In case you haven’t heard – the U.S. Air Force plans to station eighteen F-35 fighter jets at Truax Field in Madison. These jets are a disaster for the city of Madison. They will harm low-income communities, people of color, and children of all backgrounds. They will damage the quality of life in our city. There is no good reason a fighter jet should be flown in dense residential areas.

These jets create dangerously high noise levels. The Air Force itself says that these jets can be four times higher than F-16s, which currently fly in Madison. They admit that the noise near the airport will be so loud that over 1,000 households will be potentially “incompatible with residential use.”

These jets will disproportionately affect low-income communities and people of color. The people who will be most directly impacted cannot afford to move. Mitigation measures are expensive, offer limited relief, and any federal funds, if available, would take years to arrive. Madison doesn’t have enough affordable housing as it is. The F-35s will only exacerbate the stark racial inequities in Madison.

These jets will particularly impact children. Kids in many nearby schools and day care facilities will be subjected to repeated and frightening noise. This can lead to cognitive impairment, hamper a child’s ability to read, and cause post-traumatic stress. The Air Force even warns: “Chronic exposure to high aircraft noise levels may impair learning.”

These jets lead to significant water pollution. Truax base is a major source for PFA contamination. PFAS are those “forever chemicals” that pollute our water. Already one city well has been shut down, the DNR has found high levels of PFAS in Starkweather Creek, which runs through the base. The Department of Defense has refused to clean up its mess. With these F-35s, the pollution will only get worse. It’s not hard to imagine this polluted water in Madison’s lakes, making them unsafe for swimming and boating.

F-35s will have nuclear capabilities. F-35s will be able to carry nuclear weapons in the future. Though the Truax base does not currently have a nuclear mission, the Air Force can change its mission, and Truax would become a military target. These are offensive, first strike weapons. Do we want Madison to be the source of a nuclear attack?

Who supports these jets?

The Madison Chamber of Commerce is pushing hard for these jets and argues that F-35s will help preserve the 1,200 jobs at the Truax base. The Air Force itself disputes this claim, and they even say the economic benefits to Madison will be “negligible.”

You would expect that conservative elected officials would support these jets. And that’s true.

You would also expect progressive elected officials to fight against these jets. After all, protecting the needs of low-income communities, people of color, and children, as well as preserving our natural resources and quality of life for everyone, are progressive values.

But that’s not true.

We can influence our progressive leaders, and we need to speak up.

• Senator Tammy Baldwin is working hard to bring these jets to Madison and has played a leading role in organizing the Wisconsin Congressional delegation’s support for them. This is incompatible with her stated commitments to protect Wisconsin’s environment, close racial disparities, and serve low-income communities.

• Representative Mark Pocan has not expressed opposition to the jets coming to Madison, and while he requested that the Air Force test fly an F-35 over Madison (they said no), this is a far cry from working in the interests of his district.

• County Supervisor Joe Parisi refuses to take a stance. His silence is strange, given his efforts to clean up our lakes, lower our carbon footprint, and create more affordable housing.

• Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway stood with the Madison Chamber of Commerce against the low-income communities near the airport whom she purports to represent, breaking a 10-10 vote which led to the passage of a weak, watered down resolution instead of a strong “No F-35” resolution.  

It’s not too late to pressure our elected officials to do the right thing. If we don’t speak up, they won’t take bold steps to keep these fighter jets out of our dense, residential communities.

We voted for strong, progressives, and we expect better.

Here’s what you can do:

1. Sign the petition and add your name to the growing number of people who oppose these stealth fighter jets.

2. Like our Facebook page – Save Our Skies Wisconsin – and share it on social media. Use the hashtag #SaveOurSkies.

3. Make a commitment to taking one action a week. We’ll send you the first one after you sign up.

Together we can speak up, and together we can keep these jets from destroying our neighborhoods.