Asheville, North Carolina, Aug. 25 (AGR) — On Thursday, Aug. 19 beginning shortly after 9pm, the US Army conducted Special Operations training in downtown Asheville. Many residents near and in downtown witnessed Black Hawk and “Little Bird” helicopters circling the sky late into the night.

The drill included a flight from the Asheville Airport to the Buncombe County Court House where the helicopters hovered above its roof, dropping soldiers-in-training onto the building; they then entered the top floor of the building, set off loud explosives called “breaching charges,” and fired blanks which echoed through City County Plaza.

The US Army’s Deputy Public Affairs Officer, Walt Sokalski, who was present at City County Plaza said that the “(training) exercise was coordinated with city government.”

The City of Asheville’s Public Relations spokesperson, Laura Bradley, said that the training was not discussed in City Council and that no city officials were aware that the training was going to happen. City Manager Jim Westbrook was also present at City County Plaza during the training, conversing with police officers wearing Asheville Police Department uniforms and others in plain clothes. Bradley, however, claimed that Westbrook was not downtown during the training and had no idea the operation was taking place until a citizen called him late at night at his home. Westbrook was unable to be reached by press time.

According to Bradley, because the training took place on the County’s Court House, Buncombe County was responsible for coordinating the training, not the city. Wanda Green, Buncombe County Manager was also unable to be reached.

According to Sokalski, this type of training is normal and is nothing more than “a regular training exercise to ‘sharpen the knife.’” The soldiers, he said, needed a new place to train that was unlike their base at Ft. Bragg, NC so as to be ready for any circumstance.

“When a situation is hot we got to get in there quick,” he said.

He claims that the soldiers-in-training are not set to be deployed in Iraq nor are they expecting to need to exercise their training in Asheville.

In questioning the dozen-or-so police that were present, including Buncombe County Sheriff Bobby Medford, all claimed repeatedly that they had no idea what was going on, but that the public had no safety concerns to worry about.

Sokalski admitted that they did not make an announcement to the public because the Army did not want to burden the police department with having to handle crowds who might show up to witness the helicopters. He said that any concerned citizens could simply dial 9-1-1 and their fears would be eased after talking to an operator.

Although their training only included going to the courthouse, many helicopters flew beyond the courthouse and went through town by twos close to the ground and often times without their lights on. Some residents claim that the helicopter noise did not cease until around 2 am, keeping many awake.

This is not the first time North Carolina residents reacted with anger and fear during a military training. On Mar. 4, 199,7 an Army Urban Combat Exercise took place in Charlotte, NC. This exercise angered citizens so much that the mayor, Patrick McCrory, wrote a letter to then-President Bill Clinton, expressing mistrust in the Department of Defense for misleading the city in the scope of the military exercise.

“On the night of March 4, residents of the uptown neighborhoods were stunned by the sudden appearance of 12 low-flying helicopters without lights, in possible violation of FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) regulations…Explosive devices were set off, creating a tremendous amount of noise. Given those conditions and the large number of military personnel in the area, neighborhood residents were in fear… Had we known the scope of the operation, we would have never allowed it to take place,” McCrory wrote.