With summer comes the always-jarring increase in mopeds behaving badly, blaring ambulances roaring through town, and increased helicopter activity for medical evacuations at the Block Island State Airport. With the influx of workers and visitors, this is not unexpected, but still a dramatic change from the quiet “winter” months.The evening of June 14 was particularly noisy. No, there was no mass casualty event at the airport, or a Hollywood crew practicing a scene for an “Apocalypse Now” sequel. Instead it was a planned training session for the Rhode Island National Guard during which helicopters, sometimes more than one at a time were landing, idling, and taking off for what seemed like a couple of hours, but ended at about 8:45 p.m.The annual R.I. National Guard training occurs each summer over a two-week period, and the last day will be Saturday, June 21. For Tuesday’s training, there were twoUH-60 helicopters involved, and though the spokesperson for the Guard told The Block Island Times that it was the last “deliberately planned” training session at the Block Island airport, there could still be some unplanned practicing of approaches and landings.None of the helicopters Tuesday evening were called by the Block Island
