The Military in Virginia

In the past, every section of Virginia has been a battleground of some sort or another.

The modern military bases in the state are located along the Fall Line or in Tidewater. If Congress authorized one more military base in the Norfolk area, it might cause Virginia to tilt up on its side and sink into the Atlantic Ocean...

While that is not literally true, that area is running out of space to add new military facilities. The General Accounting Office reported in June, 2002 that "Naval Air Station Oceana, Virginia, is the target of frequent noise complaints as a result of aircraft training that includes low-altitude flights and practice carrier landings" and "To reduce noise complaints, the fleet is attempting to establish a training airstrip in a less populated area."¹

^{(In addition, training exercises are constrained by requirements to protect endangered species, especially marine mammals in the shallow waters where commandos and SEALs practice.)}

Those military bases are major parts of the local economy. Even after the military drawdown during the 1990's at the end of the Cold War, the 2000 census counted 91,615 uniformed military personnel in Hampton Roads. Once again, as in 1990, "more military men and women live in the Hampton Roads metropolitan area than anywhere else in the country... The vast majority of those military men and women are in the Navy -- roughly 80 percent -- and the vast majority live in Virginia Beach and Norfolk, in nearly equal portions."² (The other top concentrations of military personnel are San Diego, Washington DC, Seattle, and Honolulu.)

So How Do We Describe Military Conflicts Without Igniting Passions Again?

The Anglo-Powhatan Wars

Why Did the English Build Forts in Virginia?

The Chesapeake Bay: Avenue for Attack

The Military in Colonial Virginia

The French and Indian War

The Revolutionary War

The Civil War

U-Boats and WWII

Military Bases in Virginia

Military Employment in Virginia

Links

• 1862 Campaign - map of the Peninsula
• Advisory Panel to Assess the Capabilities for Domestic Response to Terrorism Involving Weapons of Mass Destruction
  • Advisory Panel Reports on Cyber Terrorism
  • Testimony of Governor James Gilmore to the Senate Committee on Government Affairs - September 21, 2001 hearing
• Fentress, Virginia (on VA-HIST listserver)
• General Accounting Office
• DOD Lacks a Comprehensive Plan to Manage Encroachment on Training Ranges (GAO-02-614, June 2002)
• Library of Congress
  • Veterans History Project
• Library of Virginia
• Military Records and Resources
• National Park Service - Fort Hunt - The Forgotten Story
• Naval Amphibious Base / Little Creek Superfund Site
• Presley O'Bannon, a Fauquier County native who led the Marines to the "shores of Tripoli"
• Statistics
  • Statistical Summary: America's Major Wars
  • Principal Wars In Which The United States Participated: U.S. Military Personnel Serving And Casualties
• US Army Military History Institute
• Virginia War Memorial

References