Tustin’s Helicopters Over Irvine

Your pro and con letters (April 22) on the Tustin Marine Corps Helicopter Air Station all missed the primary objection to this Marine country club.

None pointed out that very few of the Marines assigned to that station actually work there. It is, unfortunately, true that helicopter crews must pass over the heads of the Irvine, Tustin, Orange and Anaheim residents on their way to and from work.

You see, there is no area in Orange County where they can perform practice combat flying, and they are a combat station, the same as El Toro.

So, in order to get to one of the three major combat training areas where they work, a skeleton crew flies a two or three jet helicopter burning more fuel than a Boeing 727 or 737. Next time you fly to San Francisco or Sacramento, remember that your jet is burning the same amount of jet fuel going to your destination as the three Marines in the jet helicopter flying to work at Yuma, Imperial Valley or Twentynine Palms burn in theirs.

BEN GEORGE

Santa Ana