OLF Coverage supplied by Television Stations

Gates Co. opposes OLF - March 13, 2008

Posted: March 13, 2008 06:24 PM EDT Updated: March 13, 2008 10:14 PM EDT
Several dozen residents of Gates County, North Carolina told Governor Mike Easley they don't want a jet practice landing field.
They rallied Thursday outside Easley's offices in downtown Raleigh to show the governor their opposition to the landing field in their rural northeastern county. Easley did not attend.
Gates is one of five locations the Navy is considering to allow jet pilots to practice night landings on aircraft carriers. Other possible locations are in Camden or Currituck Counties. The other three sites are in Virginia.
Linda Warren and her husband live on a farm within the proposed site in Gates County and would have to move if the Navy chooses to build there. She said the military can do nothing to get her to support the site.

Additional Coverage:
Landing field opponents in Gates County rally in Raleigh
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- Several dozen Gates County residents traveled to Raleigh on Thursday to tell Gov. Mike Easley they don't want a jet practice landing field.
The rally outside the Administration Building in downtown Raleigh, where the Governor's Office is located, was designed to show Easley their opposition to the landing field in their rural northeastern county. Easley did not attend.
Linda Warren, her husband and other family members would have to move from their farm that's within the proposed site in Gates County if the Navy chooses to build there. She said the military can do nothing to get her to support the site because her family has been living there for generations and it would ruin a way of life for the county's citizens.
"We feel like it's our duty to keep it, maintain it, protect it and preserve it," Warren, 58, said of the farm. "It's important to us and it's important to help all of my neighbors protect their farms."
Gates is one of five locations the Navy is now considering to build an outlying landing field, which would allow F/A-18 Super Hornet pilots -- mostly from Oceana Air Station at Virginia Beach, Va. -- to practice night landings on aircraft carriers. Navy officials said the strip is needed to reduce use of an existing strip in Virginia now surrounded by residential areas.
Another proposed location is in Camden and Currituck counties. The three other sites are in Virginia.
About 75 people attending the rally carried placards reading "Say No To Jets" and "Protect Our Future," surrounded by children's hand prints.
Easley doesn't have a formal say on the location of the $230 million project, but he can apply pressure upon the military. The Navy has said a final decision is more than two years away.
Two candidates for federal office -- Democrat Jim Neal of Chapel Hill for U.S. Senate and Republican Dean Stephens of Colerain for the U.S. House -- also spoke briefly at the midday event.
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Southampton County fights proposed OLF - Posted: Jan 28, 2008 10:28 PM EST

Southampton County residents will do whatever it takes to keep the jets away. Last week the Navy narrowed its list of potential OLF sites to five. Three Virginia counties made the list, including: Sussex, Southampton and Surry counties.
In North Carolina, Gates and Camden counties are also possible sites.
As the Navy looks for a place to land its jets, strong emotions against the OLF continue to fly.
At Three Springs Farm, remnants of cotton still clutter an empty field, signs of a good harvest.
"It's a good community," said Southampton County resident, Jack Pond. "This thing here has upset us."
Pond has farmed land in Southampton Co. for 30 years. The 75-year-old owns one-thousand acres of land, all of which are threatened by the Navy's OLF proposal.
"It's heartbreaking for me, because my dad has worked so hard," said Betty Beale.
Through the trees the sun sets, geese and other wildlife make this land their home, but it could all be destroyed if the Navy decides to move in, building an outlying landing field in Southampton.
"Of course I know what they are saying," added Pond. "It's not a real heavily populated area, and it's not, but we are just as important to our neighbors as they are,"
Pilots from Oceana need a new place to practice. They need to simulate landing on an aircraft carrier.
"Prepare for a long and bumpy road," said Southampton Administrator Michael Johnson. "This will be a drawn out, gut wrenching, emotional roller coaster ride that won't end anytime soon."
Monday night, Southampton residents got an update on the OLF situation. Everyone's in agreement that the OLF needs to land somewhere else.
They also wanted to make sure they were all on the same page and that they're all going to fight together to save homes and farms like Three Springs.
"We will fight until they come in here and evict us, if that's what it comes down to," added Beale.
The Navy's next step is to start an environmental study in each area.
Southampton County residents plan to show the Navy that an OLF would hurt the environment - a study that will take about two years to complete.

