Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta says the Hampton Roads region is a great example of the committed community partnerships that keep the American military the strongest in the world. The Pentagon chief traveled to Norfolk at Senator Warner’s request on Friday to speak to members of the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce.
Chesapeake Bay Watershed Senators Mark R. Warner (D-VA), Ben Cardin (D-MD), Barbara A. Mikulski (D-MD), Tom Carper (D-DE), Chris Coons (D-DE), Bob Casey (D-PA), Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), wrote to U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and National Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Chief Dave White urging them to support Chesapeake Bay watershed farmers during the interim period since the lapse of the Farm Bill authorization.
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has awarded nearly $5 million for operations at state veterans cemeteries in Amelia County and the city of Suffolk, U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner announced today. The V-A awarded $3.3 million to the Albert G. Horton Jr. Memorial Veterans Cemetery in Suffolk and $1.6 million to the Virginia Veterans Cemetery in Amelia.
The U.S. Navy recently honored Norfolk native Paul Legg for heroic actions that saved the lives of 33 people in 1956. Recognizing the signs of a gasoline leak on board his reconnaissance plane, Legg shrewdly directed passengers to limit, isolate, and then remove the spreading fumes, which could easily have caused a fatal explosion.
Senator Warner did not attend a town hall meeting held late today in Norfolk by Sens. John McCain (R-AZ), Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), who hoped to draw attention to the impending threat of deep defense cuts if Congress fails to address the nation’s fiscal challenges.
The Navy next week will co-host a fair designed to help veterans find employment. The fair is scheduled for Aug. 2 at the Hampton Roads Convention Center, according to a Navy news release. It is slated to run from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m.
Sens. Jim Webb (D-VA) and Mark R. Warner (D-VA) today cosponsored the introduction of The Offshore Petroleum Expansion Now Act of 2012, or the OPEN Act. The bipartisan legislation would expand American offshore energy production with a revised five-year leasing plan and provide revenue sharing to all participating coastal states.
“Returning the F-22 to 100% mission capability and protecting our pilots has been our shared goal throughout this discussion, so it is promising that consultation with NASA and the Navy appears to be pointing the Air Force toward a potential solution to the F-22 oxygen deprivation issues."
Recent incidents with the Air Force’s fleet of F-22 Raptor fighter jets have prompted fresh questions by two members of Congress looking for answers on the oxygen problems that have plagued the aircraft for years.
There have been more safety incidents involving oxygen deprivation of pilots of the stealth F-22 Raptor. Last Friday, an F-22 pilot in Hawaii declared an in-flight emergency – two weeks after a Virginia-based F-22 pilot apparently suffered a similar oxygen deprivation emergency.