
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, March 3, 1995                   TAG: 9503030087
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

ROBB PRAISES BASE-CLOSING PLAN

The current round of base closings was kind to Virginia, and Sen. Charles Robb said the situation could get even better.

Robb said Wednesday he will lobby Navy Secretary John Dalton not to close the Norfolk Naval Aviation Depot, which was ordered shut down when the base-closing commission last met in 1993.

The new plan unveiled Tuesday would add jobs in Virginia and bring some Navy aviation operations from other states to Oceana Naval Air Station.

``That gives us at least the opportunity to reopen the question of [the aviation depot],'' Robb said at a lunch with reporters.

The depot has already shut down about half its operations, transferring some of the original 4,000 employees to the Jacksonville Naval Air Station in Florida.

``We have to ask whether it makes sense to have the planes in Virginia and the supply and repair operations in Florida,'' Robb said.

- Associated Press

by CNB