Marine Exercise Draws No Complaints : Phones Quite Despite Warnings About Loud Noise at El Toro

Despite warnings from Marine officials about unusually loud noise, a massive troop airlift exercise launched from the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station over the weekend went smoothly, with no known complaints from residents, military and civilian officials said Sunday.

“I haven’t gotten a single call” about the noise, said Marine Staff Sgt. Richard Odermann, a spokesman at the El Toro base.

The county Sheriff’s Department, which has jurisdiction over El Toro, an unincorporated area, also reported no complaints.

And an El Toro man who lives only about a mile from the base said Sunday that the departing Air Force transports, carrying Marines to Texas on maneuvers, were no louder than the usual air traffic over his home.

“I’d read in the paper about the exercise,” said John Powers, who lives on Calle Celeste in El Toro, “and I went outside this morning to watch some of the planes take off. The noise was no different than any other day.”

On Friday, a Marine spokesman warned that residents near the El Toro facility might hear more noise than usual because of the large-scale flight exercises. The spokesman said the noise might be as loud as a 747 jet coming in or taking off.

The exercise, which continues until 11:30 p.m. Tuesday, involves deployment of 850 Marines from Camp Pendleton in San Diego County to San Antonio, Tex., via the El Toro airfield. About 50 Air Force C141 planes are being used around the clock, a Marine spokesman said.

One possible reason for the less-than-anticipated noise is the absence of the huge Air Force C5 transports, which Marine officials had said would be included with the smaller transports in the exercise. On Sunday, officials at Camp Pendleton said that only the smaller Air Force C141 transports were being used.

Empty transport planes flew into El Toro beginning Saturday afternoon, and the first troop airlifts began Sunday morning.

Sgt. Frank Leyhew, a Marine spokesman at Camp Pendleton, which was coordinating public information about the maneuvers, said Sunday that all the flights were proceeding smoothly.