Re-NAS'ing Cecil Field

[gagirl]

I just have to add Norfolk does suck!! I know 3 people who have recently moved here including myself and it's awful. Everything about it and I can't wait to get out of this place. Traffic, crime, people and weather it's all bad!

I'm from Atlanta and thought traffic there is bad...my gosh I would rather drive with one eye through Atlanta than drive around this place. the people here are freakin' nuts!! noone can ever merge! :icon_rage

One of my friends had her sons teacher at BM Williams Elem. tell her that the traffic is only bad b/c of "us military people". knowing she was a Marine Off. wife. :icon_hamm

 

[Goober]

I'm from Atlanta and thought traffic there is bad...my gosh I would rather drive with one eye through Atlanta than drive around this place. the people here are freakin' nuts!! noone can ever merge! :icon_rage

I'm convinced the bulk of the problems are from a string of idiots contracted by VDOT to make the loop around the I-64 / 264 interchange and make merging impossible for anyone not driving an armored vehicle (or a '82 4-door Caprice - kinda the same thing).

 

[Fred]

I just have to add Norfolk does suck!! I know 3 people who have recently moved here including myself and it's awful. Everything about it and I can't wait to get out of this place. Traffic, crime, people and weather it's all bad!

I'm from Atlanta and thought traffic there is bad...my gosh I would rather drive with one eye through Atlanta than drive around this place. the people here are freakin' nuts!! noone can ever merge! :icon_rage

One of my friends had her sons teacher at BM Williams Elem. tell her that the traffic is only bad b/c of "us military people". knowing she was a Marine Off. wife. :icon_hamm

I love Va Beach. I will leave here kicking and screaming when the time comes. I knew I didn't want to live in Norfolk when we got here. After driving in So Cal and Tokyo...I have no issues with traffic.

 

[brownshoe]

Memories

Hi all, I’ve just registered. I’m not an aviator, but an old AO3 from the 60’s, so I hope it’s okay for me to post and that you don’t find this intrusive. I stumbled across this site weeks ago, been reading posts and have enjoyed my visits very much. But when I saw this post about Cecil, I just had to add my two cents, that’s where I was stationed.

Good ole hanger 67 and VA-44. I just loved Cecil, Jax, and the people. I went to AOA school which was then located at NAS Jax, and subsequently went to 44 when I graduated. VA-45 and VF/VA 174 were neighbors, what fun we all had. TAD Yuma for bombing practice, and the carrier quals on the Lex. Boy, what sea stories I could tell ya!

I’ve visited the “Ghost Base” site mentioned many times, and looked at all of the pictures. It sure brings back fond memories. We used to have reunions in Jax and we’d visit Cecil and all of the old haunts. I haven’t been down there in years though, we just don’t have reunions any longer. But it’s sure good to hear Cecil might once again become a NAS.

Steve

:icon_mi_1

 

[bennett4362]

I'm from Atlanta and thought traffic there is bad...my gosh I would rather drive with one eye through Atlanta than drive around this place. the people here are freakin' nuts!! noone can ever merge! :icon_rage
:icon_hamm

EXACTLY!!! it's not that there's necessarily a lot of traffic (like atlanta), but the people DON'T KNOW how to drive!!!

in atlanta, at least people know how to drive and move quickly and regularly through the lanes. these idiots here go 45 miles an hour...on the interstate...in all lanes...including the left lane!!

driving almost 5 years in atlanta, i never really wanted to pull my hair out, but everyday here in va beach and norfolk i pull another strand or two out.

 

[gagirl]

fred,

I don't know much about Va B. except that my hairdresser is there and she's great. We're in Churchland out here in Portsmouth so everywhere I go we have to pretty much use the tunnels or go all the way around on 664. Ugh. Not having to deal witht he tunnels would make all the difference. We're 20 mins. from NOB and it takes 2 plus hours to get home in the afternoon. You can't beat the midtown and downtown tunnels!

 

[Fly Navy]

Hi all, I’ve just registered. I’m not an aviator, but an old AO3 from the 60’s, so I hope it’s okay for me to post and that you don’t find this intrusive.

Not in the least, welcome aboard!

 

[T-man]

Hi all, I’ve just registered. I’m not an aviator, but an old AO3 from the 60’s, so I hope it’s okay for me to post and that you don’t find this intrusive.... ... Boy, what sea stories I could tell ya!

