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thedrifter
05-06-03, 08:35 AM
Article ran : 05/06/2003
Shelling starts at Lejeune
By ERIC STEINKOPFF
DAILY NEWS STAFF
Less than a week after the Navy vacated its bombing range in Puerto Rico, it will train some of its guns on a landing area aboard Camp Lejeune. Offshore naval gunfire at Camp Lejeune is scheduled to start this morning, touching off a new rotation of firing in the area that once was done on the island of Vieques.

The Navy left the site in Puerto Rico on Thursday after years of criticism about noise and other issues.



Only part of the training done at Vieques is coming to Camp Lejeune. Today, the USS Cole, an Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer that was victim of a terrorist attack in Yemen 2 ??ars ago, is scheduled to use its 5-inch guns to fire into the G-10 impact range near Hubert. Artillery forward observers from the 10th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division will direct the firing.



It’s called a routine shore fire control party training for spotters ashore. The spotters practice calling for and using indirect fire, a form of artillery in which they lob shells from Navy vessels high into the air over obstacles such as mountains to hit unseen targets ashore.



Camp Lejeune spokeswoman 2nd Lt. Kate Vandenbossche said the firing would begin about 8 a.m. and continue until 11 a.m. After short break, it will resume at noon until 3:30 p.m.



“There will be a little over 100 rounds used from (the) USS Cole off the coast,” she said.



Training by the USS Cole starts a frequent rotation of firing for Lejeune. There are 30 destroyers and 14 cruisers with 5-inch guns in the Navy’s Atlantic Fleet. Such training could take place about 30 times a year — or roughly two to three times a month — with each session consisting of one actual day of gunfire and another day scheduled if needed, officials said.



All of the shore fire control party training on the East Coast that used to take place at Vieques is now scheduled for Lejeune. But other Vieques training is finding other homes or methods, including a virtual at-sea trainer that uses computer-generated terrain models to simulate land when ships shoot into the water off the coast.



Last July, the Navy approved Camp Lejeune as the site for offshore naval gunfire training after a study that found no potential significant impact of firing on Onslow County areas near the target sites like Hubert. Lejeune commander Maj. Gen. David M. Mize signed a finding of no significant impact document on July 24.



The move was made following the April 2002 release of results from an environmental assessment conducted at Lejeune. It found that the base is the best place for the offshore firing and that it would pose no noise problems, despite objections by some civilian neighbors.



Contact Eric Steinkopff at esteinkopff@jdnews.com or 353-1171, Ext. 236.


Sempers,

Roger