Thursday, January 13, 2022 (Madison, WI) — The Air National Guard has started construction for their $1.5 billion F-35 war planes at Truax Field in Madison. This construction should not be happening. These fighter jets do not belong in an urban area. We call on Mayor Rhodes-Conway, County Executive Parisi, Governor Evers and DNR Secretary Cole to instruct our city, county and state’s legal counsel and permitting agencies to halt the construction and to challenge the Air Force’s siting decision. We call on Airport Director Jones and the Airport Commission to do their duty as landlords to the ANG and exercise civilian control of the military by demanding PFAS contamination cleanup instead of allowing the ANG to conduct new construction.
Right now, there are two legal actions at the Federal level to stop the F-35 siting, thanks to the Safe Skies Clean Water Coalition. One is a lawsuit in federal court challenging the adequacy of the environmental impact statement for the F-35 jets. The other is an environmental justice complaint to be submitted to USEPA, because of the environmental racism promoted by these jets. We ask our City, County, and State government to join these legal actions.
Madison Alder Brian Benford said: “We are not going to tolerate these weapons of mass destruction that are designed to maim and kill brown and black people all across the world.”
Francesca Hong, State Representative, District 76 said: “We say “no” to F-35s. We will continue to say “no” to F-35s. They are not inevitable.”
