THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, September 17, 1994 TAG: 9409170339
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WINSTON-SALEM LENGTH: Short : 31 lines
The U.S. Marine Corps has decided not to build a training airfield in the Croatan National Forest in eastern North Carolina and is considering three other sites instead.
Wanting to avoid wetlands and looking for a more remote site, Marine Corps planners eliminated an area in the Croatan forest as a replacement site for Bogue Outlying Field, a training runway on Bogue Sound in Carteret County, the Winston-Salem Journal reported.
Planners now are studying two private farms in Beaufort County and part of Open Grounds Farm, a corporate farm in eastern Carteret County.
Cherry Point Air Station in Carteret County is expected to expand by the end of the decade when the Pentagon moves as many as 200 F/A-18 aircraft and 5,400 personnel from a Florida base scheduled to close.
The additional jets would increase training flights at Bogue Field, where pilots simulate carrier landings. The area around the field is developed, the runway is too short, and neighbors have complained of noise.
KEYWORDS: U.S. MARINE CORPS by CNB