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Naval Base Norfolk Virginia - A rare view of all five of the Navy's Norfolk-based aircraft carriers in port at Norfolk Naval Station in July 1997. George Washington and John C. Stennis are on Pier 12, Eisenhower and Theodore Roosevelt are on Pier 11, and the Enterprise is on the far right. (Nhat Meyer - Virginian Pilot file photo)

A drum and bugle corps led 1,400 trainee sailors as they sailed the St. Louis River. They stopped and greeted Rear Admiral Albert Dillingham as they entered their new 474-acre home at Sewell's Point around 10:30 a.m. They've spent the past four months getting the site — which hosted the Jamestown Exposition 10 years ago — in shape for the moment.

Naval Base Norfolk Virginia

The Virginian pilot reported the next day, "The ease with which the great naval base was brought into operation was impressive." "When the wheels of the machines began to move no fog slipped away. In the course of only a few minutes the grey-green rows of barracks buildings, which stood empty, were full of occupants, full of rest and activity."

Map Of Naval Station Norfolk

Cross the Hampton Roads or Monitor-Merrimack Memorial Bridge-Tunnel on any given day, and the sight of the massive, gray-hulled aircraft carrier on the piers of the Naval Station is a symbol of the vital role that area plays in the nation's defense.

But the world's largest naval base had more humble beginnings. This required the entry of the United States into World War I and a decades-long lobbying effort by residents, who recognized the dual benefits of the area's mild weather and the unique position of the deteriorating Exposition site at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay.

"Now there is history everywhere. Everywhere. But the history of the Navy is here," said the retired rear admiral. Byron "Jake" Tobin.

Engine Overhaul Shop at Norfolk Naval Air Station - Photographed by Helen Pahno July 14, 1942. (Courtesy of the Hampton Roads Naval Museum)

Ikonos Satellite Image Of Norfolk Naval Base

Naval Station Norfolk's first 100 years saw name changes, reorganizations, and technological advances in aviation and sea power. Social forces in the larger community have also changed the faces of the military and sailors and airmen here.

The base's current commander, Capt. Rich McDaniel, said, "You can't talk about the Navy and sea power and not mention Norfolk."

Congress authorized President Woodrow Wilson to acquire land in Hampton Roads for a naval base, and on June 28, 1917—less than three months after the country's entry into World War I—Wilson sent $1.2 million to the former. Signed a proclamation authorizing the purchase of dollars. exhibition space. and additional acreage for its development as well as another $1.6 million.

Civilian and military personnel, led by Dillingham, began work on July 4, 1917, to clear the land and build quarters for the recruits, some of the larger houses and structures built for the exhibition—some of which now line Admirals Row— Along are located offices converted into residences by the Hampton Roads Naval Historical Foundation in accordance with the base's history. A major dredging project also began to deepen the ships, which were used by 1918 to nearly double the size of the base.

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The naval station grew rapidly, expanding to include more than 34,000 shore-based sailors by Armistice Day a little more than a year later. That year, 1918, also saw the formal commissioning of the Naval Air Station, where revolutionary innovations in carrier-based operations would finally be tested. Although a separate entity, the air station developed alongside other activities on the base and was later absorbed into it as part of the 1999 consolidation.

Reduction after the end of the war. The manpower fell to a little over 6,000 by May 1920, and the training stations turned out about 1,600 new sailors annually.

When World War II broke out in Europe in 1939, a national emergency extended the base. Modern piers and barracks and a 1.8 million square foot supply depot were built, and the air station was expanded to 1,441 acres to accommodate carrier groups and patrol squadrons. As aircraft repair facilities, according to the historical foundation.

He said of the war, "Everyone thought we were going to get into it." "There was just a sense of anticipation."

Naval Station Norfolk's First 100 Years: World's Largest Navy Base Anchored To Community

As a member of Congress, Whitehurst played a role in securing funding to develop the naval station in the early 1970s. But a few months before the attack on Pearl Harbor in the summer of 1941, at the age of 16, during a break from school, he worked as a carpenter's assistant to build a supply depot.

