Word: navale
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...says, 60% of the U.S. Navy's shipyard work will involve nuclear-powered vessels. More than half the ships in for repair will be submarines; most of those will be Los Angeles- class attack submarines. "The most experienced shipyard in servicing Los Angeles subs," he declaims, "is the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. Charleston has never overhauled a Los Angeles-class submarine. Never. Not one, ever...
Until then, the battle to stave off closures goes on. The bases under consideration are Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps installations, including such well-known ones as Miramar Naval Air Station and Presidio of Monterey in California and McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey. None of the targeted bases, though, has defenders more fervid than the partisans of three East Coast naval shipyards: at Portsmouth, New Hampshire; Charleston, South Carolina; and Norfolk, Virginia. All three can claim long, distinguished service to the U.S. Navy, are particularly proud of being "Navy towns" and typify the head-to-head...
Charleston's best argument still is the closure's potential economic impact. Four other naval facilities in the city are also on the list and closing them all would, supporters claim, wipe out 27% of the area's jobs and 1 of every 3 payroll dollars in the region. In a gust of rhetoric that would make a soap- opera writer blush, Mayor Joe Riley Jr. says the city could begin to die "and the tumbleweeds of broken dreams and shattered lives blow down the street...
...Does it make sense," demanded Virginia Congressman Owen Pickett, "to close the only naval shipyard in a region that is the home port to 149 Navy ships, including five aircraft carriers?" In spite of the force of the argument, one member of the presidential commission said later, "If Norfolk or Portsmouth thinks we're not serious, they are kidding themselves." Courter, the commission chairman, told a press conference in Norfolk, "We're not here to terrorize the communities," but he added, "This is a very serious exercise...
Three historic naval bases fight a war for survival...