Navy eliminates half its potential OLF sites - Posted: Jan 22, 2008 01:27 PM EST

The US Navy has announced it has eliminated five sites in Virginia and North Carolina as potential Outlying Landing Fields (OLF) but will move forward with determining if five other sites are viable. Three of those sites are in Virginia, the other two in North Carolina.
The Navy eliminated sites in Bertie, Craven, Hyde, Perquimans and a site which straddles Beaufort and Washington counties, in North Carolina.
The Navy will now consider sites known as "Cabin Point" "Dory" and "Mason" in Virginia and "Hale's Lake" and "Sandbanks" in North Carolina.
The Navy says the five sites under consideration will now be fully evaluated in a new Environmental Impact Statement which will take about 30 months to complete.

OLF scoping meetings continue Wednesday night - Wednesday, April 30, 2008

NORFOLK -- This week, the Navy is holding scoping meetings for a new outlying jet landing field.
The meetings are designed to present factual information so people understand why an OLF is needed in the first place.
Flying a high performance fighter jet in the dark of night and landing it on a bobbing and weaving ship at sea is not easy. It requires hundreds of hours of practice, which is where the proposed OLF comes in.
“They need a dark area without a lot of cultural lighting where the aviators can really concentrate on their ability to land onboard an aircraft carrier at night,” said retired Navy Captain Lou Lalli, president of the Hampton Roads Council of the Navy League.
He spent most of his 27 years in the Navy flying at Naval Air Station Oceana as an A6 Intruder Bombadier Navigator. In later years, he served as the Chief of Staff to the Commander of Naval Air Forces U.S. Atlantic Fleet.
He says the OLF, in wherever of the five proposed sites it ultimately gets built, is badly needed.
“Somehow, we have got to get the Navy and the civilian community together.”
That could be easier said than done with stiff grassroots resistance from citizens near the potential OLF sites. Still, Virginia’s Office of Commonwealth Preparedness is upbeat.
“Despite the folks in the communities who’ve reacted that way, we continue to encourage dialogue, openness and seeing the process through,” said Robert Crouch, Jr., special assistant to Governor Tim Kaine for Commonwealth Preparedness.
Wednesday’s OLF scoping meeting is at Sussex Central High School. Thursday morning there will be a meeting in Southampton County, one in Gates Co. on Friday. Next Monday, there will be a meeting in Camden County, and another in Surry County next Wednesday.

Town Hall meeting on OLF held in Currituck Co. - Tuesday, March 18, 2008

CURRITUCK CO. -- The Currituck County Board of Supervisors held a Town Hall meeting to discuss the Navy’s ongoing proposal to build an outlying jet landing field in nearby Camden County.
The Board worries about jet noise, and believes Oceana’s Hornets and Super Hornets will disrupt their quiet way of life and diminish prospects for economic development.
At the town meeting Tuesday night, many voiced their concerns.
"It's just devastating that they would, you know, put these people through a lot of worry and all that they're going to have a OLF," said Roy Etheridge of Powells Poin, N.C.
Debbie Rottloff moved from Great Bridge to Currituck Co. just a few months ago.
Click to watch video "I used to work for the federal government, and they're gonna hire from within. They're not gonna hire anyone from Moyock. I know how they operate," she told the crowd. "Even though my husband is military, we figure this is a quiet community, and we're retiring here, and this is where we want to live without jets."
County Manager Dan Scanlon, II hopes the jets do not come to Camden County, and says the Board of Commissioners have gone on record in a resolution to oppose the OLF.
He says the jets will be bad for business.
“The acclimation of the runway will put it, we believe, over top of our largest population base, and we think the impact is tremendous,” he said.
However, the Navy said the outlying field would bring big benefits; including a two-year $100 million building project and 52 full-time jobs for the community with an annual $2.8 million payroll.
As for jet noise concerns, OLF Project Officer Commander Rich Catoire says no flight patterns have even been determined yet. He said when they are, “We’ll develop site-specific flight paths to and from the fields to avoid population centers and sensitive noise areas to the greatest extent possible while accomplishing our mission.”
Commander Catoire says another key issue is the fact that under the Fleet Response Plan, Fentress Field in Chesapeake has already exceeded its capacity and the Navy simply needs this field to meet operational requirements.
With five locations in North Carolina and Virginia in the running, a reccomendation on where the field should go is years down the road; a long road which people in Currituck Co. start down, trying to fight before it really heats up.

