Marsha Rummel
Posted October 30, 2025
IN 2020 TRUAX Field, located within Dane County, Wisconsin Regional Airport, was chosen as one of two sites for the Air National Guard Bureau’s “beddown” of approximately 20 F-35 fighter jets.
This decision was taken in spite of the U.S. Air Force’s Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) that selecting Truax to host the F-35 stealth fighter jet program would have significant adverse impacts — due to intense bursts of noise from daily takeoff and landings and toxic debris.
The F-35 is a stealth fighter plane capable of performing air-to-air combat, air-to-ground strikes, and electronic warfare missions. Its design allows it to penetrate enemy airspace undetected, combining communication technology with a high level of maneuverability.
The U.S. fleet, replacing the F-16s, will grow to approximately 2500 although other countries that operate or have ordered it include Japan, South Korea, Australia, Israel, the United Kingdom, Italy and several other NATO countries. It has been used in combat by the United States in Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen and Iran and by Israel in Iraq, Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen and Iran.
At an estimated cost of $80-100M per plane, the F-35s will be built by Lockheed Martin — although parts will be made in companies around the world. The Department of Defense’s F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter program will have three distinct versions (A, B and C). The program has the dubious distinction of being one of the most expensive fighter jet projects in history, with an estimated lifetime cost of over $2 trillion.
Back in 2017 when the news was announced that the 115th Fighter Wing at Truax Field was being considered as one of five future sites to host the next generation stealth aircraft and replace aging F-16 fighter jets, a groundswell of questions and opposition erupted from nearby residents.
Concerned with the environmental and racial justice impacts of adding the next generation of stealth fighter jets to a dense urban area, Progressive Dane and other liberal elected officials on the Madison Common Council, the Dane County Board of Supervisors, and the Madison School Board spearheaded, passed and sent resolutions in 2019 to the National Guard Bureau.
We expressed our opposition to the beddown during the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) process. (I was one of the leaders of this effort as a member of the Madison Common Council).
During their first virtual meeting after the public health emergency of COVID was declared in March 2020, the Madison Common Council voted to reaffirm opposition to their selection of Truax Field. This was our response to the findings of the final EIS released on February 18, 2020. In a meeting that lasted until 3am, the Council heard from hundreds of residents.
Concerns Disregarded
The issues raised by the EIS on the health impacts on children and communities of color in the surrounding neighborhoods, could not overcome the feverish excitement of the military boosters. These included Senators Tammy Baldwin (Democrat) and Ron Johnson (Republican), the Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce, Democratic Governor Tony Evers, the majority of the Republican-controlled Wisconsin Assembly and State Senate, and the Wisconsin Congressional delegation.
Except for a few state representatives who actively opposed the beddown, the majority of state and national elected representatives enthusiastically touted the economic benefits of the new mission. And then there was U.S. Representative Mark Pocan, who acknowledged concerns about noise impacts, the cost of the F-35 program and the lack of transparency, but did not actively oppose it.
For Air Force officials, Madison was strategically appealing for its position along the United States’ northern border, access to extensive military training airspace in central Wisconsin, and proximity to major metropolitan areas of Chicago and Minneapolis. And like many other residents, military personnel like living in Madison, which is often given high rankings for being the best place to raise a family, retire, get medical care, bike, be a foodie, drink craft beer and be happy.
Senator Tammy Baldwin continues to support the F-35 mission in Madison despite messages from many of her east and north side constituents that she threw them under the bus by showing more loyalty to empire than her most vulnerable residents.
Yet the final Environmental Impact Statement confirms that the noise environment from the F-35s for nearby residents is four times greater than the F-16s. At the same time, the number of households affected would more than double.
The EIS mentioned the potential for noise mitigation, including sound insulation through a voluntary program by the Federal Aviation Administration, but the FAA could not guarantee such a program for Madison.
The nearby impacted area has a census tract with both high rates of people of color and poverty well above the city- and county-wide averages. As the final EIS Executive Summary (pages 26-27) confirmed, “There would be significant disproportionate impacts to low-income and minority populations as well as children.”
