General reassures anxious Fort A.P. Hill neighbors
By Ed Simmons, Jr.
cpreporter@lcs.net
Speaking last Thursday evening at the Port Royal Fire Station, Major General Karl Horst, United States Army, reassured Fort A.P. Hill neighbors who fear explosions from a proposed demolitions school will make their lives miserable and their homes uninhabitable.
"I'm going to do everything to meet the needs of the community," the general told the standing-room-only crowd after listening to nearly three hours of anxious public comment. Speaker after speaker objected to locating the EOD school here. Explosions at the fort already break windows, crack foundations, shatter the peace and threaten the historic homes of Port Royal.
After studying the comments, the general said he will announce on January 27 his decision on locating the EOD site there. With him at the hearing was Col. John Hinkley and Col. Howard Merritt, commander of the 59th Ordinance Brigade.
Explosives training at the site, the general said at the beginning of the hearing, would teach servicemen how to explode IEDs that have caused the preponderance of casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan, but Port Royal resident Alex Long said that Fort Pickett, not Fort A.P. Hill, is the suitable place, as was previously specified in a BRAC report.
And the proposal to bus 800 servicemen each day from Fort Lee to Fort A.P. Hill to set off the explosions was termed by another resident as "ludicrous."
Caroline historian Herbert Collins said the Army training destroys what it should protect. "We cannot allow this destruction to continue, lest we destroy the very mission for which Fort A.P. Hill was initially established, that is to protect the welfare of our nation, our nation's treasures, the pursuit of happiness, and the lives of the people who dwell in this great nation of ours," he said.
Major General Horst also said he did not agree with an environmental assessment of "no significant impact." Challenging that environmental assessment, Town Councilman Jim Heimbach said the Army study used "no actual data on noise propagation from the EOD site" and called the finding that 115 decibels was insignificant "a glaring inconsistency" because other military studies concluded 65 decibels is "normally incompatible with residential land use."
Afterwards, Councilman Heimbach said he found the general's assurances "heartening," adding, "I think we're dealing with conscientious people who are trying to do their best."
Port Royal Mayor Nancy Long said she also appreciated Gen. Horst's assurances. "My big hope is he will see this decision was wrong and they will relocate to another place more suitable to the mission," she said.
"I'm glad that he seemed open and flexible," added Cleo Coleman, president of Historic Port Royal, Inc. and vice president of the Caroline County Historical Society. "I do believe he's forthright," she added.
In her remarks before the general, Coleman called "the placement of explosives on our front doorstep... unwelcomed and unacceptable."
