Aircraft Carrier Dispersal

[Retcaptn]

Congratulations to the Navy for making the right decision for the country to homeport a carrier in Mayport! As a former Navy deep draft ship Captain, I maneuvered out of both Norfolk and Mayport many times. Given a choice, I would always choose Mayport. The short Mayport run is a walk in the park compared to the long, treacherous and crowded Norfolk channel passage. During the Vietnam war, I dropped mines to close Haiphong harbor and later participated in strategic war planning to close potential enemy harbors. While it is possible for enemy, terrorists, or natural disasters to close Mayport, it is far easier with many more opportunities and locations to close Norfolk. Putting all the east coast carriers in one location that can be so easily bottled up would put at grave risk our entire Atlantic national naval defenses and increase terrorist reward and incentive to attack Hampton Roads.

[PAMICH]

With all the BRAC's, consolidations and relocations the Navy has been doing here the past several years to save a buck, I'm actually surprised with the Mayport Carrier move. It is a great strategic move, along with an economic boost for Mayport. We certainly don't need a separate berth for each battle group, but keeping a good distritbution makes sense.

[forcedj]

With all the BRAC's, consolidations and relocations the Navy has been doing here the past several years to save a buck, I'm actually surprised with the Mayport Carrier move. It is a great strategic move, along with an economic boost for Mayport. We certainly don't need a separate berth for each battle group, but keeping a good distritbution makes sense.

I know it is technically a move for whichever carrier they put down there. But there has essentially always been a carrier there until the JFK was decom. Before the JFK, the Forrestal and Saratoga were down there. So I believe that had the JFK not been at a point where she could be decom, she’d likely still be in Mayport.

Dan