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VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) – A driver is dead after attempting to enter Joint Expeditionary Base-Little Creek early Sunday morning. According to officials, at 3:40 a.m. on April 28, a vehicle was seen attempting to enter the base through Gate 5 at a high rate of speed. Security Personnel activated the hydraulic access control system (HACS) in an attempt to stop the vehicle after observing the driver not stopping for security. This caused the vehicle to crash into the HACS barrier and catch fire. Crews with the installation fire department worked to extinguish the fire, and the Naval Criminal Investigative...

VIRGINIA BEACH Police said they have charged a man after a suspicious package was found at Gate 5 of Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story on Wednesday. Khalid Mohamed Abdalla, 28, was charged with threatening to bomb, according to a police news release. Abdalla, of the 4600 block of Freedom Court, is being held without bond in jail. A citizen called police about 5 p.m. to report the package, but police did not give any updates on what the package may have been. A Facebook post by the base had reported a bomb threat shortly after 6 p.m. Shortly after...

PROVIDENCE, R.I., Sept. 4, 2007 – A light breeze rippled over the dark water of Providence Harbor as two divers sank below the water’s surface, leaving behind a long trail of air hoses and the sound of their breathing through the radio. Navy diver Petty Officer 2nd Class William F. Stetson III, right, gives the “OK” sign to let a fellow sailor know he is receiving proper oxigen flow. The U.S. Army Vessel New Orleans is serving as a diving platform for Navy and Army divers working on raising a Russian submarine in Providence Harbor on the Rhode Island...

By Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class (SW) Stefanie Holzeisen-mullen and Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class (SW) Brian Seymour, Fleet Public Affairs Center Atlantic VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (NNS) -- Family and friends gathered at Naval Amphibious Base (NAB) Little Creek July 6, to greet the arrival of the dock landing ship USS Fort McHenry (LSD 43). Originally homeported at Fleet Activities Sasebo, Japan, Fort McHenry was part of a “hull swap” in April with the dock landing ship USS Tortuga (LSD 46). The vessels “swapped” homeports while the crews remained assigned to their original locations. The hull swap was part of...

By most accounts, the first great modern combat by U.S. Navy commandos happened June 6, 1944. Under withering enemy fire, nearly 200 hastily-trained seamen slung high-explosives on German defenses along Omaha Beach. They blew 10 gaps in the line, clearing the way for Allied forces to rush the beach on D-Day. Enemy fire killed 31 seamen and wounded another 60 that day – more than half of the special force known as Naval Combat Demolition Unit. Six decades later, on a summer day in Afghanistan, an emergency call came from four SEALs pinned down in mountains 10,000 feet above sea...

Navy SEAL Danny Dietz returned home Thursday, laid to rest at Fort Logan National Cemetery near his boyhood home in Littleton. A black carriage drawn by a white horse delivered his flag-draped casket to a memorial worthy of a hero - the release of doves, military men moved to tears, taps moaning from a trumpet as the scent of burned powder from a 21-gun salute wafted in the faint breeze. Dietz, 25, was killed in a firefight with al-Qaeda guerrillas on a mountainside in Afghanistan on June 28. His body was recovered on the Fourth of July. Dietz is said...

VIRGINIA BEACH — More than a mile above sea level in the Afghan mountains, four SEALs on a reconnaissance mission on June 28 took enemy fire in terrain thick with Taliban and al-Qaida fighters. A crew of eight Army Special Forces and eight Navy SEALs heard their emergency call, boarded a specially-equipped MH-47 Chinook helicopter and sped into the mountain fight. They would not return alive. On Friday morning, the aftershock of the Afghan battle resonated through a naval base and a community 7,000 miles away. Nearly 2,600 mourners converged on Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base to remember and...

VIRGINIA BEACH — Lt. Cmdr. Erik Kristensen read poetry and kicked around the beach in a pair of Birkenstocks. Chief Petty Officer Jacques J. Fontan shot a scratch round of golf and carried an incurable love for the New Orleans Saints. The two men shared an elite title – Navy SEAL – and were deployed to Afghanistan in April as part of a group from SEAL Team 10. Kristensen and Fontan were among 16 servicemen killed Tuesday when their MH-47 Chinook helicopter was shot down by enemy fire during a mountain rescue mission. Late Saturday, the Pentagon officially released the...

Navy SEALs Caught Up In Drug Sweep U.S. being forced to transfer some units More than a dozen sailors, including eight SEALs, are being investigated after testing positive for illegal drug use, the Navy confirmed yesterday. Seven sailors assigned to the Naval Special Warfare Command, including five SEALs, failed drug tests in early May while they were on a training exercise in Thailand. Other sailors reported seeing the commandos using drugs in Pattaya, a Thai beach resort. That was enough for Rear Adm. Joseph Maguire, the Naval Special Warfare commander, to order a drug-testing sweep of 3,300 of the 4,600...

The future of the Navy is on its way to Naval Station Ingleside, according to U.S. Fleet Forces Command. The HSV-X2 Swift, a record-setting high-speed vessel leased by the Navy from Australian shipbuilder Bollinger/Incat USA, will make Ingleside its home port while it acts as an interim replacement for the command and control ship for the Navy's Mine Warfare fleet. However, the Swift will see little time at Ingleside, officials say, due to its experimental role in Navy operations that may offer a window to how the Navy will utilize ships in the future. Capt. Terry Miller, assistant chief of...

USS Portland, Crew of 320 Returns Home By SONJA BARISIC .c The Associated Press VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (AP) - Hundreds of families stood in the rain and fog Friday, cheering as the USS Portland became the first East Coast-based Navy ship to return home from the war in Iraq. During its three-month mission, the Portland and its crew of 320 delivered combat Marines and equipment to Kuwait. It came home a bit early because of a needed repair. ``This is an answered prayer,'' said Cheryl Douglas, 47, of Virginia Beach. She was anxiously waiting at Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (AP) -- The USS Portland, the first Navy ship to return from the war in Iraq, steamed into port Friday to patriotic music and throngs of people cheering in the fog and rain. Hundreds of families clutching bouquets, American flags, cameras and umbrellas welcomed back the 320 sailors from a three-month mission to deliver equipment and about 300 Marines to Kuwait. "This is an answered prayer," Cheryl Douglas, 47, of Virginia Beach said as the ship approached in the morning fog. She was selected to give the first...