There are over 300 mobile homes in the impacted area, but FAA rules restrict funding for sound mitigation exclude mobile homes from mitigation assistance.
Additionally, approximately 800 subsidized low-income housing units are located just 1500 feet outside of the noise exposure contour map.
These include public housing at Truax and Webb-Rethke, and Rethke Terrace, a 60-unit permanent supportive housing for formerly homeless veterans and chronically unhoused individuals with disabilities. Although they will experience virtually identical noise exposure as residents who live inside the contour line, they are ineligible for federal sound mitigation.
Only the Dane County Regional Airport has the authority to prepare noise mitigation planning or the power to apply for FAA funding to pay for mitigation — but it has not committed any resources in planning for these residents.
During the EIS process and in subsequent community engagement, the Air National Guard Bureau promised that the nuclear capable F-35s at Truax will not be enabled to carry nuclear weapons and Truax Field would not be used to store nuclear weapons. Yet it also indicated these conditions could change without public notice.
Sister City in Fighter Jet Hell
Wisconsin’s 115th Fighter Wing was the second Air National Guard unit to receive the new jet. In 2019, Burlington, Vermont’s 158th Fighter Wing was the first. As in Madison, citizens in Vermont protested and advocated against the jets arrival due to their noise and other potential negative impacts.
A group of community leaders led by former Rep. Chris Taylor (D-Madison, now a Wisconsin Court of Appeals judge and candidate for the Wisconsin State Supreme Court) visited Burlington in 2019 to see firsthand how a community that had recently begun hosting F-35 fighter jets was responding to the jets’ arrival. Former Madison City Council member Rebecca Kemble and community activist Brandi Grayson also joined the tour.
Noise mitigation efforts have included home buyouts near the Patrick Leahy Burlington airport and sound insulation projects for thousands of other properties. But opponents argue that those efforts are not enough, and want Vermont’s congressional delegation to convince the U.S. Secretary of Defense (now War) to find a new assignment for the F-35 program.
The city councils of Burlington, South Burlington and Winooski adopted resolutions in 2024 asking their congressional reps to lobby the Air Force for Air National Guard missions causing less harm to their communities.
While taking issue with the price tag of the planes, Senator Bernie Sanders admits they’re not going anywhere. “It is the plane of the Air Force, it is the plane of NATO. It’s here, and if it’s not in Vermont, it goes someplace else. So, my own view is that while we have to do everything we can to control the noise issue and other environmental concerns, it stays in Vermont.”
Where Does the Money Come From?
Dane County Regional Airport’s Part 150 NCP draft plan has yet to be submitted to or finalized by the FAA.
The draft contains recommendations for the airport to address noise abatement, land use, and programming, particularly “to avoid noise-sensitive areas to the south of the airport.” (page 186) But the new maps expanded the area of impact compared to the previous map.
Two low-income housing developments near the airport under construction lie just a few feet outside the noise mitigation area. But the needed 500 units are ineligible to receive any federal funding for noise insulation.
The city is using tax incremental financing and affordable housing funds to help pay for noise remediation, but this certainly doesn’t cover the full cost.
Using the newly adopted noise exposure map, the estimated cost of retrofitting eligible residences to insulate them from noise is $64 million. Doing the same for the nearby Madison Area Technical College’s buildings and facilities near the airport will cost $35 million.
Other structures — a daycare facility, a church, an educational center and transient lodging — would bring the total to well more than $100 million.
Global Empire
With the arrival of the first F-35 at Truax Field, the Wisconsin Air National Guard is now part of a vast fleet of F-35s across the Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps and many U.S. allies.
As part of the total force, the Wisconsin Air National Guard provides operationally ready combat units and personnel to fulfill war and contingency commitments when called to federal active duty by the President or Congress. State missions include disaster relief in times of earthquakes, hurricanes, floods and forest fires, search and rescue, protection of vital public services, and defense support to civil authorities.
During a deployment in September 2024, two F-35s flew over a UW Badger game and Green Bay Packers football game. Col. Bart Van Roo was proud to announce that “people may be surprised to learn that we have the most advanced fighter aircraft in the world based right here in Wisconsin.”