Not intrusive at all, welcome to this fine site! The only expectation is that you share some of those sea stories every once in a while (sarcasm of course, nothing is truely expected, but I do hope you enjoy your stay here and feel free to chime in whenever and wherever!) The wise words of another "old salty seadog" like A4's is much appreciated

 

[Fred]

fred,

I don't know much about Va B. except that my hairdresser is there and she's great. We're in Churchland out here in Portsmouth so everywhere I go we have to pretty much use the tunnels or go all the way around on 664. Ugh. Not having to deal witht he tunnels would make all the difference. We're 20 mins. from NOB and it takes 2 plus hours to get home in the afternoon. You can't beat the midtown and downtown tunnels!

Unless we are going up to DC to see my husband (I take 460 most of the time though) or going to Busch Gardens I avoid all bridges and tunnels. From my house I can be pretty much anywhere in VB or Chesapeake within a 25-30min drive on surface streets even in rush hour. If I had to deal with the tunnel traffic I may feel differently.

 

[A4sForever]

Hi all, I’ve just registered. I’m...an old AO3 from the 60’s, ......Good ole hanger 67 and VA-44.......Steve
:icon_mi_1

Welcome aboard, Ordie. You might like to take a look at these links if you haven't already --- some Cecil/VA-44/A-4 comments and email addresses from visitors on the first.
http://aeroweb.brooklyn.cuny.edu/specs/douglas/a-4e.htm

http://www.skyhawk.org/3E/va44/va44.htm#PHOTO

http://www.history.navy.mil/download/va-42-52.pdf

... VA-44 A4C loaded for bear ... some of your handiwork ???

 

[TurnandBurn55]

The hell of it is, to some extent, the Navy really created its own problem. The whiny punks who didn't realize jets are noisy when they moved in next to a jet base bear some of the responsibility, as do the local city council people and their "build, baby, build! the hell with crash-risk zones, we need the property taxes!" zoning program. But you have to wonder, did it never cross anyone's mind that putting over 200 noisy-as-hell jets in one place would make problems with the civvies?

Yeah, but the Navy's hand was forced to a certain extent by the slash-and-burn attitude which our policymakers took toward military spending in the early 90s. Could the Navy have kept 4 major bases open for our Hornets (as the Chair Force did with the Strike Eagle)?? Not when our bases are in places like San Diego and Virginia Beach (where encroachment is inevitable) instead of bumf#ck, Idaho and inbred-tobacco-farmerville, North Carolina.

 

[JData]

I am sorry but if you are complaining about drivers in specific towns, you're crazy because they are EVERYWHER you go!

 

[ip568]

...Apparently Jeb "the Smart Brother" Bush has said [/img]

Better check that attitude at the door, my man.

 

[brownshoe]

Thanks

Thank you Fly Navy, R-Man and A4’s Forever for the welcome. A4’s thank you especially for the links, I’ve visited them before. As for the loaded A4, well it’s an E model so I might have helped to load her. I really liked VA-44, I learned a lot there. Of course I worked in the ordnance shop, but they let me be a plane captain, as well as work with the ground support equipment. Heck, I wanted to learn to paint, so even though they really didn’t want me to, they let me work on the paint crew for about a month. I even did a small stint on CFAD security patrol. All in all I really enjoyed my tour with 44 at Cecil Field. I was in a rock band and we played at the Tick Tock Lounge just down the street, as well at Kingsly lake on Sunday afternoons. It was a good way to earn extra money, not that I didn’t make scads being an E4 in the Navy My little MGA and I went to beach often, and of course I cruised Jacksonville as well. How about you A4’s, did you go through 44? If so, when?

 

[A4sForever]

..... How about you A4’s, did you go through 44? If so, when?

Nope, I was West Coast/WestPac all the way --- except for a couple of boat dets late in my career.

Driving an MGA??? Ahhhhh, life was good then, no? In college (oh, those naughty college boys) a couple of us made up a very nice trophy out of one of the oval hood "vents" (??) that had "MGA" on it. Polished wood, the MGA medallion, and a little plaque that read: "Mammary Gland Award" .... as we would present it as a "trophy" or perpetual award to various young ladies at various dances in my .... can I say this word here (?) .... fraternity.

As a result, I drove a TR-4 .....