We live a few blocks from Kittitas Valley Community Hospital and can hear when the helicopters arrive and leave for medical transports. I haven’t heard that many lately, which is why I really noticed the heavy helicopter traffic at night these past few days.

Although I haven’t checked the hospital calls that closely, I don’t think they’re medical helicopters. Usually I’m in bed when I hear them so I haven’t gone outside and checked, but they also sound larger than the craft that go in and out of KVCH.

It could be they’re military helicopters on some sort of night training. One of the thrills of driving to Yakima (maybe the only thrill) is to see the copters popping up over the hillside flying in formation for some sort of training.

It kind of reminds me of several years ago when people claimed to see the legendary “black” helicopters around Liberty. These were thought to be UN copters preparing for some sort of takeover. I think this was also about the time when the first grizzly bear recovery area was proposed — the controversy being it crossed the U.S.-Canadian border.

These flights are at night so I’m not sure I could tell whether these were “black” helicopters or not even if I looked. I just hope it doesn’t have anything to do with the grizzly bear recovery area.

Anyone else heard these helicopters?