Nature Trail Spring Cleaning

 Pocomoke Nature Trail Spring Cleaning

By Bill Kerbin

A group of naval personnel from the Surface Warfare Center at Wallops Island was prepared to trek into the Pocomoke nature trail for a cleanup prior to the summer season.

Don Malloy, Pocomoke City Council member, said that this is the second year that volunteers from the naval installation have worked to clean up the trail.

Pictured are: (left to right) Jonathan Spalding, Melanie Brink, Malloy, David Corey, and David Caison. They spent an afternoon last week cutting out brush and cleaning up the trail. 
Photo/Bill Kerbin

GO NAVY!!

Many thanks to Bill Kerbin.

Navy To Study Using Wallops For Practice Landings



E-2 Hawkeye



NORFOLK (AP) -- The Navy will consider using the runway at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility as a site for practice landings by pilots.

The Virginian-Pilot reports that the Navy announced its decision Thursday. E-2 Hawkeye and C-2 Greyhound pilots would practice touch-and-go maneuvers and low-altitude passes.

Pilots of the propeller planes now use Fentress Naval Auxiliary Landing Field in Chesapeake and also practice in Jacksonville, Fla. To ease congestion at Fentress and save travel costs, the Navy is trying to find a field closer to home.

The Navy also is looking at using Emporia's local airport.

A pilot involved in the search, Cmdr. Matt Baker, had complained that the Wallops option was being ignored.

Fleet Forces Command spokesman Ted Brown says an investigation found that none of Baker's allegations were substantiated.

Source;  http://www.wvec.com/news/military/Navy-to-study-using-Wallops-for-practice-landings-132305898.html

Ships In Norfolk Ready To Evade Hurricane Earl

NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — The Navy says its ships in the Hampton Roads area are ready to head to sea to evade Hurricane Earl if needed.

The Navy said Tuesday that other operations in the area are normal. But preparations are being made for Earl, including placing sandbags in low-lying areas and removing debris from drainage areas.

Navy personnel have been advised to prepare for evacuation in the event one is necessary.

The National Hurricane Center says Earl has strengthened into a Category 4 hurricane with winds near 135 mph (215 kph) as it moves away from the Virgin Islands.

Earl is on a path that could brush the coast of the U.S. later in the week, though it's too early to tell exactly where it will go.

www.wtkr.com

Underwater Unmanned Vehicles Lost By Navy In Chesapeke Bay

NORFOLK

Four underwater unmanned vehicles went missing Sunday during training to conduct search, classify and map missions.

The Navy, Coast Guard and local authorities were searching for the missing vehicles in the Thimble Shoals Channel between the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel and the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, a Navy news release said.

Communication was lost with four of the 13 unmanned vehicles Sunday about 1 p.m. while the vehicles were using bottom-mapping sonar to look for mine-like contacts in the water as part of the training. Search and recovery operations began immediately.

Efforts continued Monday using small-craft, shore-based teams, air assets and marine mammal systems, which could include sea lions and dolphins trained to hunt mines.

The cause of the vehicles’ disappearance is under investigation. The missing vehicles do not pose a danger to civilians or the environment, the Navy release said, but if an unmanned vehicle is discovered floating in the water, boaters should avoid it as they would any other navigation hazard.

If one of the missing vehicles is found, please call the U.S. Second Fleet commander at (757) 443-9821.

The unmanned vehicles were being used as part of a larger training exercise with about 2,500 personnel from Canadian and U.S. military forces and government civilian agencies. The annual training exercise will continue through Friday.

www.hamptonroads.com

US Military Gives OK For Offshore Wind Turbines

Wind turbines could co-exist with military activities off Virginia's coast depending on their locations, a Defense Department assessment has concluded.

Proponents of commercial wind power 12 miles or beyond Virginia's coast believe the giant turbines could ultimately provide 10 percent of the state's annual electricity demand and operate without incident in the military's busy seas.

"I look at this as a very positive thing," said Hank Giffin, a retired Navy vice admiral and a member of a coalition promoting offshore winds. "Initially there were a lot of people who were concerned the Navy would just say no."

Released Wednesday, the Department of Defense assessment looks at 25 tracts identified for optimum winds. The report identifies 18 tracts as compatible with military needs and rules as long as certain guidelines are met. They were not detailed in the report.

Other tracts were ruled out because they conflict with Navy activities.

The area is used to test drones and by helicopters that sweep the ocean surface with mine-detecting sleds. Wind-power advocates have said they will honor the military's concerns and not build where there are potential conflicts.

The wind industry fared better with the military than oil and gas proponents, who were told by the Pentagon that exploration 50 miles off the Virginia coast would interfere significantly with military operations.

Both industries have to contend with Naval Station Norfolk, the world's largest naval base, a NASA launch facility on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, and other military facilities that operate in Hampton Roads.

But submarines and most live munitions practices occur beyond the ideal area for wind turbines -- 12 to 25 miles offshore and on the continental shelf, where water depths are a relatively shallow 100 feet. The 222-square-mile area identified by the Interior Department's Minerals Management Service for wind energy is also much smaller than the 4,500 square miles identified off Virginia for offshore oil and gas areas.

The Defense Department report was released by the Virginia Offshore Wind Coalition. The Navy did not immediately respond to The Associated Press for comment. Some portions of the report, deemed classified, were not released.

The Navy has an interest in supporting renewable energy such as wind. It has set a goal of achieving 50 percent of its land-based energy needs from renewable sources by 2020.

"The Navy is willing to work with the offshore wind industry because they know the importance of it, and they're really enthusiastic for the opportunity to work with us," said Giffin, who is affiliated with the coalition.

The coalition has identified 25 leasing tracts that could generate 3,200 megawatts of offshore wind. Within two decades, 9,700 to 11,600 jobs could be created with the development off an offshore wind industry, a coalition study concluded.

Developers of what would be the nation's first offshore wind farm won federal approval in late April. Developers of the 130-turbine Cape Wind project off Massachusetts want to generate power by 2012.

Two energy companies have expressed interest in the Virginia tracts, which are not likely to be developed for five years or more.

www.shoredailynews.com

The USS New York

The USS New York, a Navy assult ship built with steel from the World Trade Center, will make its inaugural visit to New York today. The $1 billion ship, was built in Lousiana with using about 7.5 tons of steel in the bow.

　

The ship is scheduled to stop near ground zero today where survivors and families of the

victims, along with the public, have been invited to watch a 21-gun salute. Afterwards, the ship will travel up river to the George Washington Bridge where it will turn around, head south and dock at Pier 88 and remain there until Veteren's Day. On Saturday, an official commissioning ceremony is scheduled. After Veteren's Day, the USS New York travels to Norfolk, Virginia for a year of training and exercises.

The USS New York, which was actually scheduled to be built before the World Trade Center terrorist attack, is 684 feet long, can handle helicopters and the MV-22 osprey tilt-rotor aircraft.

Out of the 361 sailors serving aboard the ship 13 percent are from New York state. And the assult ship can carry up to 800 Marines.

Of the other four ships being built two of those will also have names related to the 911 attacks.

They are the USS Arlington, built in honor of the attack on the Pentagon, and the USS Somerset, named after the county in Pennsylvania in which the United Airlines flight 93 crashed.