Tag: air force

Coast Guard Guns for Firearm Testng

For years, the Air Force has used the Great Lakes as a target range for ammunition. Now, the US Coast Guard wants to do the same. The GLRC’s Noah Ovshinsky has more:

Transcript

For years, the Air Force has used the Great Lakes as a target range for ammunition.
Now, the US Coast Guard wants to do the same. The GLRC’s Noah Ovshinsky has
more:


The Coast Guard says it’s giving the public additional time to comment on a proposal
to turn the 34 areas in the Great Lakes into permanent firearm training zones. The Air Force already uses the
lakes for live-fire exercises. The zones, locating on the water near Coast Guard stations, will be used to test machine guns, rifles and other weapons.


Jim Fenner sits on the board of the Michigan Charter Boat Association. He says the plan
raises a lot of concerns:


“We want to know how we’re gonna be informed and when these exercises would be
held and how long they would last and what happens if we’re in the area – could they compel
us to leave the area if that happens to be where the fishing is good right then.”


Fenner says about 20 percent of his favorite fishing spots lie within the proposed target zones.


For the GLRC, this is Noah Ovshinsky.

Related Links

Investigation Uncovers Bombing Site

An investigation has found that the Air Force used the
Apostle Islands and Lake Superior for bombing practice in the early 1970’s. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mike Simonson has the story:

Transcript

An investigation has found that the Air Force used the Apostle Islands and Lake
Superior for bombing practice in the early 1970’s. The Great Lakes Radio
Consortium’s Mike Simonson has the story:


Jim Erickson was hoping to pull in a net full of fish one afternoon thirty years
ago, but his catch had a surprise. The Bayfield, Wisconsin fisherman had
snagged a missile.


“It was about four feet long and had some fins on it. They used to run those runs
outside of Outer Island there during the summer. Target practice, I guess.”


Erickson strapped the missile to the top of his fishing boat and tooled back to
Bayfield, where he handed it over to the Coast Guard. Erickson says he’s not
sure if the missile was a dummy or had live ammo. That’s one missile of three he
knows of that local fisherman pulled in around the Apostle Islands.


An investigation by the nearby Red Cliff tribe uncovered Erickson’s story. The
U.S. Department of Defense paid for that investigation. It is uncovering evidence
of different uses by the military of Lake Superior, including dumping tons of
ammunition after World War II.


For the GLRC, I’m Mike Simonson.