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Joe’s First Letter To Senator Burns:
March 06, 1999
Senator Conrad Burns
Washington, D.C.
Dear Senator Burns:
During your tenure as United States Senator from Montana, I have written you regarding such things as gun control, private property rights, and concerns over certain treaties. I am conservative and Constitutional in my beliefs, morals and politics, and try to not be overly paranoid in expressing concerns about what has happened, and is happening, to America. That dislike of the paranoid causes me considerable reluctance to write this letter, but I feel that the issue of concern can no longer be ignored.
I am writing to bring to your attention the peculiar characteristics of the contrails of high-flying military jet aircraft. For some months now I have noticed that on certain clear days a large number of these planes will fly, mostly east/west, their flight paths being spaced at near regular intervals across the sky. Interestingly, these contrails do not disappear, as do those of commercial airliners, but tend to thin out and expand and will, over the course of several hours, create an artificial cloud cover over almost the entire sky. This has happened twice this week, first on Tuesday, March 2, and again today. As I write this letter, an artificial, contrail-created cloud cover is noticeably diminishing the strength of the sun on what would otherwise be a clear day.
As I said, Senator Burns, I try to avoid crossing into the realm of paranoia regarding many strange goings on in America and with our government, but there is no question in my mind that this contrail cloud phenomena is happening. Have you heard anything about this from others of your constituents, or from other Senators, or other American citizens?
Although it is with reluctance that I write this letter, I feel the time has come for this to be brought into open discussion. I urge you to ask some questions of your colleagues, question the Department of Defense and the Air Force, and if necessary, push to get hearings held to find out what is going on.
Sincerely,
Joe Beardsley
100 Jewett Lane
Three Forks, MT 59752
Phone/fax: (406) 285-3119
e-mail: mothrlod@avicom.net
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Senator Burns’ Response to Joe’s First Letter:
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USAF Colonel Stephen D. Bull’s reply to Joe’s first contrail letter, which had been forwarded to him by Senator Burns:
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Joe’s Reply to Colonel Bull:
June 13, 1999
Stephen D. Bull, III
Colonel, USAF
Chief, Programs and Legislation Division
SAF/LLP
1160
Air Force Pentagon
Washington, DC 20330-1160
Dear Colonel Bull:
Thank you for your response to my letter regarding my concerns about contrails, which I had sent to Senator Conrad Burns, and which he subsequently forwarded to you. I am assuming that your letter states an official federal government position, and is not necessarily formulated from your own personal views. Under such an assumption, it is obvious from the content of your letter that my concerns over contrails are not the first the Air Force has heard of this.
In my letter to Senator Burns I made no statement of any kind that I was concerned about “a health threat to the general public.” Neither did I mention ethylene dibromide (EDB), JP-8, or the Internet, all of which were addressed in your response. It is interesting that the Air Force will go on record making denials to me about things I didn’t even mention.
The specific concerns my letter raised were the observed facts of the large number of daily military jet flights across our section of sky, the distinctively spaced intervals at which these flights frequently occur, and the resultant long lasting cloud covers which artificially diminish the intensity of sunshine over the entire region. My letter concluded by suggesting this country needs an open and honest dialogue about this matter, involving the military and including, if necessary, Congressional hearings, an option that now seems virtually mandated.
Looking at a couple of the specifics of your letter, I find an interesting contradiction, namely that you claim that jet engine emissions are “basically the same as from car or diesel engines,” and that contrails pose no “environmental hazard or risk to human health.” While it may be that contrails are composed solely of water vapor and pose no threat, a claim I do not necessarily accept as true, the fact that the flights themselves produce emissions the same as from car or diesel engines certainly negates any suggestion that the flights are benign and pose no environmental or human health risks. In fact, another federal agency, the EPA, seems so deeply concerned about that kind of emission that its head, Carol Browner, would like to restrict my ability to drive my car, mow my lawn, and barbecue beefsteaks in my own back yard.
Your letter, while implying the complete safety of these flights, offers no documented studies to the effect, either by the EPA or anyone else, that these flights in fact pose no danger to southwestern Montana’s air, soil, water, plants, animals or human beings.
Your letter also contained a passing, seemingly negative reference to “misinformation on the Internet and other sources.” Assuming I understand what you mean by “other sources,” I have certainly read information in both realms, and find it to cover, in both places, a broad range of quality, from the seemingly very good, to the seemingly very paranoid. And yet, even from that “seemingly very paranoid,” certain fair questions emerge. For instance, does the bronchial health of older and other generally more frail persons suffer as a result of these flights and contrails? And, in some places has a white substance settled to the ground, apparently from contrails, that shows the presence of ethylene dibromide and other indeterminate chemical compounds? Also, while we’re discussing questions, I have one particular one of my own: Why, in the early afternoon of March 21, 1999, did I observe in a contrail formed cloud, the distinct occurrence of a yellowish-brown corona which lasted for more than half an hour? Did water vapor produce that off-colored corona? I sort of tend to doubt it.
My ultimate question here must be, does the Air Force, or anyone in the military for that matter, care enough to check the veracity of any of these claims, or do they prefer to handwave it, and label it simply as “misinformation from the Internet and other sources”?
