Hundreds attend Taos forum to discuss proposed Air .

"I am adamantly opposed to these flights. Not only am I opposed, the council is opposed," Crdova said.The word came on the heels of Monday`s letter from New Mexico Congressmen Sen. Jeff Bingaman, Rep. Ben Ray Lujn and Sen. Tom Udall to Clark requesting such an extension.The ground said in an advertised notice published in The Taos News that it would be playing an environmental assessment of Northern New Mexico and southern Colorado to limit its viability as a training area for tilt-rotor Osprey crafts.

he bulk of the training flights would take home after nightfall with 95 percent taking place Monday through Friday, the Air Force`s website reads. Aircraft would fly as low as 200 feet above soil level.The bill states that pilots must avoid towns, wilderness, noise-sensitive and other specific areas. The design is to take about three LATN trainings each day or about 700 flights a year, according to the Air Force`s website.Many citizens said at the forum they were reacting negatively to the proposed trainings from past experience. In the 1990s, B-1 bombers and former military aircraft trained in skies over Taos County, but were stirred to other locations in 2000 amid the results of the Air Force`s final environmental impact statement.Adele Zimmerman told the gang that she affected to Rinconada in 1977. She was one of many citizens who appealed on behalf of one of Taos` hallmarks - peace and quiet."Not hanker afterwards that, I was tempered to my first appear at a CI-30 [Osprey]," Zimmerman said. "If one were to crash, it could rub out my whole village. I recognize the military`s need to train. But it makes no sensation at all to expose my health and safe to protect me."Taosea Sandra Richardson, like many others, contended the flights based on spirituality."I worship mother earth and father sky," Richardson said. "Please do not profane my church by chopping up the air of father sky and polluting the basis of mother earth."Out of the immense majority of attendees present to voice opposition, two Air Force veteran pilots also rung to try and have the world understand the Air Force`s need for the trainings in Taos. The Air Force states that the topography of Northern New Mexico and southern Colorado is like to combat areas in Afghanistan and Iraq where pilots will be flying.Retired Brig. Gen. Hanson Scott was booed as he spoke, though Crdova and others quickly tried to take order to the meeting."We`re sending those young men and women into dangerous missions around the world," Scott said. "It`s crucial that they get a place to train. Its crucial that we have them the best training."Retired combat pilot and Vietnam war veteran Gary Van Valin was similarly booed when he mentioned that he had been a pilot trained through Cannon Air Force Base."I am probably the sole person in this room who has had low altitude tactical navigation training. Forty years ago, I was a fighter pilot at Cannon Air Force Base," Van Valin said. "The ground they fly low is because it`s much safer than flight at medium or high altitude. It has to be learned somewhere."Officials from Cannon reportedly plan to see the next Peaceful Skies Coalition meeting, scheduled for Oct. 11 at 6:30 p.m. in the Kit Carson Board Room on Cruz Alta Road.