Karen Earp lives in the unincorporated Cochise County community Portal, Arizona. She was one of about three dozen people who spoke against the plan during a public hearing earlier this month.
“One of the things I want you to understand is that people, livestock, pets, wildlife, all live in this area where you are presently training, and you're proposing to expand your training, this degrades our quality of life, and it harms the environment to this wildlife sanctuary, the noise now is completely unacceptable to all animals and to humans, and especially to those with PTSD,” she said.
She said she and her husband, who is a veteran, both struggle with PTSD.
The plan includes Air Force training missions in what they’ve designated as Military Operations Areas.
Joe Saenz, member of the Chiricahua Apache Nation, spoke during a public hearing on the proposal earlier this month.
“You don't have the right to do what you are proposing, to do the areas that you have mentioned, which are the Reserve, the Morenci, the Jackal and the Tombstone,” he said. “Those are our traditional grounds, and we have protected those grounds for 1000s of years”
Many opposing the plan argued it would disturb residents and harm fragile ecosystems and that the military should keep that training to the Barry Goldwater Air Force Range where nearly 2 million acres of the Sonoran Desert is already used for training.
