CAMDEN COUNTY, N.C. Undocumented wetlands and rare mussels could block Navy plans to build a practice airfield in northeastern North Carolina, representatives of OLF opponents said in separate statements. Both announcements came a few days after the Navy said it would delay the release of an environmental impact study until spring.

Everyone knew this day was coming - they just didn't know it would come so fast. The Navy's announcement Friday that it is delaying environmental analysis for a proposed practice landing field quickly turned into the long-awaited debate over Oceana Naval Air Station's future: Specifically, should the Navy's East Coast master jet base host the next-generation fighter plane?

RALEIGH, N.C.  A defense spending bill approved by the Senate doesn't ban the Navy from selecting a site in two North Carolina counties for a practice jet landing field.

Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan said today that the proposed ban on an outlying landing field in Gates or Camden counties wasn't included in the Senate version as it was in the House version.

Two local congressmen have introduced legislative amendments that would give more teeth to opposition to the Navy’s proposed outlying landing field.

CAMDEN COUNTY, N.C. A Navy airfield proposed for Camden County on two of the largest potato farms in North Carolina would irreparably damage the region's economy, Commissioner of Agriculture Steve Troxler told farmers and officials Monday.

U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan voiced opposition today to a Navy practice airfield in northeastern North Carolina, promising “savvy negotiations” with Navy officials.

Quietly but surely, rural communities on the edges of Hampton Roads are gearing up for what could be a fateful fight. In Surry County, one woman is compiling lists of historic and prehistoric sites; another is analyzing demographic data. Residents of Gates County, N.C., are sketching their family trees, gathering old photographs and accumulating property deeds and land records.

A study released Thursday shows what Camden farmers have said all along - that unstable peat and muck soils run deep through the Hales Lake area where the Navy proposes building an outlying landing field.

ABOARD THE THEODORE ROOSEVELT The mission ends in the dark, alone. The pilot is on his radio, listening to his own breathing and to his colleagues safe and sound on the aircraft carrier deck, somewhere in the blackness before him. He checks his instruments, trusting them to keep him out of the ocean below. Then a faint light appears, wavering in the night.

HALES LAKE Camden County farmers say flammable and unstable peat beneath the surface of bean fields here make this the wrong place for the Navy to build an airfield. They hope soil samples taken last week will verify what they say and what past soil surveys suggest because they don't want a practice field here.