Bricklyn to Burlington: Honor Your Commitments!

A Crisis from Above, Part 2

Note: The following information is only for Outland readers like you, and is not being published in the Bricklyn edition of The Eagle.

by Eric Tiler Corman, The Bricklyn Eagle’s political correspondent and Duane Sandville, Outland Affairs correspondent.
September 9, 2021

Summary of Article ➤ Diplomatic efforts to defuse the F-35 crisis stall, as Bricklyn’s demands are rejected by Burlington officials.

Bricklyn’s Office of Outland Affairs, located on the 2nd floor of the Bricklyn “Inland/Outland” building by Bricklyn harbor, has been a hub of activity in recent days as diplomats seek to diffuse the “F-35 crisis.”

Bricklyn diplomats expressed exasperation to their Burlington counterparts during a heated meeting yesterday to try to resolve a crisis that is on the verge of boiling over.

As we last reported, Bricklyn’s skies have reverberated with the thunderous roar of F-35 fighter jets streaking (somewhere) overhead. The sound of the jets, based with the Vermont National Guard at Burlington International Airport, has punctured the protective shell buffering Bricklyn and its’ citizens from the Outland world.

Unfortunately, the walls and ceilings of the house along North Prospect Street in Burlington’s Hill Section within which Bricklyn is located have had minimal effect in sealing out the almost daily roar of the jets.

Burlington Ambassador Burnside [photo from Wikipedia, Ambrose Burnside]

A. Everett Burnside, Burlington’s Ambassador to the Realm of Bricklyn, at a press briefing, expressed Burlington’s regrets, but noted that “the noise was unavoidable, and a small price to pay for national security.”

What’s more, Burnside noted, the decision to base the the F-35s in a dense, urban area was the result of decisions made by federal authorities, not by Burlington or Vermont officials.”

Bricklyn Envoy Challenges Burlington Decision to Welcome F-35 Fighter Jets

Photo of Bricklyn Ambassador Dennis Plater Dross (on left, wearing the Ambassador’s green cape) and Outland Affairs staff teleconference with the Federal Chancellor to discuss Bricklyn’s response to Burlington.

Bricklyn Ambassador Dennis Plater Dross retorted that “the decision to base the F-35 fighter jets in Burlington was, in fact, supported, and even encouraged, by Vermont’s U.S. Senators and by Burlington’s Mayor.” 📍

📍See, e.g., Sound Effects: In the F-35’s Flight Path, Vermonters’ Lives Have Changed (Seven Days Vermont, July 7, 2021) and On F-35s: Burlington mayor sticks to support, in opposition to voters and Council (Burlington Free Press, April 11, 2018)

Ambassador Dross noted that neither he nor any other officials in Bricklyn’s Office of Outland Affairs were ever informed of the fact that the jets’ noise would so significantly penetrate Bricklyn’s airspace. “One can only conclude that important facts about the F-35s’ noise impacts were not shared with us,” said Dross.

As to national security concerns, Dross demurred, but observed that other air national guard bases in more rural areas would have been a much better fit for the F-35s.

Ambassador Dross also alleged that “the actions taken by Burlington clearly violate the Memo of Understanding [MOU] amicably entered into between Burlington and Bricklyn in June 1991.”

Citing Burlington’s failure to honor the “CHM” provisions of the MOU (consult; honor; mediate), Ambassador Dross called on Burlington to immediately cease F-35 flights that impact Bricklyn’s air space, adding that “we donut understand why Burlington refuses to respect its’ CHM commitments to Bricklyn.”

Burlington Expresses Regrets, But Rejects Bricklyn Demand

Burlington officials responded again by expressing regrets over the “unfortunate, but unavoidable” noise impacts on Bricklyn. However, Ambassador Burnside commented that the provisions of the Burlington-Bricklyn MOU “while laudable, were plainly outweighed by legitimate national security concerns.” ✥

➤ The Bricklyn Eagle will continue to report on developments in the F-35 crisis.