MOYOCK — U.S. Rep. Walter B. Jones said Saturday that he continues to oppose Navy plans to study a site in Camden for a jet airfield. The congressman also said he doesn't think the county site will be seriously considered for the project.

However, Jones declined to commit now to opposing federal funding for the OLF if the Camden site is ultimately selected.

Justin Falls/The Daily Advance (ENLARGE)

U.S. Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., speaks at a town hall meeting at Moyock Elementary School, Saturday.

"There will come a time for that discussion, absolutely, and at that time I will do what I need to do to protect the area. Let's leave it at that," Jones, R-N.C., said in response to a question during a town hall meeting at Moyock Elementary School Saturday.

Jones, whose 3rd Congressional District includes Camden and Currituck counties, told residents of both counties that he stands with them in their opposition to Navy plans to study the Hales Lake area for its proposed outlying landing field.

"I believe that Camden County should not be seriously considered for the outlying field," he said.

But Jones also doesn't believe the Navy's planned 30-month study will result in either the Camden site or a site in neighboring Gates County being chosen for the OLF.

"I just don't think that when it's all said and done that (the sites in) Camden and Gates counties are going to be in the top two," Jones said.

The Navy announced recently that it plans to conduct environmental impact studies of five sites — two in northeastern North Carolina and three in Virginia — for its proposed OLF. The Navy plans to use the airfield to give pilots a place to simulate carrier takeoffs and landings at night.

Large number of residents in Camden, Currituck and Gates counties oppose the airfield because they claim it will bring unwanted jet noise, depress property values and destroy their rural way of life.

Jones advised the 140 residents in attendance at Saturday's meeting at the Moyock school gym that they need to step up their own opposition efforts if they want to keep the OLF out of North Carolina. He said residents need to regard the OLF as a "baby snake" that needs killing now before it grows into a snake big enough to threaten them. The way to do that, he suggested, is to continue lobbying lawmakers and Gov. Mike Easley to fight the OLF.

Juanita Krause, an organizer with North Carolinians Opposed to the Outlying Landing Field, asked Jones if there was any way to stop the Navy's environmental impact study now, before it even gets started. She said the fact that the study is taking place is already affecting the real estate markets in Currituck and Camden.

Jones said he would need more information to give a definitive answer, but he believes the EIS studies of all five sites will have to go forward.

Another anti-OLF group member, Deborah Cavalcante, asked if Jones would commit to deny the OLF project funding if Camden is chosen as the site.

Jones replied that it is too early to take that course of action.

"There's a strategy that you need to use," he told Cavalcante. "Don't show all your cards on day one. .... That's why I think right now that plan A should be to get the political leaders involved."

One lesson that the Navy learned from its abortive attempt to secure a site for the OLF in Washington County, Jones said, was that it has to have local residents on its side.

Washington County residents were able to galvanize support from environmentalists and most of the state's political leadership to oppose an OLF in their county. The coalition of opponents eventually forced the Navy to abandon the Washington County site as an option.

A number of residents Saturday expressed support for the military, but said that support shouldn't mean their communities should have to be subjected to jet noise. Many agreed with Jones that it is unfair for North Carolina to receive the jet noise from a training airfield but for Virginia to receive the economic benefits of having a jet base. Virginia Beach is home to Naval Air Station Oceana, where most of the jets using the OLF would be based.

But Camden County Manager Randell Woodruff, who also spoke at Saturday's meeting, advised residents that they must make it clear to the Navy that they have no interest in receiving incentives for hosting the OLF.

Beth Barnes, of Moyock, who has been involved with the anti-OLF group since it started with eight people in a living room, said she thought Saturday's town hall meeting with Jones was "extremely positive."

Krause said she, too, was pleased that Jones spoke to residents about the OLF.

"Every small step is a big help," she said. "Every one person that writes a letter is a big help."

She said the next important steps are for residents to express questions and concerns in writing for the upcoming Navy "scoping" meetings in Currituck on April 28 and in Camden on May 5. Navy officials will not be taking questions about the OLF at those events.

The group is also encouraging area members of the state House and Senate to pass resolutions against creating the OLF in Camden.

Cavalcante said the turnout was good on short notice. Organizers knew Wednesday that Jones would be able to visit Moyock between his stops in Avon and Greenville. She encouraged another resident to think positive.

"We're winning baby, just like Washington (County) did," Cavalcante said.

In a brief interview after the town hall meeting, Jones discussed the economy and the war in Iraq.

Noting that he's a committed opponent of foreign aid — he said he recently voted against a bill sending AIDS and malaria funding to Africa — Jones said he would have opposed making a substantial loan to rescue the investment bank, Bear Stearns, as the Federal Reserve recently did.

"If that was a vote in Congress, I wouldn't vote to bail them out," Jones said. "Absolutely not. I'll tell you what will help America is to stop sending jobs overseas. We've lost 3.5 million manufacturing jobs in the last seven years, This country has got to come back to taking care of America first."

Regarding the war, Jones — a proponent of setting a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops — said the Iraqi people need to do more than they have to achieve political reconciliation.

"It's time that the Iraqis, politically and militarily, step up to meet their responsibility," he said. "The American military has won victory after victory, but there still is no political reconciliation, and that was the reason for the surge. And the surge has been successful."