Port Angeles mayor gets apology for Army choppers that terrorized town

The Army has apologized to Port Angeles Mayor Cherie Kidd for the low-flying helicopters she says “terrorized my city.”

Kid met with officials at Joint Base Lewis-McChord Monday demanding to know why the Army didn’t let anyone know they’d be flying thundering helicopters over the Olympic Peninsula town in the middle of the night last Thursday.

The choppers scared people and animals alike as they circled and spotlighted the city late Thursday night and early Friday morning. Dozens of people called emergency dispatchers, who had no clue what was happening.

“We didn’t know if there had been a big break at the prison or what,” Kidd tells KIRO Radio. “We had literally no idea.”

Kidd says she met for an hour with the base commander, Col. H. Charles Hodges Jr., and two officers with the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment.

“He did tell me it’s unbelievable, it’s unacceptable, and he was very apologetic. He was going to do an investigation,” she says.

Kidd was one of those awakened by the copters. “It was horrendously loud and terrifying,” she says. “I’ve never heard anything like that.”

Officials learned Friday the choppers from Lewis-McChord were training at the Coast Guard base at Ediz Hook, on the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

After the meeting, Kidd says she’s satisfied it won’t happen again and the Army is taking the matter seriously. Hodges has agreed to attend Tuesday night’s city council meeting to apologize in person to council members and the public, she says. And she says now everyone is having a good laugh about it.

“It’s a story we’ll tell our grand kids and it ended on a positive note.”