Hear loud noises or booms in eastern Pa. or South Jersey? This might be the cause

Damon C. Williams, Bucks County Courier Times
·2 min read

There was a loud boom that shook the house and rattled your ears?

You're probably not alone in wondering what it was and the answer might be Uncle Sam.

Eastern Pennsylvania's and South Jersey's proximity to Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst means residents may occasionally hear service personnel training with ammunition and artillery.

The base maintains a monthly calendar of training exercises that may result in loud noises across the region.

Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst noise alerts

Joint Base MDL holds monthly trainings and drills using a wide range of artillery and various calibers of military weapons. As such, these exercises and routines create various levels of noise.

Joint Base MDL has three loudness warning levels: low, moderate and high.

Marines with the 1st Battalion, 25th Marines conducted readiness training, including Mortar live-fire, 50. Caliber Heavy Machine-Gun Support Vehicle Fire, Sniper training, and Anti-Tank Guided BGM -71 TOW and Javelin Missile live-fire across multiple ranges on U.S. Army Support Activity Fort Dix in January, which caused loud noises in southern New Jersey andPhiladelphia regions. Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst has released its March noise calendar.

Low noise consists of sounds from ground small arms and light crew weapons training, which may include rifle fire. The low noise warning dates are Sunday, March 12 and Monday, March 13.

Moderate noise consists of rotary wing aerial gunnery routines, which may include the firing of .50-caliber weapons, rockets and rotary cannons. Moderate noise warnings dominate the month, and have been posted for March 1-3; 5-7; 11th; 14-22 and 27-31.

There will be eight days in march when Joint Base MDL warns of high level noise, consisting of heavy crew weapons training and cratering munitions, and can include mortar live fire, Howitzer fire and cratering charges.

The days for high level noise warnings are March, 8-10 and 23-26.

Filing noise complaints with Joint Base MDL

Joint Base MDL notes that its service members train constantly, so hearing or seeing flying operations or range training which varies from small arms fire to heavy artillery is commonplace.

That doesn't mean residents don't have an avenue to complain. Joint Base urges residents to either call 609-754-1399 or email 87.abw.pa@us.af.mil to lodge a formal complaint about the noise.

Joint Base MDL located near Trenton, home to many Department of Defense efforts

Joint Base MDL, which sits roughly 18 miles southeast of Trenton and occupies 42,000 acres, is home to more than 80 mission partners and 40 mission commanders.

It is also home to the 99th Regional Support Command, the 174th Infantry Brigade, the 108th Wing, the 305th Air Mobility Wing, the 514th Air Mobility Wing, the 621st Contingency Response Wing and the Army Support Activity-Fort Dix, amongst many other centers and supports.

More than 46,763 airmen, soldiers, sailors, Marines, Coast Guardsmen, civilians and their family members live and work on and around the base.

This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Is Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst responsible for loud noises?