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Occasionally residents express concern about low-flying aircraft, the noise caused by a night training flight or the increased traffic on two-lane roads, but overall the military bases are excellent neighbors. They provide employment and income and contribute to the community through uncountable volunteer hours. Military personnel often volunteer to tutor students, clear and construct school athletic fields, help nonprofit groups with projects and raise funds for holiday programs. We're glad to have them in Carteret County. Of the surrounding bases the Marine Corps base at Cherry Point in Havelock has the greatest impact on the Crystal Coast. One of the most valuable assets is the base's Naval Aviation Depot. It employs about 4,000 people and pays more than $210 million in salaries. In Carteret County, NADEP accounts for about 1,300 jobs and $50 million in annual payroll. See the Havelock chapter for more information on Cherry Point. The Port of Morehead City is the port of embarkation and debarkation for the Second Division of the U.S. Marine Corps at Camp Lejeune. This base is near Jacksonville and military troops often travel N.C. Highway 24 from Swansboro to Morehead City. Another area establishment is Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in Goldsboro, which is about a two-hour drive from the Crystal Coast. What follows is information about some of the closest military establishments. Marine Corps Auxiliary Landing
Field This 875-acre landing field fronts Bogue Sound. The field primarily is used for field carrier landing practice, and pilots perform many of these landings at night to simulate landing on an aircraft carrier. Atlantic Outlying Fieldand Piney
Island (Marines) These two facilities are in the Down East area of Carteret County. Atlantic Outlying Field is a 1,514-acre facility in the community of Atlantic. Piney Island, or BT-11 as the military refers to it, is a 10,000-plus-acre electronic practice range at the eastern tip of Carteret County. As part of the Mid-Atlantic Electronic Warfare Range (MAEWR), Piney Island is used by various military groups, including active-duty personnel and reservists. While planes actually do fly over the area, bombing simulations are recorded and scored electronically via computers to lessen the environmental impact. Coast Guard Base Fort Macon Coast Guard Base Fort Macon is at the east end of Bogue Banks and is the home port of several large cutters and smaller vessels. The base is charged with patrolling the waters from Drum Inlet on Core Banks south to the North Carolina-South Carolina border. Coast Guard missions include search and rescue and law enforcement. Coast Guard Station Swansboro This station is at the west end of Bogue Banks in Emerald Isle. When the station was first established, Emerald Isle was not a town, so it was named after Swansboro, the town to the north. The name never changed. This station's vessels patrol an area from Marker 21 in Bogue Sound, which is in the area of Gales Creek community, south to the Surf City swing bridge in Pender County.
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Military
bases and training facilities dot North Carolina's Crystal Coast, but they haven't spoiled
its beauty. They have just added a few more people, a little noise, extra traffic every
now and then and a lot of patriotism.