“Near constant noise” from military air training at Barin Field in Foley brought people from Glenlakes subdivision and military officials together last week in Foley for an information session.

Capt. Todd Bahlau, commander of Naval Air Station Whiting Field, said Barin was one of five fields currently being used for training naval pilots. Flight operations from Whiting average over one million per year, more than the 911,000 at Atlanta’s Hartsfield Airport — widely known as the busiest airport in the world.

“Over 142,000 flight hours were flown out of Whiting in fiscal year 2015,” Bahlau said. “That’s an average of 14 percent of the entire US Navy’s total flight hours.”

Several residents complained of low flying planes and noise issues that occurred when the pilots make their maneuvers to fly into Foley’s Barin Field, located near the subdivision.

“I can not hear in my house on my phone. My mother was dying and I could not hear her voice,” Glenlakes resident Lucy Douty said. “They come right over the house and you cannot hear.”

Douty said she and her husband had taken steps to help soundproof their home, to no avail.

“That’s un-American,” Douty said. “I don’t know anybody else that goes in their house and has to wear headphones and pays hundreds of dollars to soundproof their windows and still can’t hear things going on in their own home.”

Col. Gary Kling, commodore of Training Air Wing 5, said he sympathized with the residents’ complaints, but that his pilots were following rules and regulations.

“We just have a mission to do,” Kling said, “and we’re following all of the regulations that have been put in place.”

Military officials informed the residents of an FAA Assessment of Barin Field conducted in September that showed flight operations were “in compliance” with FAA regulations and that “there were no violations of FAA rules, regulations or policies pertaining to the Navy’s operations” at Barin.

Many residents asked about the impact the opening of a new landing field in Summerdale would have on the use of Barin, with Kling answering that he’s “not sure.”

“Intuitively, I believe it will spread the traffic pattern across both Summerdale and Barin, but to put it in perspective, we landed 28,500 at Barin in 2014. In 2013, we landed 20,330 times,” Kling said. “Historically, if you back up to the early 2000s, late 1990s, we would land 81,000 times at Barin ... I would like to tell you that it’s going to go down, but you’ve actually had the lowest amount of traffic in the last two years over the past 15 years or so that you’ve ever had.”

Bahlau said of the fields used in this region, which include Evergreen and Brewton, Barin was the least-used field.

Bahlau said the opening of a new runway at Barin, which should happen soon, would probably help alleviate some of the traffic pattern that occurs over the subdivision and he asked residents for patience on the matter.

Glenlakes resident Richard Dayton said he felt everyone was entitled to an opinion, but felt the military still had a job to do.

“The military at best, on the surface, has done everything they should do to comply with the current regulations,” Dayton said. “I believe they’re trying to find the best solution available.”

Kling said while he is apologetic for the noise caused by pilot training, he and his pilots have an important job to do for the country.

“I produce 68 percent of the Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard Naval aviators to defend the nation,” Kling said. “In order to maintain the strength of this nation, someone has got to do our nation’s bidding in the air and the biggest training wing is Training Wing 5 here.”