Navy narrows list for OLF for Oceana jets - Tuesday, January 22, 2008

The Navy today narrowed to five its list of sites for the proposed Outlying Landing Field.
13News
Geese flock to the Pocosin Lake National Wildlife Refuge.
Three sites in Virginia are in Southampton, Surry and Sussex counties. Two sites in North Carolina are Hale's Creek in Gates and Camden counties.
Not on the list is Washington County, NC, which has long been the Navy's preferred site but which has been opposed by wildlife and other groups because of its proximity to a refuge.
Other excluded sites in North Carolina are Bertie, Craven, Hyde and Perquimans counties in North Carolina.
The Navy says the remaining five sites will be evaluated in a 30-month Environmental Impact Study process, which will include public hearings and further analysis of the locations.
Gov. Tim Kaine says, “The Commonwealth is committed to assisting Southampton, Surry and Sussex counties, the United States Navy, and our Congressional Delegation as efforts to locate a suitable Outlying Landing Field site continue. I recognize that this is an issue that causes great concern among many in the potentially affected localities. I also recognize that it is critically important that the Navy identify a new Outlying Landing Field to meet the training needs of its personnel in the 21st Century. “
The field would be used to support carrier landing practices for aircraft at NAS Oceana and Naval Station Norfolk.

WRAL Archive

Controversy over an outlying landing field for Navy jets has brewed since the first five sites were proposed in 2003. See the history here as recorded by WRAL-TV 5.

Navy Will Prepare Impact Statements For Five OLF Sites - Posted: 9:07 AM Apr 9, 2008

The fight over the Navy's desire to build a practice landing field for its jet fighters will continue.
The Navy said Wednesday it will proceed with preparing environmental impact statements for five possible sites for the so-called outlying landing field, three in Virginia and two in North Carolina. The process is expected to take more than two years.
The landing field would be home to an 8,000-foot runway, aircraft traffic control tower and a few other support buildings. Pilots based in Norfolk and Virginia Beach, Va., would use the facility to practice landing on aircraft carriers.
The Navy has previously met fierce resistance to building the landing field from residents who don't want to give up their land.
Many feel the field would ruin a peaceful rural lifestyle.
Comments
Posted by: DUH on Apr 9, 2008 at 09:20 AM
The people that fought them going where they planned in the first place were idiots. Yes caring about your land is one thing, but caring about more jobs and the possibilities having the OLF would have brought. More types of businesses and types of jobs would have come to that town over time just because of that OLF. People in these areas are soooooooo worried about change they don't see a good thing when it bites them. It may have been bad to some degrees but in the end it would have been worth it. Besides the fact that most the houses in that area are nothing to fight for anyway.

OLF Opponents Protest In Raleigh - Posted: 12:19 PM Mar 13, 2008

The controversy about where the Navy wants to build an outlying landing field wound up in Raleigh today.
One of the Navy's proposed OLF sites is in Gates County.
Fifty people opposed to the OLF demonstrated on the steps of the state administration building this morning.
The protesters, mainly from Gates County, say they want Governor Mike Easley and the public aware of the broad opposition of to the Navy placing an OLF in their county.
The Navy has been struggling with trying to find an acceptable OLF site so pilots from Cherry Point and Oceana can practice landings and takeoffs from a simulated aircraft carrier.
The Navy's original site, in Washington and Beaufort counties, got scuttled after congress voted to not to appropriate any money for the project if it located there.

