THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, November 1, 1995 TAG: 9511010467
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY EARL SWIFT, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 118 lines
Daytime sentries are quitting their posts at the Norfolk Naval Station today, opening the Navy's largest base to the outside world from 5:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.
For the first time in decades, civilians can step unhindered onto a chunk of turf that occupies one-fifth of the city of Norfolk and boasts three McDonald's restaurants, several parks and some of the region's prettiest water views.
They can admire the Atlantic Fleet or stroll the Jamestown Exposition's leafy fairgrounds without permission. They can drive the base's crowded roads without a pass.
Of course, they'll also encounter a spaghetti bowl of overhead steam pipes, the Navy's business-first approach to aesthetics and the noisy soundtrack of heavy industry. They'll pass bowling alleys, golf courses and gyms that remain off-limits to them.
But whether they find the place enchanting or an eyesore, today the region's civilians can partly reclaim a piece of their geography loaned long ago to Washington.
Sentries at the base's 24-hour gates, who have traditionally demanded to see visitors' passes before allowing them to enter, will today wave them infrom 5:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Some less-used gates around the 4,500-acre base won't have sentries at all.
At night, sentries will stop each car lacking base decals and ask its driver for his license, registration and destination. In most cases, the Navy says, the driver will then be allowed to go on his way.
Inside, it's bustling. At midday on Tuesday, Maryland Avenue - the name Hampton Boulevard assumes inside the gates - was snarled with traffic. On pier-lined Decatur Avenue, hundreds of sailors and shipworkers strode briskly in the shadow of three docked aircraft carriers.
Waterfront parking lots were jammed with cars. The air whined and clanged with heavy equipment. Jet engines roared. Helicopters passed overhead.
``As you look around, you can see that the naval base is still a naval base,'' said Cmdr. Dave Barron, a base spokesman, driving carefully at the base's prescribed speed limit of 25 miles per hour.
``It's an industrial facility. There's a lot to see, but you have to be careful.''
Novice visitors need to keep a few things in mind on the base.
The first is that the Navy's cops will enforce the speed limit. ``We want people to come and enjoy themselves, but there are a lot of people out here,'' Barron explained. ``We need people to be very conscious of what's going on.''
The second is that it's best to stick to the main roads. Some smaller ones spill directly onto airplane ramps without notice, and some aren't roads at all - they're taxiways, on which one might come face-to-face with a helicopter or cargo plane.
The third is that if you plan to stop somewhere on the base - if you have a destination, in other words, rather than just time to kill - you may have trouble finding a parking space, the base's most sought-after commodity.
And the fourth is that you're asking for trouble if you break the law, because offenses that are seemingly minor outside the fence can be ugly federal crimes within.
``We have a good idea where the hot spots are on the base, where the potentials for problems are,'' Barron said. ``Things that need to be guarded are guarded. Things that don't need to be guarded won't be guarded.
``We'll still have pier sentries. That won't change.''
That it is terra incognita for many Hampton Roads residents testifies to the security that has ringed the base for most of its life.
Early in the century Norfolk's northwest corner was occupied by farms and wetlands - a fact largely unchanged by the 1907 Jamestown Exposition, which came and went on 340 acres along Willoughby Bay and Hampton Roads.
Most of the fair's buildings, including the grand houses erected by 21 states, were bought by locals or real estate companies. It wasn't until 1917, and World War I, that the federal government bought Sewells Point with the Navy in mind.
Since then, the base has spread tremendously, some of its growth on ``fill'' that has erased the original shoreline. Aside from the old state houses - some of them moved from their original locations - the old fairgrounds are barely detectable.
In their place is dockage for more than 100 ships, an airfield that sees a takeoff or landing every three minutes, and acre after acre of warehouses and industrial buildings.
All of which, for the most part, is ugly. Much of the naval station is a giant slab of concrete punctuated by piles of equipment and uninspiring architecture.
But there are oases of green. The fairgrounds themselves are tree-shaded and peaceful.
Parks dot the land, and a few offer tremendous stretches of waterfront. North of Pier 12, at the base's northwest tip, an industrial area is being transformed into a vast green space that looks onto Hampton Roads, Fort Wool and the nearby carrier piers.
It's an amazing spot.
A little to the east along the base's north shore are other such areas. Vista Point, an old vehicle staging area, has become a popular parking lot for view-seekers.
One view is a bit more difficult to obtain. At the Naval Air Station, there's scant opportunity to pull off the road to watch aircraft take off and land.
And while bike-riders and joggers can use base roads and paths, civilians can forget about bowling and other indoor offerings.
``The facilities that you traditionally need an ID to get into, you'll still need an ID for,'' Barron said. ``We keep these places pretty saturated on our own.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by MARTIN SMITH-RODDEN, The Virginian-Pilot
Aircraft get the right-of-way on many base roads. Here, an E-2C
Hawkeye taxis across an intersection on Bellinger Blvd.
Photo by MARTIN SMITH-RODDEN, The Virginian-Pilot
Airman Robert Schmeelcke drives off a tee near the front of the
house of NATO's commander, Gen. John Sheehan. Although the naval
station is open to the public, bowling alleys, golf courses and gyms
will remain off-limits.
Color map
KEYWORDS: NORFOLK NAVAL STATION by CNB