Army training exercise could rattle few windows in Goldfield

Unlike the secret, barnstorming exercise by military helicopters that jolted Goldfield residents from their sleep 13 years ago, military officials have announced a training exercise that will start Sunday that could send thunderous aircraft noise and simulated gunfire echoing across rural Nevada.

But authorities in Esmeralda County, where Goldfield is located on U.S. Highway 95, about 185 miles northwest of Las Vegas, apparently never got the memo.

“They probably won’t hear simulated gunfire, but they might hear low-flying helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft,” said Tracy Bailey, a spokeswoman for the 75th Ranger Regiment in Fort Benning, Ga.

Nellis Air Force Base officials released a media advisory in December, saying soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash., will conduct a military exercise in and around the Tonopah Test Range from Sunday through Jan. 21 with the U.S. Special Operations Command based in Tampa, Fla.

“Rangers are being tested on their combat skills in a simulated urban environment similar to those they may find during combat missions,” the advisory reads.

“To make the exercise as realistic as possible, it will be conducted during hours of darkness during which residents may hear increased air traffic. Rangers will use simulated munitions and small pyrotechnics, which may cause loud noises.”

No such warning was issued on June 6, 1999, when Goldfield residents were rudely awakened by the ruckus of four Army CH-47 Chinook helicopters. At least one Chinook touched down in a thunderous descent on a rarely used, unpaved airstrip near the town of 450 residents, irking some who lived one-quarter mile away.

Yet, while Nellis officials issued a media advisory on Dec. 20 about the upcoming exercise, the announcement was never passed on to Esmeralda Undersheriff Scott Johnson.

“No one has told me anything about it,” he said Friday, when contacted by the Review-Journal.

Johnson said he remembers the unannounced exercise that rattled Goldfield on a summer Sunday night, prompting Justice of the Peace Juanita Colvin to say the next day: “Those guys scared the hell out of this town last night.”

A Nellis spokesman at the time said that exercise involved Chinook helicopters and probably Army or Marine aircraft from the Air Force Special Operations Command, a multiservice organization based in Hurlburt, Fla.

Bailey said this month’s routine exercise will be conducted “strictly on federal property” by Army Rangers from the 800-soldier 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment.

She said CV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft from the Air Force Special Operations Command will participate in the exercise.

Osprey aircraft combine the vertical takeoff, hover and vertical landing capabilities of a helicopter with the long-range fuel efficiency and speed of a turboprop aircraft, according to an Air Force fact sheet.

Bailey said the Tonopah Test Range was selected for this exercise because it fits the “unfamiliar land” requirement. “We haven’t been there, and when we go into combat, we go to unfamiliar land, so we train for it. “

The Nellis advisory said, “The unit is extremely sensitive to the impact that such military exercises has on local citizens and we intend to train safely and courteously. Every measure will be taken to reduce the amount of noise associated with this training.”

Contact reporter Keith Rogers at krogers@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0308.