We object to the Navy’s plans to use public beaches, our marinas and state parks as military training grounds. The military has millions of acres to practice in already.

This Navy “taking” of our parks and beaches diminishes the quality of our life and threatens to further sour the relationship between we civilians and those of us in uniform.

When we head to the park, or the beach, or walk in our neighborhoods, will we be play-cast as civilian noncombatants in war games?

Despite claims by the Navy that using our parks and beaches is a “routine” training exercise, intended to prepare U.S. soldiers for combat overseas, the drills help psychologically prepare our state and local government and our military to directly repress the U.S. population.

In Operation Jade Helm that took place in 2015 in large areas of the U.S., the military participants practiced assassinations and kidnapping – deadly tactics used by special forces against the populations of Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia and other countries.

The Navy has already stepped hard on our collective feet. The West Coast Action Alliance has found that the Navy has already grown its impact on the Olympic Peninsula using sneaky tactics: failure to provide reasonable notice to the public about their planned war games, failure to provide adequate comment process, failure to address functionally connected activities.

Blatant acts of disrespect toward human and environmental health, and ongoing bellicose behavior by the military puts all of our teeth on edge. We do not want to be cast as enemy noncombatants here on the Peninsula.

War games in the parks and on our beaches? No thanks. Practice on the military reservations.

DOUG and NANCY MILHOLLAND

Port Townsend