Please consider attending one of the four public hearings to voice your support for the F-35 mission coming to Luke AFB. All hearings include an open house session from 5 to 6 pm, followed by a presentation and formal public comment session from 6 to 8 pm. Make sure to download and review the Draft EIS Report here before you attend.

All Meeting Time Schedule:
5-6 pm Open House / Information Session
6-8 pm Presentation / Formal Comment Session

GLENDALE, Ariz. — The U.S. Air Force has released the Draft F-35A Training Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) report today, paving the way for up to six squadrons – totaling 144 aircraft – of the new fighter jets to be stationed at Luke Air Force Base.

The F-35A Lightening II is the Air Force’s variant of the Joint Strike Fighter, which will replace the F-16 Falcon and the A-10 Thunderbolt as the Air Force’s new multi-role fighter.

“Today’s announcement is fantastic news,” said Governor Jan Brewer. “Luke Air Force Base is well-suited and well-equipped for the F-35 mission, and I am committed to working in partnership with state officials and Arizona residents as we remain focused on our goal to see Luke receive this important designation.”

The EIS evaluates the establishment of the F-35A Pilot Training Center at Luke and the environmental impacts of the needed construction, personnel changes, flight operations, military ranges and military airspace. The environmental study is federally required when an air base is considered for a change in mission.

The Air Force’s preference is to base the new training center at Luke AFB. However, no decisions regarding the proposal will be made until after the environmental impact analysis process is complete. The Air Force’s final basing decision is expected by summer 2012.

With the release of the report, public comment meetings will soon be held in communities near Luke AFB. Similar meetings will be taking place in other U.S. communities, which were selected as alternative sites for F-35A training. Alternative sites were chosen prior to the Air Force selecting Luke as its “preferred alternative” site.

 ”This day has been a long time coming,” said Glendale Mayor Elaine Scruggs, co-chair of Luke Forward. “It’s the culmination of years of work by governors, attorneys general, our congressional delegation and countless state and local leaders, who have prepared us for where we are today. Now we are calling upon all citizens, businesses and others to attend one of the meetings and voice their support for Luke continuing to serve as one of the Air Force’s top pilot training facilities.”

Citizens will have an opportunity to comment on the findings contained in the F-35A Training Draft EIS report at the public meetings. Specific information on the meetings will be released by the Air Force.

In addition to attending one of the meetings, the West Valley Partners — comprised of 13 West Valley communities and Maricopa County whose sole purpose is to protect the current and future missions at Luke AFB — is encouraging citizens to register their support of the F-35 training mission online by visiting www.LukeForward.com. Thus far, nearly 21,000 citizens living in every city and town throughout Arizona have registered their support for the new mission at Luke.

Glendale is home to Luke AFB, which has served as the Air Force’s F-16 training base since 1983 and has a long and distinguished history in the Valley. Luke currently quarters the 56^th Fighter Wing and the 944^th Reserve Fighter Wing.

Luke AFB also manages and operates the Barry M. Goldwater Range and two auxiliary fields for training. The Goldwater Range is the Air Force’s pre-eminent air-to-air and air-to-ground training range and is in close proximity to Luke AFB via military training routes, which also allows for low-level flight training.

The Draft F-35A Training EIS document is available for review online at www.F-35ATrainingEIS.com.

May 19, 2011 – The United States Air Force announced this week that the release of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for the F-35 active duty training mission at Luke AFB has been delayed until the fall. While this is not welcome news, Luke AFB remains well positioned to achieve our desired objective of securing the F-35 mission.

It is important to note that Luke AFB remains the preferred site for the F-35 active duty training mission. The revised release date for the DEIS is September 2011, with the public comment period occurring in October. The Final EIS is scheduled for release in January 2012, and the Record of Decision will follow in the March-April 2012 timeframe.

For those registered to receive e-mail, we will be contacting you in advance of the release of the DEIS to inform you of the next round of public hearings that are tentatively planned for October as well as opportunities for you to participate and continue to show your support. In the meantime, please continue to encourage friends, family and colleagues to sign up at www.LukeForward.com. We are 22,000 strong and growing!

EL MIRAGE, AZ (February 22, 2011): Tuesday, February 22, 2011 marks a turning point in the relationship between the City of El Mirage and its neighboring West Valley cities, along with a meaningful change in the City’s level of support for Luke Air Force Base. At a meeting earlier today, the City of El Mirage was officially welcomed back into to the West Valley Partners. “We are pleased to be able to demonstrate our support for Luke and once again be a part of the West Valley Partners,” stated Mayor Lana Mook. The West Valley Partners is a coalition of West Valley cities and Maricopa County, organized to preserve the long-term viability of Luke AFB. Through this coalition, member cities have created a strong state and national-level lobbying presence advocating for issues of importance to Luke.

