Doubters warned Cecil Field wasn’t the same as it had been years earlier, and the two sides argued their cases in town hall meetings and get-togethers across Northeast Florida. The idea caught fire with a lot of Jacksonville residents, fueled by estimates that the base could add 10,000 jobs and $1 billion to Northeast Florida’s economy. That might be 200 jets that would create customers for businesses near the base and bring military people to town with steady, honorable jobs. Since civilian development was crowding a Navy jet base around Virginia Beach, Peyton told a panel overseeing the realignment that it could move planes from there to Cecil Field. That stress became known in Navy towns including Jacksonville, and when a new base realignment was being planned in the mid-2000s, then-Mayor John Peyton tried to use it to Jacksonville’s advantage. Trouble running jet bases side-by-side with suburbia had become a bone of contention in Virginia, where the Navy’s Atlantic Fleet is headquartered. The F/A18 Super Hornet, which the Navy was testing when Cecil Field closed, had a sound footprint more than twice what earlier planes created, Stalvey said. Since the closure, Navy jets were getting louder. People like him made plans for life after the jet base and paid good money for land that wasn’t supposed to have jets roaring past day and night. The field was being used when he bought there, and Stalvey said he had no complaints about spending $24,000 to refit that house with noise-dampening equipment like laminated windows that absorb sound.īut around Cecil Field, he said, the Navy had chosen to leave years earlier and handed over the property. Stalvey, who has a pilot’s license and says he loves watching jets overhead, had lived earlier near the Navy’s Whitehouse Outlying Field. “I knew it just didn’t make sense,” said Russ Stalvey, an IT manager who had bought a horse farm under a flight path the Navy stopped using when the base closed in 1999 after a national base realignment. Having 60 percent of voters say no wasn’t what most expected, but enough people fought the handover to make a convincing case. On Election Day 10 years ago, Jacksonville voters faced a choice: Should their Navy-loving town give the closed Cecil Field Naval Air Station back to the Navy to pursue reopening a jet base there? This NAS Jacksonville directory features the critical info you’ll need to navigate through the many facilities and recreational opportunities available on base.Anyone feeling queasy about Tuesday’s election results might want to drive to the end of 103 rd Street in Jacksonville to remember how, sometimes, voters surprise themselves. Additionally, the nearby beaches along Florida's Atlantic Coast are some of the best in the state. The city of Jacksonville offers many diverse restaurants and shopping locations for those who are stationed in the area. NAS Jax also has a Aircraft Static Display area called Heritage Park which is open for visitors to view historical aircraft. The squadrons on base fly the P-8A Poseidon, the C-130 Hercules, the C-40 Clipper and the MH-60 Romeo helicopter. There are over 110 tenant commands at NAS Jacksonville, including Patrol Squadron Thirty (VP-30) the largest aviation squadron in the Navy. The base serves as a major hub for naval activity and aviation training. Approximately 23,000 personnel work on base, making NAS Jacksonville large enough in size and abundant enough in amenities that it can be considered a city in itself. Naval Air Station Jacksonville (NAS Jax) is located in Jacksonville, Florida, just south of the city's central business district.
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