[cva66snipe]

How right you are. I lived there from 1958 until 1998. The growth that took place during that time was rapid and sustained. As a kid growing up there in the late 50's and early 60's it seemed I knew just about eveybody. It was a small beach community on the coast and farmland inland. Oceana was surrounded by open land and farms and timber for miles around back then. But not anymore.

My uncle owned a Larkspur 66 service station somewhere near Trasmore in the late 60's early to mid 70's. He also Captained a LST out of the Amphib Base. I was homeported in NORVA 77-80. I went back there about 8 years ago and didn't recognize much. The old Boardwalk on VA beach was gone :>{

[Grandma Pam]

Norfolk native here. I was born and raised in Ocean View and grew up living one block from the Naval Air Station. I always felt that it was just a part of life in Tidewater that you were in the flight path. All of the schools that I attended were in flight paths, and you just stopped talking when a plane went over. The area around all the bases, especially Oceana and Dam Neck, that used to be rural is now subdivisions, condos and apartments.

My niece still lives there and called me today to let me know about the crash. She said that the media was already making noise about shutting down the base. She works for one of the big defense contractors and is very pro-military, and she was just sick that this has happened.

We thank You, Lord, that more people weren’t hurt, and ask that You comfort the injured civilians and the pilots.