Gene Taylor: “if you were to travel to North Carolina today, you would find the Navy out trying to buy 35,000 acres of land. Once they…”

“if you were to travel to North Carolina today, you would find the Navy out trying to buy 35,000 acres of land. Once they buy it, they have to get the environmental permits. Once they do that, they are going to bulldoze the woods and build a runway. After they build a runway, they build a firehouse. After they build a firehouse, they build the enlisted barracks. After that, they build the married housing. After that, they will have to have mess halls, a clinic, golf course, tennis courts, swimming pools, all of the things that people in uniform deserve. They had all of those things. It is called Cecil Field. They had three 8,000-foot runways and a 10,000-foot runway. It had world-class dining facilities, world-class barracks and world-class family housing. It was already paid for by the American taxpayer, and they shut it down in a previous round of BRAC. If Members need one word, or two words, to tell you why we do not need another round of BRAC, it is Cecil Field. Right now, the Navy has to have a place to put their F-18E and Fs when they come off the carriers. Cecil Field would have been the perfect place, but no, because it was closed and the property was given away. And before we gave it away, we had to clean it up environmentally at no telling how many billions of dollars. So before we closed it and gave it away, just to replace it by building it someplace else, maybe we should not make that mistake again.…”