It isn’t clear why Richard Grover (Aug. 3) thinks we need to use military fighter jets to intercept “drug smugglers, illegal aliens and off-course private planes.” Even more, it isn’t clear why these fighter jets would need to practice their low-level war games over Maine, (even assuming that this type of training is useful nowadays).

Maine has lost a lot of military bases and contracts in the last few years. Thanks to Sen. Kennedy, Massachusetts kept Otis AFB where these flights originate. So OK, that’s politics, but how does it help national security to have them spend the thousands of extra gallons of jet fuel to come all the way to Maine to play their war games here?

The answer is, it doesn’t. America needs every gallon of fuel it can conserve; this is a huge national security issue. If Massachusetts wants the base it should accept that it gets the overflights too – and there’s nothing un-American about being able to see this.

Sally McGuire, Dixfield