the use of live bombs. Before doing so I read the entire two volumes of the military Environmental Impact Study. At one of the meetings I orally endorsed the use of live ammunition and bombs but, with the stipulation that the military not use depleted uranium in their arsenal of armor piercing shells. I was assured by the military that they would only use conventional weapons.

If the military is lying about the date when live bombing begins, are they also lying about not using depleted uranium in their armor piercing shells?

We certainly don't want this in Avon Park, Tampa, or anywhere else. So, my question is, are they lying or not?

Robert L. Beadle
Avon Park

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