To The Editor:

Do you want very loud super hornets flying over you 24-7?

We don’t either. It’s time for the silent majority to show up and be counted

at the next Board of Supervisors meeting on Monday, July 23 at 6 p.m. We need to stand together to let the Navy know from the &uot;git’go&uot; that we don’t want a landing strip on top of us.

Hopefully 1,000 people will come.

Please bring everyone in your family, your relatives and neighbors to this important meeting.

Under site 4A, for instance,

the community of Statesville, where everyone cares for and about each other, would cease to exist. There are four Southampton County sites, all impacting our citizens, regardless of the site that may be picked in our county.

It has come the time in our lives that we must speak up for our way of life and freedoms. We encourage everyone, especially our young people, because this is their future that is being impacted, to get involved in this debate over the touch-and-go landing strip.

To contact Rep. Randy Forbes, email his assistant at rick.franklin@mail.house.gov.

You can reach Sen. John Warner at warner.senate.gov/contact/contactme/cfm

and

Sen. Jim Webb at webb.senate.gov/contact/. We need to let our legislators know how we feel before they narrow down the selection.

The Navy mentions 30 to 50 jobs, but these are maintenance jobs—grass cutters and maybe a few security guards at the gate. We’d end up with a few strips of asphalt behind some chain link fence, with people removed from their land, thousands of acres of lost tax base, and lots of noise.

This is NOT economic development. We’d likely have restrictive easements for any kind of development on nearby properties that the Navy would not own, even controlling the types of crops that could be grown in the vicinity to prevent certain bird and deer interference. Our farmers and small businesses would be deprived of their livelihoods.

There’s a probability that an OLF (Outlying Landing Field) is not needed for operational purposes since Oceana and Fentress Field have enough capacity for the additional squadrons. The problem is there’s too much encroachment by people who bought and built in those areas, already knowing about the noise.

These folks are tired of the jet noise and the Navy wants to keep the military bases there but export most of the noise our way.

This situation can be a disaster for the county and our quality of life, and will affect everyone in the county regardless of where you live.

Planes will be flying overhead to get to and from the OLF, and if you live in Franklin and think it won’t affect you, think again. What route do you think they may use to get here from Oceana?

The military has other bases. On the Eastern Shore there’s a runway used during World War II.

And the best choice seems to us to be Camp Pickett in Blackstone.

The government already owns the land and also the buffer zone.

This certainly is more economical that condemning many homes, farms, and forests, and ruining our livelihoods forever.

&uot;NO OLF&uot; signs are plentiful in North Carolina. &uot;No Outlying Landing Fields&uot;.

We need these signs, too.

Please join us at this most important meeting.

Glenn and Lynda Updike

Newsoms