Don’t mind the helicopters, it’s just practice

If you see military helicopters buzzing through your neighborhood sometime soon, don’t freak out. It’s probably a military training exercise. Miami-Dade police sent out a warning Monday that multiple police agencies would be providing support for a joint military training exercise somewhere over Miami and elsewhere in the county. The exercise will include the use of military helicopters. When and where will this happen? Police didn’t say.       Read more here



First Miami, now Houston: Military conducting helicopter raids with blank rounds in populated areas. Calling it a drill The sight of Army helicopters and the sound of gunfire created a lot of concern Monday afternoon in one Houston neighborhood.

We received a lot of phones calls, Tweets and Facebook posts from worried neighbors, wondering what was going on. With military helicopters flying above her southeast Houston neighborhood, Frances Jerrals didn't know what to think. "When you see this, you think the worst. When you hear this, you think the worst," Jerrals said.

And so, she passed along her concern. "She told me 'don't come home it sounds like we're in a war zone. Guns, shooting, helicopters flying around the house,'" Isaac Robertson Jr. said.

The U.S. Army along with other agencies took over the old Carnegie Vanguard High School near Scott and Airport. There were armed men in fatigues, plenty of weapons and what many thought were real live rounds "I felt like I was in a warzone." Jerrals said.

"It was nonstop. I was terrified." Turns out, it was a multi-agency training drill that Jerrals wished would have come with warning.

"They could have done a better job in notifying the neighborhood," Jerrals said.

 The Army did not give any details of what the training is for.

Some people we spoke to needed no explanation. "If it's to protect our kids, I'm all for it," neighbor Glenn DeWitt said