Word: norfolkers
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...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 competition for survival taking place across the country...
...their part, the Charleston defenders were not letting Mitchell's invidious remarks go unparried. In fact, the venerable South Carolina city had cranked up a campaign long before, because its shipyard was on the originally proposed Pentagon closure list, while Portsmouth and Norfolk were added by the commission for consideration only last month. That explains the placards the Portsmouth workers were waving at the panel hearing in Boston in early June: THE NAVY KNOWS BEST. In other words, close Charleston...
Adopting offense as a good defense, Charleston decided to go after the far larger Norfolk, arguing that the shrinking Navy and defense budget called for eliminating a facility with more dock space than the Charleston yard. "If you close Charleston or Portsmouth," says Elizabeth Inabinet, president of the Charleston Chamber of Commerce, "you just don't take out enough capacity...
Like Portsmouth, the Norfolk shipyard was not on the Pentagon's original list and did not at first take its late addition very seriously. The yard was founded in 1767 and built the first U.S. battleship, the Texas, and the first U.S. aircraft carrier, the Langley. The yard employs 10,000 workers and has seven dry docks that can handle any ship in the Navy...
...Nunn's dog-and-pony show," says Lieut. (j.g.) Tracy Thorne, a "Top Gun" navy bombardier who is being removed from active duty because of his homosexuality. "He's got the witness list totally skewed against those who want to lift the ban." When the Senate panel | toured the Norfolk (Virginia) Naval Base last week to hear from the rank and file, 15 of the 17 witnesses supported the ban. Thorne claims that several straight officers and enlisted personnel had volunteered to testify in favor of lifting the ban but were screened out by base officials working with Nunn...