WASHINGTON
The Navy’s top officer said today that the service will make its case for construction of a new practice landing strip in southeastern Virginia or northeastern North Carolina by emphasizing to nearby residents the importance of pilot training for night landings aboard aircraft carriers.
“We have to have a place where pilots can go fly that best replicates the environment that they’re going to experience” at sea, Adm. Gary Roughead, the chief of naval operations, told reporters.
The Navy wants the landing strip placed in a remote area where pilots can fly in and out in near-total darkness but still relatively close to Oceana Naval Air Station in Virginia Beach, its East Coast master jet base.
Roughead acknowledged that the Navy is facing serious local opposition to the proposed outlying landing field but said the service intends to press ahead with environmental and other studies of five potential sites announced in January. All are within 65 miles of Oceana.
Those sites, three in Virginia and two in North Carolina, were announced after the Navy abandoned a three-year effort to place the $250 million facility in Washington County, N.C. Local opposition similar to that which derailed the Washington County plan has sprung up near the new sites, each of which is located on timberland or farmland.
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Navy lies coming back to haunt them
The Navy's lies and misrepresentations are now coming back to hurt them. Now that people know how loud the jets are nobody want them. There never has been a question of the need for practice, just a question of where to do it. If the Navy had been upfront about the noise that came with the Hornets; if the Navy had made an attempt to reduce the unnecessary noise; if the Navy had treated the people of Virginia Beach in an ethical manner; they would not have the problems they now have. The problems the Navy created for themselevs will follow them where ever they go. Now they may have to move the whole base in order to get enough support to make the ensuing noise acceptable. Of course the Navy to calm the people in Virginia Beach who just want to sleep at night , to hear, who0 would like to go outside and thus make the olf more palatable, but I wont hold my breath.
re locate
Charleston, S.C . or Goldsboro's Seymor Johnson x-air base would welcome the $$$$
So
Idiots. The two NC sites are in the fastest growing areas in the state. No wonder the dealers charge them $600 for a hammer. It's the cost of explainng how to use it.
Crystal Ball
I don't even need to use a crystal ball to see where this is going. Not long from now the griping, moaning, pity, "woe is me" farmers, land owners and environmental zealots will be out in full force bemoaning the fabricated injustice that the Navy is trying to impose with the OLF. Let me help them out by providing a few more excuses for their NIMBY portfolio: "Can't build it here, it could harm the the endangered 3 toed bugbats in the area"; "Why are you doing this to me? This farm has been in my family for 4,000 years and we expect to turn a profit within the next decade"; and how about "Building the OLF here will drastically alter the migratory pattern of taxpayer dollars as they transform into the form of government farm subsidies." That should give the SELC and like organizations a good place to start....If there are any fledging environmental or grassroots organizations in need of slogan assistance, just let me know. We can start with "GO OLF - Beacuse We Like to Party!"