Other than training exercises, the 115th Fighter Wing had not been deployed overseas, but historically the FW has been sent abroad. But along with Trump’s growing deployment of military equipment in the Caribbean, currently ten F-35s have been sent to Puerto Rico.
The F-35 program has been plagued by delays, technical setbacks and cost overruns since its inception over two decades ago. Even given that this is the most expensive weapons system in U.S. history, the Department of Defense (or War, in its new title) plans to use the aircraft through 2088 and operate with about 2500 jets.
Trump, NATO and F-35s
U.S. allies that have also purchased F-35s include Japan, South Korea, Australia, Israel, UK, Italy and the Netherlands. According to news reports from Politico, several allies are re-evaluating their purchase amid the “seismic shifts” in policies with the election of Trump.
Portugal expressed uncertainty about the “predictability of our allies” who could decide to block access to software updates and spare parts needed to make F-35s fully operational. Canada signed its $13.3B deal for 88 F-35s in 2023, but is considering alternatives according to Prime Minister Mark Carney. (Laura Kayali, Politico, March 14, 2025)
On February 21, 2025 Amnesty International reported that over 230 NGOs have called on governments producing F-35s to immediately halt all arms transfers to Israel, including F-35s, and to hold their governments accountable for complicity in Israel’s crimes in Gaza.
“Israel has used F-35 jets in its bombardment of Palestinians in Gaza. An F-35 was used in July 2024 to drop three 2,000 lb. bombs in an attack on a so-called “safe zone” on Al-Mawasi in Khan Younis, killing 90 Palestinians… A global movement of legal cases taken by civil society has grown across countries in the F-35 programme, seeking to hold their government accountable for the transfer of F-35 jets and components to Israel.”
On March 21, 2025 Trump announced that Boeing will move ahead and develop the Air Force’s next generation stealth fighter which will also fly alongside autonomous drone aircraft which he named the F-47 stealth fighter.
Catastrophic Scenarios
When an F-35A fighter jet crashed at Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska during a training exercise on January 28, 2025, the pilot safely ejected before the aircraft crashed and burst into flames. People were advised to stay away from the adjacent highway. The crash is under investigation by the Air Force.
In 2023, in South Carolina a pilot was ejected and the F-35 traveled another 60 miles before it crashed. It was considered lost for a while.
Local activist Tom Boswell wrote that back in January of 2020, the Safe Skies Clean Water Coalition hosted a Madison visit from Pierre Sprey. He pointed out that Sprey, since deceased, “was a defense analyst who helped design both the F-16 fighter jet and the A-10 ground attack jet, previous tenants of the Air National Guard base at Truax Field. He was also a fierce critic of the F-35.”
Boswell went on to recount that Sprey spoke to a large crowd at the First Unitarian Society and warned those in attendance of the dangers inherent in stationing the F-35 in a city like Madison.
Sprey explained that the F-35 is not an aluminum plane like its predecessors stationed at the Truax airbase. Rather, it’s made of composite materials, including carbon fibers and an advanced form of epoxy.
Sprey’s talk haunts the project and commits us to oppose this war machine as it harms both U.S. citizens and those who are on its receiving end across the world:
“The plane structure burns in addition to the fuel and when that plastic burns it’s incredibly toxic.” “It is corrosive to lungs. It lets out all kinds of carcinogens … I cannot tell you the number of cases of people poisoned by stealth chemicals, even when they haven’t been burned. And when it burns, of course, the results are far worse.
“The crash of an F-35 in a densely populated urban area like Madison would be a disaster way beyond a terrorist chemical attack.”
“If you think of a couple of ISIS terrorists coming here with a cylinder of chlorine and letting it loose somewhere … that would be trivial compared to what a burning of an F-35 can do … thousands of people can be exposed to very, very damaging, lung-corroding, heavy, carcinogenic fumes.
“People don’t even know how to put out the fire…. If such a disaster happened, your local fire departments would have no idea what to do. First of all, they don’t even know what’s necessary to put out an ordinary plastic airplane fire, much less a stealth fire. Much less how to deal with the victims. This would be a real, real catastrophe.”
November-December 2025, ATC 239
