PORT TOWNSEND — Decorated Army helicopter pilot George Yakush testified Friday that Security Services Northwest’s repeated gunfire has disrupted post-traumatic stress syndrome counseling sessions at his office near Discovery Bay.
“My sessions have frequently been interrupted by firefights,” said Yakush, a Jefferson County resident for about seven years who flew 700 missions and evacuated 2,000 people out of Vietnam war zones.
Testifying at Security Services’ appeal hearing at Fort Worden State Park, he said he received a distinguished flying cross, three Vietnamese crosses of gallantry and a Purple Heart for his 18-month tour of duty in Vietnam.
“The military takes great pains in training people and takes great pains to make sure they don’t interrupt peoples’ lives,” said Yakush.
He said he believes that should have been the case with training exercises conducted last summer at Security Services’ Fort Discovery Training Center.
Psychologist Bruce Tapper, whose counseling offices are located in his home on a bluff across Discovery Bay from the training center, joined his client in protesting the sound of gunfire and explosions produced during military and paramilitary training operations.
The center’s training-related gunfire and explosions intensified in May and June on parts of the Gunstone family’s 3,700-acre Discovery Bay Land Co. tree and shellfish farm property on the bay’s western shores.
Testimony from one of the center’s weapons trainers on Thursday revealed that about 48,000 rounds were fired in June during a four-day training course for Department of Defense personnel.
Yakush and Tapper were among those who spoke against Security Services’ operation in the final hour Friday afternoon of three days of testimony before county Hearing Examiner Irv Berteig.
“These are simulated firefights,” said Tapper, who was among about a dozen people testifying against and for the training center.
Berteig is expected to make a final decision in late December on whether Joe D’Amico’s Fort Discovery Training Center is a legal nonconforming use in a rural residential-zoned area of the bay near Gardiner.