What We Love: Country

Our Military

The Hampton Roads community pulses to the beat of the myriad guys and gals in uniform. The bases are loaded, from Ft. Eustis and Ft. Story to Fentress, Dam Neck and Yorktown to the Coast Guard headquarters Atlantic. And the top dogs—Naval Station Norfolk, Little Creek, Langley and Oceana—are luminous names here. Take note of the big patches of federal land marked on the Hampton Roads map. Even if you have no connection to the military, you commute around the traffic, hear the jets, check out the ships in port and watch them go to sea ahead of a storm. The Department of Defense spent about $11 billion dollars in Hampton Roads in 2002—about a third of the region’s economy, says the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce. The military presence makes us less prone to fluctuations, flattening the effects of tech-bubbles and recessions elsewhere. Off-base, the military presence is pervasive. High-tech incubators and contracts for applied research and product development are one outgrowth. Shipyards employ thousands to build and overhaul the fleet. The military offers education and an economic step-up to our young people, whose patriotism is apparent with any conversation or visit to a carrier. Retired personnel stay here to teach in our schools, lend their expertise as civic volunteers, coach kids teams, and start second careers. Spouses provide a steady work force. Navy, Army, Air Force, Marine, and Coast Guard families are our neighbors and friends, classmates and coworkers. And some of them are our heroes. On the international scene, representing the military forces of 19 nations (and still growing), NATO’s U.S. headquarters is securely situated in Norfolk. We know it in military-speak as SACLANT—Supreme Allied Command Atlantic. “Norfolk will be the think tank and deliverer of capability in the future,” says Admiral Ian Forbes, immediate past SACLANT commander. And all this military coming and going has created an openness and friendliness relatively unknown in more entrenched communities, like that stuffy capital city to the west. ~J.M.H.