In regard specifically to the Internet, I direct you to a NOAA website, located at (forgive the complex URL):
http://www.osei.noaa.gov/Events/Unique/Other/UNIcontrails042_N5.jpg. [Web reader, please see Note below]
You will see at this site a satellite photo taken 2/11/99, showing, from southern Virginia up into northern Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York, a contrail cloud cover of the exact same kind found all too frequently spanning the once-clear-blue skies of southwestern Montana.
In addition to those briefly addressed in this letter, other obvious questions about contrails need to be asked, and answered. For instance, Why is the contrail phenomena a new one, never having been seen, as far as I can recall, until the last five years or so? How many flights occur on average, or on peak, days? Is it tens, hundreds, or thousands? Why do we have so many flights on any given day? Where do they originate, and end? What is their purpose in terms of the real national interest? What is the cost of these flights to the American taxpayer? What is the exact chemical composition of the fuel burned on these flights, and what is the resultant pollution produced, both in weight and composition? What are the densities and effects of this pollution as it falls each day across the face of the United States? Clearly, I could go on and on here, but hopefully you begin to get the point.
And of course the real question, Colonel Bull, is not just about contrails; it is about a federal government that is, in light of the now decimated United States of America Constitution, clearly out of control; it is about a federal government that continues to further substantiate its own well-proven lack of veracity; it is about a federal government that continues to separate itself from the American people, the very people that in fact allow it to exist.
We need to get answers to the complete scope of questions and concerns regarding contrails, and we need them in considerably more detail than that given by the seemingly pat responses contained in your letter. I am convinced that we need Congressional oversight hearings into the matter, and possibly a complete suspension of these flights until satisfactory details, information and just plain old truth can be ferreted out.
Sincerely,
Joe Beardsley
100 Jewett Lane
Three Forks, MT 59752
Phone/fax: (406) 285-3119
e-mail: mothrlod@avicom.net
cc: Senator Conrad Burns
[Note: The URL given in the middle of the above letter no longer works; please see the Alternative View Contrails Home Page for a new link to a more recent NOAA satellite photo of contrails over the northeastern U.S.] [Return to letter]
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Joe’s Reply to Senator Burns:
June 13, 1999
Senator Conrad Burns
187 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510Washington, D.C.
Dear Senator Burns:
Thank you for your response to my letter of March 6, 1999 regarding contrails, and for forwarding it to the Department of the Air Force requesting a response from them. I have received a response from Colonel Stephen D. Bull, a copy of which I am enclosing for your information. I am also enclosing a copy to you of my response to the Colonel.
As I stated in my letter to Colonel Bull, I feel his response was inadequate in light of the number of flights occurring, the persistent day-in/day-out artificial cloud covers appearing over southwestern Montana’s sky, and the numerous questions and concerns that seem either ignored or all too easily brushed aside by the supposedly responsible federal agencies.
During the last half of March, 1999, I kept a “contrails skywatch diary”. It makes interesting reading, in that virtually every otherwise clear day was heavily marred by the covering of contrail-created clouds. As I write this today, what would be a clear blue sky is probably at least 60% impacted by hundreds of flights that have generated broad, long lasting, contrail-created clouds.
I urge you to canvas your Senate and House colleagues to better determine the scope of, and level of general concern over, this problem. I also urge you to consider, and discuss with those same colleagues, the need for Congressional oversight hearings to bring out a balanced, truthful, and considerably more detailed analysis of the entire contrails phenomenon.
Sincerely,
Joe Beardsley
On March 6, 1999, I sent a letter to you regarding my concerns over the
almost daily creation of significant cloud covers by high flying military
jet aircraft. You kindly responded, terming the contrails as “chemtrails”,
and forwarded my letter to the Department of Defense.
In response to that letter, I received a reply from Colonel Stephen D.
Bull, USAF, explaining briefly the cause and harmlessness of contrails.
I took considerable exception to the explanations and assurances contained
in Col. Bull’s letter, and in fact on June 13, wrote these exceptions in
a return letter to the colonel, copying to you both his letter and my reply.
On July 26, I received a letter from you explaining the harmlessness of
contrails, and using as evidence a paragraph from Colonel Bull’s letter,
a paragraph that I had taken particular exception to. I found this to
be an astounding response from you, that in attempting to assuage my concerns
you would use information from Col. Bull’s letter that I clearly and specifically
disagreed with.
I have received no further reply from Col. Bull, which does not surprise
me. But to have been so casually dismissed by your office is disconcerting,
and I suspect that it sent a message you are not to be bothered with such
mundane concerns by the average low-class Montana citizen.
The planes are flying again to day, and have created, as on almost every
day this summer, a phenomenal and very artificial cloud cover over southwestern
Montana. I still reject most of what was in Col. Bull’s letter, and wrote
a fair disputation of it. Does any of this matter to you?
100 Jewett Lane
Three Forks, MT 59752
Phone/fax: (406) 285-3119
e-mail: mothrlod@avicom.net
Encls.
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Senator Burns’ Reply to Joe’s Second Letter:
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Joe’s Third Letter to Senator Burns:
November 16, 1999
Senator Conrad Burns
187 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC
20510Washington, D.C.
Dear Senator Burns:
Sincerely,
Joe Beardsley
100 Jewett Lane
Three Forks, MT 59752
Phone/fax: (406) 285-3119
e-mail: mothrlod@avicom.net
As of the current date, Joe has received no further response from either
Senator Burns, or Colonel Bull.
On a high percentage of days, the planes continue to fly over southwestern
Montana, and leave long-lasting contrails which become clouds.
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