Reveille Too Loud for Some Earle Neighbors – Do They Have a Legitimate Gripe? [POLL]

Live next to a racetrack? Do you then have the right to complain about the noise from dragsters?

Live next to a chicken farm? Do you have the right to complain when the cock crows at 5 AM?

Live next to the Turnpike…etc.

See what I’m getting at.

Do you feel you have a legitimate gripe when a neighbor – be it a business, highway, public facility, what have you, that’s already been there – performs tasks that to some disturb the peace.

That’s what neighbors of the Naval Station Earle are finding with the playing of reveille at 8 in the morning.

According to this:

Some residents neighboring Naval Weapons Station Earle’s waterfront complex say the playing of the Morning Colors, a military protocol that includes playing the national anthem while raising the American flag, is too loud.

“Why should someone not in the service have to wake up to reveille?’” asked Bob Wille, who, along with some of his neighbors on 11th Street in Belford, has been asking officials at the naval station to turn down the volume.

Residents here said they started hearing the music in the spring or early summer and initially thought it was other neighbors.

Pat Horowitz said she called Middletown Police three times before she realized it was the base.

The cause of the neighbors’ consternation is a new emergency broadcast system that went into place this summer. The main purpose of the system is to alert those at the station in the event of an urgent matter, said Michael Brady, public affairs officer at Earle.

And with it, the base resumed playing over the system a military tradition that goes with raising and lowering the flag.

It’s a ritual every U.S. military installation worldwide follows to honor the flag. It begins at 8 a.m. with “Call to Colors” followed by “The Star-Spangled Banner” while the flag is being raised.

The two sailors who raise the flag then salute it until another call to “carry on” ends the ceremony.
At sunset, a similar ceremony, also with music, occurs to lower the flag.

The old address system had been broken for at least three years, which prevented the musical ritual from being played at the waterfront base, Brady said.

The base has heard mixed reviews from neighbors, some who love the new morning addition and others who think it’s too loud, he said.

Officials at Earle have been testing the system with sound meters in the Belford and Leonardo neighborhoods to adjust the volume to an appropriate level.

At least one of those sound measurements on 11th Street found the traffic along Route 36 and a helicopter that passed overhead to be louder than the sound of Morning Colors.

Were I living next to the Naval Station, I would have the expectation of hearing customary sounds emanating from the base. Just as I have the expectation of hearing dragsters speeding down the track at Raceway Park, which is about a mile from where I live.

To me – no big deal.

But not everyone has my degree of tolerance.

Do you feel the neighbors of Naval Station Earle have a legitimate gripe over hearing reveille at 8 in the morning?