Steven Kuykendall: “I am glad today this rule will allow us to debate this Vieques range. The range is the only place on the East Coast…”

“I am glad today this rule will allow us to debate this Vieques range. The range is the only place on the East Coast where we can do live fire training of all the combined forces. That means Marines ashore, Navy in ships, airmen in aircraft, whether we are shooting or missiles or live fire artillery, and we are doing it in conjunction with our forces. That is training that is invaluable when we have to go fight a war. For the last decade, nearly every deployment this Nation has had from the East Coast of the United States has sent American military forces directly into combat operations. Whether it is the Persian Gulf War or Kosovo, other Balkan operations, or operations like Operation Desert Fox, where we went immediately into bombing in Iraq as part of the no-fly zone enforcement, or getting inspectors back into the country, live information training is essential. I as a young artilleryman in the Marine Corps trained at a live fire range in Oklahoma. I was only 3 miles away from U.S. citizens in my training. Here we have at least an 8-mile piece of safe zone. This amendment needs to be approved. Vote for the rule.”