Any time we fly near any kind of foul farm (chicken, pheasant, etc) the local Base Ops gets to write a check for ever dead chicken in that guys pen.
Reading this suddenly reminded me of the early days at NAS Lemoore. The base was built (opened in '61), on land leased long term from local farmers. Additionally "green-belted" ~5 mile radius, to preclude development encroachment such as that which doomed the NASs at Moffett & Alameda, both of which had suffered several major accidents involving civilian property destruction/mass casualties. Unused portions of the leased acreage were allowed to be used to grow crops at the discretion of the Landowners.
During the first two years of NLC ops, several A-4 punchouts occurred on takeoff from 32R, leaving a smoking crater in a leased cotton/alfalfa (or whatever) field. When property damage claims were filed against Uncle Sam, local Farmer's ambulance chaser lawsuit always cited 1/4 section total destruction of the
"EXPERIMENTAL" XXXXX crop! In the early days, the 'gubment' ponied up exorbitant settlements to placate the locals, but finally wised up as the A-4 Lawn Dart Olympics "experimental crop" hits were more thoroughly checked out!
BzB