Sounding off about sonar

Re “Judge curbs Navy sonar,” Aug. 7

If we can send men into space using simulators to prepare for the problems that may be encountered, why does the Navy need to risk the lives of our most precious ocean creatures doing actual real-time sonar exercises?

With the new wonders of computer technology, surely someone should be able to create programs to practice “crucial” sonar listening without sending dozens of ships, men and materials from several countries out to sea.

Nancy Smith

La Canada Flintridge

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As someone with several friends and relatives in the Navy, I must take the opposite view of the federal judge who ruled against the use of active sonar. With adversaries such as Iran and North Korea using quiet diesel subs, every tool in the submarine hunter’s arsenal must be employed.

One wonders if the environmental groups suing the Navy are more concerned with a few whales than with the lives of the sailors protecting the environmental groups’ right to sue.

If a ship is sunk as a result of the Navy not being able to use this sonar, then the environmentalists are just as much to blame as the enemy sub’s skipper.

Matt Wiser

Auberry, Calif.