Free Response to Motion - District Court of Federal Claims - federal

Case 1:01-cv-00201-VJW

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Filed 10/12/2006

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00001 1 IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF FEDERAL CLAIMS 2 3 CAROL AND ROBERT TESTWUIDE, ) 4 et al., ) ) 5 Plaintiffs, ) ) 6 v. ) NO. 01-201L ) Judge Victor J. Wolski 7 THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, ) ) 8 Defendant. ) 9 10 11 DEPOSITION UPON ORAL EXAMINATION 12 OF THOMAS H. ASKINS, JR., TAKEN ON BEHALF OF THE DEFENDANT 13 14 Virginia Beach, Virginia 15 August 2, 2005 16 17 18 19 Appearances: 20 21 22 23 24 25 HOFHEIMER/FERREBEE, P.C. By: KRISTEN D. HOFHEIMER, ESQUIRE Counsel for the Plaintiffs

Askins, Thomas 08.02.2005

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Case 1:01-cv-00201-VJW
00021 1 Q. 2 A. Okay.

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Well, my yard is heavily wooded, so I can't

3 really look over and see them where they are from my house. 4 But I can see them when they come right over, so I don't 5 know if it's the same jet or 15 of them. I just don't know. 6 There is no way for me to know. 7 Q. From your vantage point, since you mention it's

8 heavily wooded, you really couldn't gauge the altitude. 9 Could you see the markings of the plane, the side number or 10 at least the squadron number? Could you see any markings on 11 the plane from where you are standing? 12 A. Well, you can see markings on them, but I don't

13 know -14 Q. Can you distinguish what the markings were to the

15 point that you -16 A. 17 Q. No. Let's say at any point in time from 1976 to the

18 present day, have you ever done noise recordings of the jets 19 that are flying by your home? 20 A. 21 Q. Yes. Okay. And describe at what times did you do

22 those recordings? 23 A. Well, I have a voice -- I mean a noise monitor I

24 bought at Radio Shack, and I would do that from time to 25 time. I really didn't keep a log of it. One day several

Askins, Thomas 08.02.2005

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Case 1:01-cv-00201-VJW
00022 1 years ago -2 Q.

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How long have you been doing that with the noise

3 monitor, in terms -- when did you start? You said it's on 4 and off? 5 A. 6 Q. 7 A. Probably five years ago. Go ahead. On one occasion, when the jets were flying over

8 very, very low and very loud, and I believe it was an FCLP 9 pattern, they were coming over the house and also right off 10 of Laskin Road. Down where the intersection of Laskin and 11 Winwood is, there's a church, a Lutheran church -- I think 12 it's Lutheran -- my son and I went down and took videos of 13 the jets coming over, and I gave a rendition of them and we 14 took the noise meter and listened to them. 15 Q. So you did a noise recording and a video

16 recording? 17 A. 18 Q. Yes. The video recording was how long ago did you say?

19 Was that two years ago? 20 A. Yes, a couple of years ago. Maybe three. Two or

21 three. Two. I think I gave it to Jack, I believe, but I 22 don't know. It's all dated on the thing. 23 Q. Okay. But you believe you gave it to

24 Mr. Ferrebee? 25 A. I believe I did.

Askins, Thomas 08.02.2005

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