Editor,

I am a firm believer in the freedom of speech for all.

Yet I don’t understand what gives certain people the audacity to belittle and demean the job of the Navy. I know what the job of the jets are and even though I do believe wholeheartedly that they are the sound of freedom, it’s so much more than that. Those jets protect the men and women on the ground in war zones. Those jets and their roaring noise is a sound of hope.

Hope that a family member is going to come home safely. Hope that a knock on your door won’t be a chaplain..

The other thing I don’t get: people say they are fighting for the children, what about the military children who see the signs and then ask, “Why do they hate the Navy? Does that mean they hate my dad? Do they hate me too?” What gives you the right to make kids feel that way?

I won’t apologize for the 25 to 30 second inconvenience when the jets fly over because the jets even fly over Navy housing. The family members that choose to live in Oak Harbor and live in housing, we hear the jets too. We can see them and hear them and I happen to like the sound of hope.

Alecia Stafford

Oak Harbor