Commissioners From Two Counties Meeting To Map OLF Strategy - Posted: 11:43 AM May 16, 2008

Reporter: Bill Wilson
County commissioners from two counties who oppose Navy plans to locate an outlying landing field in northeastern North Carolina will hold a joint meeting next week.
Commissioners from Currituck and Camden counties will meet Wednesday to discuss strategy in opposing construction of the OLF in either county.
The Navy is continuing to consider the two sites there, along with three in Virginia, despite strong public opposition. The OLF would be used for pilots from Cherry Point and Oceana to make practice landings on a simulated aircraft carrier.
After the strategy session, the two boards will hold a public meeting. That meeting will be at the Camden County High School and starts at 7:00 p.m.

Congressman Wants OLF Site Removed - Last Updated: 11:22 AM Apr 23, 2008

Reporter: Bill Wilson
A North Carolina congressman says the Navy should remove one of two sites it's considering in the state for an outlying landing field.
Third District Congressman Walter Jones wrote a letter to Navy Secretary Donald Winter. asking that the Hale's Lake site in Camden & Currituck counties be removed.
Jones told the Navy secretary that based on local opposition, and his long-standing desire for the Navy to consider a site closer to Cherry Point as his reasons.
His congressional district includes Camden and Currituck counties.
The Navy is considering two OLF sites in North Carolina and three in Virginia so pilots from Cherry Point and Oceana can practice take-offs and landings from a simulated aircraft carrier.
In addition to Hales Lake, the Navy is also considering the Sandbanks site in Gates County.
Congressman Jones' letter
Dear Secretary Winter:
As you know, for at least a decade I have publicly encouraged the Navy to consider a site for a new Outlying Landing Field (OLF) at or near Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, North Carolina. Also, I have long opposed a site in northeastern North Carolina. Previous efforts by the Navy to build an OLF in Washington County were unproductive and the same mistakes do not need to be repeated.
Accordingly, I am writing to formally ask you to remove the Hale's Lake Site, located in North Carolina's Camden and Currituck counties, from consideration for an OLF to support Carrier Air Wing Aircraft at Naval Air Station Oceana and Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia. Although I recognize the importance of a new OLF to provide year-round capacity to support field carrier landing practice training requirements, an OLF is not needed to support operations of Super Hornet squadrons to be stationed at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point.
Local opposition to the proposed site is overwhelming. Local officials, groups and citizens have voiced their concerns and I believe they are valid. The economic development of Camden and Currituck counties is significantly hampered by the consideration of this site for an OLF. Camden County would be forced to sacrifice valuable farmland from the tax roster and future economic losses are anticipated by the county. Furthermore, hosting an OLF would cause these counties to lose the attractiveness of the area's quality of life and would prevent them from developing in a manner compatible with their long-range plans.
I commend the Navy for its effort to find a suitable location for its requirements. However, I do not believe American taxpayers' money should be spent on a study of this site. I respectfully urge you to remove the Hale's Lake Site from consideration. Thank you for your consideration of this important request.

Dole To Navy: OLF Opposition Growing In Eastern Carolina - Posted: 10:58 AM Apr 10, 2008

Reporter: Bill Wilson
U.S. Senator Elizabeth Dole questions the Navy's decision to move forward with plans to study two proposed OLF sites in North Carolina.
In a letter to Navy Secretary Donald Winter, Dole says she recently met with local elected officials from Camden, Currituck and Gates counties. She told the head of the Navy that there is considerable resistance toward a potential outlying landing field.
The Navy is considering two sites in Gates & Camden counties, along with three in Virginia so pilots from Oceana and Cherry Point can practice landings on a simulated aircraft carrier.
The Navy's original site, in Washington & Beaufort counties, was rejected after strong opposition.
Dole told the Navy secretary that opposition to the OLF sites have actually grown over the past several months. She told Winter that it was troubling that the Navy has failed to make it clear what, if any, economic benefits an OLF would bring to Eastern Carolina.