In recent years, many officials within the City of El Mirage gained notoriety and ostracism in the West Valley for taking an antagonistic position toward Luke AFB and its related missions, including the proposed F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Jet. After city officials traveled to Washington, D.C. seeking $400 million from the federal government as compensation for perceived economic harm to the small West Valley community and voiced strong opposition to the proposed F-35, West Valley Partners politely requested El Mirage depart the group and stand alone in its position.

In 2009 and 2010, a large group of El Mirage residents became increasingly alarmed at the City’s stance on Luke and the subsequent negative perception of their community. They formed an activist group known as the People of El Mirage (POEM) to demonstrate strong support for the base and its personnel, many of whom reside in El Mirage. Five members of that group went on to run for city council and ended up taking over all five of the seats up for election. “We believed strongly the position the Council was taking was not reflective of how our community truly felt,” said newly-elected Mayor Lana Mook. “The vast majority of us supported Luke AFB and didn’t understand why this wasn’t being reflected in the public.”

On December 9, 2010 this new leadership was officially sworn-in to office and council members immediately began reaching out to Luke AFB officials and leaders from neighboring West Valley cities to begin repairing relationships. As a part of this concerted effort, the new Council extended an invitation to Brigadier General Jerry D. Harris, Commander of the 56th Fighter Wing, Luke Air Force Base, to come and speak to the Council. General Harris is scheduled to present a current mission overview on Luke AFB to the Council this Thursday, February 24, 2011. In anticipation of his visit, the El Mirage City Council voted 7-0 in favor of a resolution supporting Luke AFB and the proposed F-35 mission. They plan on presenting the General with this resolution, along with an official City Coin commemorating the 60th Anniversary of El Mirage, at the February 24th Council meeting.
Mayor Mook emphasized the City’s new position and efforts. “Let there be no doubt – this City Council recognizes the importance of Luke AFB to our nation, to our state, and to the City of El Mirage.” She added “We also recognize the importance of rebuilding positive relationships with our neighboring cities and being a contributing member of the West Valley team. Demonstrating support for Luke and rejoining West Valley Partners is a big step in the right direction for El Mirage.”

Click here to read the resolution.

GLENDALE, Ariz. – Arizona’s local and state government officials, as well as the Arizona congressional delegation, are delighted with the recent decision that the Air Force has selected Luke Air Force Base as the preferred location for the new F-35 Pilot Training Center.

With this decision, Luke is poised to transition from its current F-16 training mission to become the Air Force’s F-35 “school house,” subject to completion of the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) process that is currently underway.

“This news is great for our region and our state and represents a major milestone and the most critical stage in the F-35 site selection process,” said Glendale Mayor Elaine Scruggs when making the announcement.

“Although we realize there is more work ahead of us, we are extremely grateful to our state’s congressional delegation, the Arizona Legislature, Governor Jan Brewer, Attorney General Terry Goddard, and citizens and businesses for working closely with us to champion and support the F-35 coming to Luke Air Force Base through our Luke Forward campaign,” Scruggs said.

The campaign was developed locally to send a clear, strong message to the Department of Defense that Arizona supports Luke Air Force Base continuing to serve as one of the country’s premier fighter pilot training facilities and to raise awareness of the critical role Luke plays in our national defense and the state’s economy.

The campaign was created by the West Valley Partners and Fighter Country Partnership. The West Valley Partners include Avondale, Buckeye, Glendale, Gila Bend, Goodyear, Litchfield Park, Maricopa County, Peoria, Phoenix, Surprise, Tolleson, Wickenburg and Youngtown.

Gov. Brewer said the Air Force’s decision is, in part, the result of all levels of local and state governments, as well as the private sector, working in partnership on a common vision.

“We all know that Luke is the ideal location for this next generation fighter, but I also believe that this decision demonstrates Arizona’s ability to roll up our sleeves and work together for the betterment of our state,” she said during the announcement.

“It’s critical that we continue to do all we can to preserve current and future missions at our military installations in order to keep this very important industry viable in our state.”

Luke Air Force Base and other military installations in the state collectively represent one of the largest industries in Arizona and generate more than $9 billion annually in economic impact statewide. Luke alone contributes more than 8,000 jobs and $2.17 billion annually to Arizona’s economy, according to a recent study commissioned by the state.

Fighter Country Partnership (FCP) Chairman Charley Freericks, who is co-chairing the Luke Forward campaign with Scruggs, credits community support for today’s decision.
“Local community support of military bases is very important back in Washington, and we know the tremendous Valley and statewide support for Luke Air Force Base really helped us,” said Freericks, a senior vice president at DMB Associates.

“We reached literally tens of thousands of Arizonans through our citizen and business outreach initiatives, and community support for Luke Air Force Base was overwhelming. There is no question that this strong level of support was a significant factor in the Air Force’s decision to site the F-35 at Luke.”

