“We were wrong to route helicopters over civilian areas, commander says”

By Christian Hill and Adam Ashton in The Olympian,
“Joint Base Lewis-McChord commanders broke federal law when they allowed new-arriving helicopter crews to fly regular routes over civilian communities last year. They failed to follow requirements to reach out to neighbors and study the full impacts of the noisy, after-hours training.

In interviews with The News Tribune, The Olympians sister paper, leaders at the base south of Tacoma say their actions were inadvertent. It took a flood of public complaints and consultation with attorneys before they realized they had violated federal environmental laws.

‘We found out after (that) we were wrong,’ said 7th Infantry Division Deputy Commander Col. William Gayler.”
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