An EA-18G Growler refuels from a KC-130 Hercules. (Photo: Staff Sft. Amanda Dick / US Navy)
Also see: Dahr Jamail | Navy Plans Electromagnetic War Games Over National Park and Forest in Washington State
Ted Asregadoo speaks to Truthout staff reporter Dahr Jamail about the Navy’s plan to conduct war games involving electromagnetic radiation in a protected park and forest in Washington State.
In Washington State, the US Navy plans to conduct war game exercises over the Olympic National Forest and Olympic National Park that involve the use of electromagnetic radiation. These training exercises, if allowed to proceed, will involve flights of the Navy’s EA 18G Growler jet outfitted with new communication jamming equipment that uses electromagnetic radiation to disable an enemy’s communication networks. These games would last almost a year, and Growler jets would be flying over the area up to sixteen hours a day. The level of noise pollution will be high, but more importantly, so will the health and environmental effects on the landscape and the creatures that inhabit the space. Truthout staff reporter Dahr Jamail wrote a thorough piece on Truthout about the lack of public notification of these war games, the health effects of prolonged or intense electromagnetic radiation on human and animal life and the efforts of residents to stop these games from happening. In this Truthout Interviews, Jamail explains the current state of this battle between the residents who will be affected by the training exercises and the Navy’s insistence that health and environmental consequences would be minimal.