The announcement was made prior to the release of the Air Force’s draft F-35 basing EIS document, which is anticipated to be published in the next 30 days. The Air Force is required to conduct an environmental assessment of each potential F-35 site before making its final basing decision.

This federally mandated assessment, which is referred to as the EIS process, allows individual citizens and communities around candidate bases to provide input during the formal evaluation of each base.

The Draft EIS will serve as the Air Force’s notice of intent to proceed. Once the Draft EIS is released, in which Luke will be identified as the Air Force’s preferred site, public hearings will be held later this year.

Once the public hearings are held and the comment period concludes, the Air Force will release its final EIS document that will provide responses to comments received from the public.

After the Final EIS document is published, there will be an additional 30-day public review period. After reviewing comments received during this time frame and after considering any environmental impacts, the Air Force will making its final basing decision. It is anticipated the Air Force’s final “Record of Decision,” which will conclude the EIS process, will be made in early 2011.

A recently released study created for the city of El Mirage that attempts to connect the basing of the F-35 at Luke Air Force Base to lower property values in the West Valley is merely the researcher’s opinion and not based on relevant facts.

Federal law requires the Air Force to conduct a formal Environment Impact Statement (EIS) process before any decisions are made on assigning new aircraft to Luke AFB or any other military installation. This comprehensive EIS process is currently underway at Luke and nine other sites identified by the Air Force in October. As part of the EIS, jet noise is one of the many items that will be studied and analyzed.

But rather than waiting for and analyzing Luke-specific noise data and noise contour maps that will be publicly released as part of the EIS process, ASU professor Tim Hogan made a lot of assumptions and educated guesses in developing his study’s findings. Here’s how:

• Use of Inflated decibel levels for the F-35 – In the study, Hogan assigns a 10-12 decibel increase in noise levels for the F-35 compared to the F-16. But noise data collected by the Air Force Research Lab, shows only an estimated 1-2 decibel increase for the F-35 during take-off and landing, based on a F-35 acoustics study conducted at Edwards AFB in 2008. Increases beyond 1-2 decibels are associated with the F-35 at full military power, which is not required for flight operations at or near Luke AFB due to the aircraft’s higher-powered engine.

• Use of inflated decibel levels for the F-35 to develop new noise contour map – Hogan provides a new noise contour map in his study to assert the impact of the F-35 will be significantly larger. Since there is no current site-specific noise contour map for the F-35 (a new one will be developed as part of the EIS process), the contour map included in the study merely reflects a “best guess” based on the inflated decibel levels (as described in the first bullet) that Hogan used in the study.

• Comparing the impact of commercial airports to a military base – In his study, Hogan compares flight operations at commercial airports with a military installation to draw conclusions on property value impacts. This is akin to comparing apples to oranges because the number of flight operations from major commercial airports that he used in his analysis is significantly higher than the number of flight operations at Luke AFB.     In addition, the setback of a military base’s flight line is significantly larger than those found at commercial airports.

• There is no evidence that shows how the F-35 basing has reduced housing values –     The F-35 has not been assigned to any base yet, other than at Eglin AFB for initial testing. Thus there is no empirical data that supports Hogan’s claim. Thus, Hogan’s estimates lack hard analytical data and are purely based on his conjecture and personal assessment.

Finally, now is not the time to rush to premature conclusions based on hypothetical data that is contained in studies such as Hogan’s. Thus, we urge you to wait for the site-specific data and facts that will be released as part of the EIS process relating to basing the F-35 at Luke. Once we all receive the same data and facts, we can begin having informed, productive discussions on the similarities, differences and impacts of Luke’s aircraft fleet moving from F-16s to F-35s.

The town of Buckeye has supported the mission of Luke Air Force Base for decades. Just recently, the Town Council unanimously approved a resolution strongly encouraging the U. S. Department of Defense, Congress and the Administration to designate Luke Air Force Base as a training site for the Air Force version of the F-35 Lightning II fighter.

The operations at Luke AFB have impacted people from all walks of life and from every state in the nation. Since 1988, Luke Air Force Base has trained 16,270 fighter pilots to fly the F-16 Fighting Falcon and graduated 9,071 crew chiefs. They continue to play a critical role in protecting America’s freedom and security worldwide.

The presence of Luke and other military bases in Arizona contribute significantly to the state and local economies. Luke AFB alone contributes more than 8,000 jobs and $2 billion annually to our state’s economy. Luke’s economic impact is especially critical in light of the current budget crisis facing the state and every community in Arizona.

Our jewel to the south, the Barry M. Goldwater Range, provides highly flexible joint military service training and realistic combat missions. Each year, fighters from Luke AFB conduct more than 30,000 air-to-air gunnery and air-to-ground bombing training at the 1.7-million acre facility located between Yuma and Tucson.

