Look Closer at the Noisy Marine Fliers

I sympathize with Richard Barrett of South Laguna (Letters, Sept. 1), who has experienced a multiplicity of jets flying at wingtip separations, pouring pollution and noise into the clean and quiet air.

Is formation flying a requisite for air defense?

What would we do if American Airlines flew in such formation or laughed at rules requiring noise abatement or limits on landing time? (Another letter from two El Toro residents tells of flights not allowed from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. Are those midnight--and later--roars coming from my neighbor’s house?)

If it is true, as letter-writer Lawrence Body of Santa Ana says, that fliers “risk their lives every day so that we may sleep in peace,” I shudder at the thought of all those ground-based innocents held hostage to that risk.

With the end of the Cold War with the Soviet Union and the “hot war” with Iraq, we certainly should be able to look forward to a “peace dividend.” But to many of us living in the areas near the El Toro Air Station, this is a dream unfulfilled.

WILFRED COUZIN, Laguna Niguel