Naval Station Norfolk

Anyone who has ever lived next to a military base like CFB Kingston will tell you there's no end to the activity that goes on in those places. There are always trucks driving in and out, planes practicing take-offs and landings, ships being refueled and repaired, and thousands of people bustling about, all wearing some variation of the same outfit. Generally, people either love living next to one or hate it. Whether you're a hater or a lover of military hardware, you should at least know what you'll be living next to, so we've created this article to give you an overview of Norfolk's most important function: its Naval Station.

The World's Largest Naval Station

Naval Station Norfolk occupies over four miles of prime waterfront space at Sewell's Point in the Hampton Roads area of Chesapeake Bay. The same amount of land, by comparison with real estate, Toronto would be more than a hundred condominium complexes. Its combined space at 14 piers total more than seven miles, which is enough to park 75 Navy ships. In the run of a year, Port Services at Norfolk Base controls the movement of 3,100 ships on their way to or from commands in the Atlantic, Mediterranean and Indian Oceans.

The History of Naval Station Norfolk

Naval Station Norfolk has the kind of swashbuckling military history that you so often read about in magazines and coffee table books in Oakville dentists offices. The site was first reserved for military expedition during the Jamestown Exposition of 1907. Construction on the base didn't begin until after American entry into World War I, however, in 1917. Naval aviation training began at Norfolk the same year. Expansion of the base in the 1930s helped prepare it for the frenetic activity of World War II, during which the base trained men for fleet operations and helped combat German submarine attacks against Atlantic shipping.

Naval Operations

The Naval Base at Norfolk is home port to the United State Navy's Second Fleet, otherwise known as the Atlantic Fleet. One of six fleets among whom the world is divided, the Second Fleet's operations area covers 38 million square miles from the Great Lakes where the biggest concern is landscaping Toronto to hotspot areas like Haiti. Ships stationed in Norfolk include: five aircraft carriers, six cruisers, 22 guided missile destroyers, five frigates, nine amphibious assault vehicles, eight submarines, and fifteen tugboats of the US Navy sealift command.

Air Operations

Norfolk isn't solely concerned with the movements of ships, however. The American Navy has a fair amount of overlap between services, and the Naval Air operations at Naval Air Station Norfolk alone amount to 100,000 flights per year ranging from performing airshows over the Annex, Toronto to delivering 264,000 tons of mail and cargo to ships performing duties at sea. Air Mobility Command is also responsible for moving 150,000 passengers between land posts and ships at sea. Aircraft often utilized for these operations are the C-2 Greyhound and the MH-60 Seahawk.