The town of Buckeye and other West Valley communities have revised their development plans and/or set aside property in the area to protect Luke’s training mission. Buckeye is home to many of the brave men and women who support Luke’s current fighter training mission. Buckeye is where their families live and their children are educated. And, we hope Buckeye will be able to welcome a new generation of F-35 personnel and their families to our community as well.

In addition to protecting our nation’s defense and being an economic asset to the state, Luke AFB has a profoundly positive impact in our communities. Base personnel volunteer more than 100,000 hours annually at local schools, churches, youth sports leagues and non-profit organizations.

Our Town Council’s recent resolution illustrates the unwavering support and commitment of Buckeye residents to Luke Air Force Base – for the current F-16 training mission and as the future training site for the new F-35.

Since launching Luke Forward in October 2009, our website has had nearly 25,000 visits.  Even more important, you and almost 15,000 other champions have registered their steadfast support for bringing the F-35 Lightning II mission to Luke Air Force Base (AFB).

In December, we developed a budget for our sustained effort to communicate with Arizonans about the importance of Luke AFB being selected as a training base for the F-35.  We are grateful to report that in less than two months we have reached 40 percent of our fund raising target of $43,250 to sustain the Luke Forward educational campaign through the 18 to 24 month Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) process.

Luke Forward is your campaign and we will continue our efforts to keep you up to the minute on meaningful information.  Today we are proud to announce that we have posted our budget on-line and will continue to update our expenditures monthly to share with you where your money is being invested in support of Luke AFB.

Your generous donation helped start a Luke Forward speaker’s bureau designed to educate the public on the benefits of bringing the F-35 to Luke, enable us to enhance LukeForward.com to make straightforward information more accessible to the public and produce a variety of educational materials needed to support the mission.  Without your generosity and financial support, none of this would have been possible.

We hope you will join us in reaching our fund raising goal and help spread the word to others who share support for the Luke AFB, the State of Arizona, and our United States Air Force.  A simple donation can be made online at LukeForward.com/donate, or you can also send a check payable to Luke Forward to:

Fighter Country Partnership, Inc
500 North Estrella Parkway
Suite B2, PMB 479
Goodyear, AZ 85338

We sincerely thank you for your continued support. For more information, please contact (623) 882-2191 or email contact@fightercountry.org.

Mayor Elaine Scruggs                         Charley Freericks, Chairman

Glendale, AZ                                      Fighter Country Partnership

Luke Forward Co-chair                      Luke Forward Co-chair

Fiesta Bowl
APS

Arizona Silver ($2,500)

Glendale Civic Pride Ambassadors

Arizona Bronze ($1,000)

RBF Consulting
Councilwomen Cathy Carlat, Peoria, AZ

56^th Fighter Wing ($500)

Paula Jones, Litchfield Park, AZ
Ann McCartney, Scottsdale, AZ
Pebble Creek Republican Club, Goodyear, AZ
Lana Mook, El Mirage, AZ

Joint Strike Fighter ($100)

97^th Bomb Group (H) B-17’s, Goodyear, AZ
Homewood Suites by Hilton #1, Avondale, AZ
Homewood Suites by Hilton #2 Avondale, AZ
West Valley National Bank, Avondale, AZ
Barbara Aldrich, Buckeye, AZ
Monte Allen, Phoenix, AZ
Thomas Ashby, Glendale, AZ
Chapin Bell, Scottsdale, AZ
William Berg, Tempe, AZ
George Casey, Paradise Valley, AZ
Mayor James Cavanaugh, Goodyear, AZ
Paul Chase, Sun City West, AZ
David Coon, Surprise, AZ
W. L. Cooper, Cave Creek, AZ
Sharon Dawe, Goodyear, AZ
James Dodson, Litchfield Park, AZ
Tom Eggleston, Glendale, AZ
Billie Eggleston, Glendale, AZ
Warren Field, Sun City, AZ
Judy Gates, Peoria, AZ
Stephen Gotschall, Chandler, AZ
Allen Isham, Pine, AZ
Councilmember Georgia Lord, Goodyear, AZ
Bob MacGregor, Glendale, AZ
Kenneth McCoy, Scottsdale, AZ
Steve McKeown, Sun City West, AZ
John & Lovaun McGrane, El Mirage, AZ
Christopher Nee, Houston, TX
Steve Olek, Litchfield Park, AZ
Paul Quackenbush, Peoria, AZ
Layne Rumbaugh, Phoenix, AZ
Robert Stenzel, Sun City West, AZ
Dennis Tsonis, Phoenix, AZ
Bobbie Watts, Goodyear, AZ
Richard Wiland, Mesa, AZ
Nena Wiley, Litchfield Park, AZ
Ted Yamamori, Scottsdale, AZ
John Yznaga, Wickenburg, AZ