A U.S. Department of Defense-authorized military training run by two large C-130 transport planes from the Delaware Air National Guard flew at a height estimated at just 200 feet above the ground in passing over Woodstock Village early in the afternoon of Tuesday, Aug. 19, sparking considerable fear, confusion, and indignation among some local residents.
Wendy Marrinan was standing with her family dog in the driveway of her home when the pair of large U.S. Air Force cargo planes suddenly appeared flying “barely over the top” of her two-story, attached barn on Mountain Avenue, Marrinan told the Standard this week.
“The sight line of perception felt like they did just come out from around the barn. It was so sudden. It seemed like they were on a turn, coming down low after coming around Mt. Tom. That’s sort of the arc that it felt it was on.” Marrinan said, the trepidation still evident in her voice one week after the C-130 flyover. “I could see this brown exhaust coming out, and I started running down my driveway and yelled out loud to no one but my dog, ‘Oh, my God!’ My dog was shaking like a leaf. I was 100 percent sure that I was about to watch a plane crash. They didn’t crash, but I was waiting for it after they left my sightline,” the longtime village resident recalled. “I was waiting for the boom and the cloud of smoke — that’s what really shook me up. And after that, I felt like, ‘Oh, my gosh, this is what war feels like.’”
Jody Eaton is a personal trainer and health coach for many area residents, including Wendy Marrinan. Eaton has a studio on the third floor of the Woodstock Recreation Center on River Street — and it was there that the fitness expert was working with another client over Zoom when the pair of Delaware C-130s zipped into the airspace directly overhead. “I heard what I thought was a plane crash-landing into the Rec,” Easton wrote in an email to a neighbor that she shared with the Standard on Tuesday afternoon. “It was the loudest sound I’ve ever heard [other than a microburst back in 1995.] I hit the ground and covered my ears. I know it sounds dramatic, but it felt frightening.
Sleuthing by the Standard — in close collaboration with two Woodstock Village residents, Bob Cavnar and Sandy Gilmour, both licensed pilots — revealed flight data about the mysterious aircraft, including their close-formation flight path over central and southeastern Vermont, and the original site from which the planes had departed that morning — a jointly operated commercial and military airport in New Castle, Del., just south of Wilmington. Utilizing FlightRadar24, a comprehensive app popular with airline passengers, aircraft pilots, and aficionados of flight, the investigation revealed that the cargo planes that dipped so low in the air over Woodstock were headquartered with the 166th Airlift Wing at the New Castle Air National Guard Base.
Data from the FlightRadar app and website indicated that the planes flew over River and Central Streets in Woodstock Village at about 1:15 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 19, at a speed of approximately 250 miles per hour and at a height of roughly 200 feet above ground level. Moreover, perusal of the 166th Airlift Wing’s Facebook page, which is managed by the Delaware National Guard Office of Public Affairs, also revealed another interesting aspect to the training mission over Vermont: one of the primary pilots was on his final flight in a C-130, capping an estimated 5,500 hours of military flight hours prior to his imminent retirement. Col. Jeremy Goodwin took to the air in a traditional, ceremonial “Fini Flight” that morning.
In a detailed email response to queries from the Standard regarding those C-130 training maneuvers over Vermont, Maj. Bernie Kale, the state public affairs director for the Delaware National Guard, who was aboard for the ride with Col. Goodwin and his crew, addressed questions about the nature of the training flights originating from the 166th Airlift Wing. “I appreciate the opportunity to clarify the purpose and nature of the training mission,” Kale wrote to the Standard on Monday. “On August 19, two C-130H3 aircraft from the Delaware Air National Guard’s 166th Airlift Wing, 142nd Airlift Squadron, conducted a scheduled low-level training flight. These flights are a routine and necessary part of Tactical Airlift training conducted by Air National Guard and Active-Duty units nationwide. The training ensures that our crews maintain proficiency in the low-altitude navigation skills required to safely deliver personnel and supplies in both combat and humanitarian operations.
“At no point were Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations or Department of Defense (DoD) flight rules violated,” Kale noted. “Our pilots and aircrew are highly trained to operate in accordance with strict altitude, airspeed, and routing requirements that prioritize both safety and mission realism. While flight tracking applications like FlightRadar24 can be useful tools, they may not always provide precise altitude readings due to barometric settings and system limitations.
“We recognize that military aircraft can sometimes appear lower or louder than what communities are accustomed to, particularly in regions that do not regularly host tactical airlift training. While these flights are essential to national readiness, we remain mindful of community concerns and work to balance training needs with minimizing impacts on the public,” the Delaware-based public affairs specialist continued, adding, “To address one specific point: While Air Force crews often participate in fini flights for retiring aircrew members, the August 19 mission was still a standard training sortie,” emphasizing those last three words in a bold type.
For more on this, please see our August 28 edition of the Vermont Standard.