"I was paid $20 a week," said Whitehurst, who later joined the Navy and would serve in the Pacific in a torpedo squadron. "That was more money than I've ever seen."

After World War II, the nation experienced the Cold War and later conflict in Vietnam. The civil rights movement gained momentum, and the Navy opened all jobs to black sailors in 1946. Full integration began in 1949, and a pilot story in 1954 called it rough but complete.

Changes in the military also affected life outside the base's gates. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. A strip of Elmo Zumwalt Jr. bars, locker clubs – places where sailors hid their civilian clothes on base – and other businesses on Hampton Boulevard that catered to the thousands of young male sailors on the base, relaxed dress codes and increased mobility began to stabilize under

Crewmembers Of The Uss Enterprise (cvn 65) Man The Rail As The Aircraft Carrier Departs Naval Station Norfolk, Va., For Deployment. Dod Photo By Seaman Recruit Jeff Hall, U.s. Navy Stock Photo

When T.C. A year after his arrival in Norfolk in the early 1960s, the strip was "a sea of ​​white caps," said the now-retired Master Chief Petty Officer.

The army was not yet entirely voluntary, and junior sailors lived paycheck to paycheck, most without cars. The places were open late, the jukeboxes were loud and a beer was cheap, about 30 cents. The retired chief petty officer said a good steak and fries costs Romeo Villania about $2.

Villania, who came to Norfolk in 1966, recalled walking through a neighborhood on Hampton Boulevard when he saw boaters and dogs warning people to stay off lawns.

"For a while, they despised us," Villania said of some of the residents. He said that he does not see this type of disease anymore.

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The strip was torn down in the 1970s, as was Norfolk's popular East Main Street. With Whitehurst's help, the Navy purchased a 495-acre tract that would allow the service to build new piers and expand the runway.

"We're interested in having as good an approach as we can to the base," Adm. E. W. Walton of the Naval Facilities Engineering Command told The Virginian-Pilot about a 1975 story about the strip's final days.

As the naval station literally worked to create a more welcoming, professional outlook, the service opened up to more leadership roles for women. With such a large fleet the naval station should be a proving ground.

Ronay Froman was a commanding officer when she moved to Norfolk in 1986 to serve as executive officer of the naval station, becoming the first woman to serve in such a capacity at a major US naval base. She remembered that an admiral had told her that she would never be able to win over the male sailors working on the wharves.

Here's The World's Largest And Busiest Naval Station

"At least he told me to my face," said Froman, who retired as a rear admiral in 2001. "By the way, I showed him."

Froman, who commanded Naval Region Southwest, worked six or seven days a week for the first few months and spent hours on the pier with her radio, she said from her California home.

"I was very visible, and I had a great team," she said. "Everyone in the team accepted me."

Congress lifted the ban on women serving on combat ships in the fall of 1993. Norfolk made headlines months later when the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower became the first aircraft carrier to welcome women to its crew.

The View Of Navy Base Outside Norfolk Town In A Sunset Light (west Virginia Stock Photo

Retired Master Chief Petty Officer Beth Lambert was one of them. Breaking that gender barrier is something Lambert has been pushing for since 1988, when she accomplished another Navy and Norfolk-based first by becoming the first woman to be named Shore Sailor of the Year.

Beth Lambert was the Navy's first female sailor serving in Norfolk at the time. She was also among the first women to serve on a combat ship, the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, and later the first female Master Chief with service aboard the carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt. (Photo: Beth Lambert)

Lambert was a young Petty Officer First Class when she joined Fleet Logistics Support Squadron 40 and won the Atlantic Fleet competition for Shore Sailor of the Year. As she prepares to head to Washington to face the others in a Navy-wide competition, a Master Chief summons her to his office.

"They wanted to tell me how proud they were of me and that

Sailor Dies At Naval Station Norfolk

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