Post or FReepmail me if you wish to be enlisted in or discharged from the Navair Pinglist.
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Posted on 04/10/2007 10:11:23 AM PDT by nctexan
U.S. Sen. Richard Burr came out Monday against the Navy's plan to build a jet runway near a national wildlife refuge in Eastern North Carolina, calling the plan "an untenable proposition."
In making the stand, Burr joined growing bipartisan opposition to the Navy's plan for a practice airstrip in Washington and Beaufort counties, putting the project's future in doubt.
Burr's letter follows recent statements by Democratic Gov. Mike Easley decrying the Navy's choice of sites and demanding that Congress withhold $10 million for the project. U.S. Reps. Walter Jones and Robin Hayes, both Republicans, wrote letters of opposition, joining several Democratic congressman.
And last week, fellow U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole sent a letter questioning the Navy about its choice of sites. She expressed concern, but did not say whether she was for or against it.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsobserver.com ...
The power of the environment lobby trumps adequate training for our troops and airmen.
Burr's argument about safety of pilots does not ring strong for Navy / Marines who train in the bird rich coastal areas by necessity.
Have you ever been in this area and seen the profuse number of birds? From a safety standpoint it makes no sense to build a jet runway in the middle of a wildlife refuge and bird migratory route.
“Have you ever been in this area and seen the profuse number of birds? From a safety standpoint it makes no sense to build a jet runway in the middle of a wildlife refuge and bird migratory route.”
I would tend to agree with this. Let Virginia have the site. Or put it somewhere else in NC.
Alaska has lots of open land and I am sure we would welcome all the advantage$ of a Navy facility.
I have; it’s entirely too beautiful to put a field there.
It was a ridiculous choice; they had to know this was coming.
Post or FReepmail me if you wish to be enlisted in or discharged from the Navair Pinglist.
This is a medium volume pinglist.
Repeal the 17th Amendment so we can get some real Americans in the US senate.
About 15-20 years ago there was talk about building a third commercial airport for the west Houston region near Katy, Texas. There are lots of rice farms in the area, and in fact quite a bit of land currently used for rice farming would have had to be condemned to build the airport. The proposal was killed off by a combination of farm owners and envirionmentalists, because of its effects on habitat for migratory birds. Of course it's not such a great idea to put an airport right in the middle of migratory bird habitats.
I have previously offered the perfect solution. Put a mothballed aircraft carrier on the beach in front of John Edwards' beach home.
Some of the rice farmers were in favor of it. You can make more with commercial development than you can growing rice.
I tried telling this to the country folk in Taiwan (I suggested a golf resort) but they're happy continuing as they've done for who knows how long, growing and raising all the food their village needs and don't want it to change.
And when put that way, why should they change?
Due to population encroachment at both NAS Oceana and NALF Fentress the Navy is looking for a sight at which to conduct Field Carrier Landing Practice. Based on currency the Navy has a certain number of practice touch and go's that each pilot must complete prior to going to the ship for carrier qualification. A certain segment of the population around Va. Beach is constantly complaining because they built their houses around a fighter base, and low and behold there is jet noise.
Desirable requirements would be, a remote location, room for an 8,000 ft airstrip, ability to avoid high air traffic areas, within a short distance of Oceana.
Obviously the bird thing is an issue, but I don't think it's the real driving issue. I think more of an issue is the noise of aircraft operating around the clock with little economic benefit to the community. I totally agree with this complaint. Why should Va Beach continue to have the financial benefit of basing aircraft where they can't fly.
In general Oceana sucks as an airbase. It has poor range space, a limited bombing range, noise abatement issues, and the weather isn't all that great, either. Time to close it down and move somewhere else.
So let me get this straight. It’s ok for the Kennedy Space Center to abut a wildlife refuge, but not an F/A-18 practice facility.
Where has common-sense gone?
The rice farms around Houston were huge commercial operations - some were 10-15,000 acres.
Back in the 1970's the Navy wanted to install Project Sanguin over 22,500 square miles of Michigan's Upper Peninsula and Northern Wisconsin's forests. To install it, they were going to carve 300 foot wide criss crossed swaths to lay cable every mile. The residents of Michigan and Wisconsin fought back until the Navy downsized the project and renamed it Seafarer. The residents still fought it. Finally the Navy settled for a single cable from the Wisconsin transmitter to the Michigan transmitter known as ELF. When the Navy makes up it's mind it wants something, it is very hard to make them go away.
However, I have flown out of Cherry Point, New River Air Station and NAS Oceana and I know that coastal birds are a part of USMC/NAVAL aviation.
I trust our Naval planners more than NC Governor (W)Easley or the Green "experts".
True, that. However, in this case, in addition to the migratory bird problem (which is a valid concern), there would have been no offsetting economic benefit for North Carolina other than short-term employment during construction of the facility. No personnel would be based at the landing field; it was strictly to be a "touch-and-go" runway. The pilots and support staff would be based elsewhere. So, all of the noise and other hazards, and none of the benefits.
What's a bit surprising is the length of time it took Burr to come out against this plan. It has long been extremely unpopular in northeastern NC among people of all political persuasions. The Navy referred to it as an Outlying Landing Field, or OLF for short. Thousands, and I mean thousands of "No OLF" signs may be seen in the area; those not familiar with the acronym might have assumed there was some Scandanavian guy the locals didn't care for.
Not quite the same, but Fort Sill, Oklahoma’s field artillery firing range adjoins the large Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge, and has since the 1930’s.
The continuous artillery firing in WWII caused us to have to sometimes look outside to see if a thunderstorm was in our midst.
It didn’t seem to bother the Texas Longhorn herds, the buffalo herds (or as my daughter would tell me, “Daddy, that’s bison”), or a lot of other game you can find in the refuge.
Birds may be a different matter. But Fort Sill and the Wildlife Refuge have coexisted for a lot of years without seeming conflict.
Since Burr has come out of the closet as a McCain backer, I will be voting for anyone who runs against him in his next run.
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