Jere Lull wrote:

In article ,
Mark Borgerson mborgerson.at.comcast.net wrote:

MMC wrote:
Looks like (the Department of) Homeland Security is alive and well.
U.S. Firing Plans for Great Lakes Raise Concerns

And, for the first time in memory, Coast Guard members plan to use
a stretch of water at least five miles off this Michigan shore

Note it says "at least five miles off"

as permanent, live fire shooting zones for training

I'd say that the concerned boaters ought to be more worried about
cruising anywhere within mile of shore during deer season!

Make that 5 miles, and you got it. I've seen some of my friends'
ordinance.

Like all military live-fire excercises, there will be observers
watching for non-targets in the fire zone.

Boaters east of the Mississippi just seem to want all military
activities to head West over the horizon.

Not quite true, but people hate change.

There's a large Navy firing range in the southern (or, to some Bay
sailors, middle) Chesapeake. Don't know whether it's for aircraft.
ships, boats or some combination, but THEIR ordinance can go a quite a
distance.

The one I'm most familiar with is off Point No Point, and sometimes it is
jets, sometimes it is helicopters and sometimes it is gunboats. I've seen
all three. They keep a bigger distance for the gun boats, as the planes
can be pretty accurate - especially the helicopters.

Part of the ICW in the Carolinas is through a Marine training ground
(too lazy to look up which) and traffic sometimes is stopped to avoid
mishaps.

It's Camp Lejeune south of Beaufort NC and north of Wrightsville Beach

There are warning signs at each end of the area, and you can tune to the
530 AM radio or call the Coast Guard to see if there is going to be an
exercise going on. .

The signs say "STOP DO NOT PROCEED WHEN FLASHING - Live Firing in Progress
When Flashing - Tune to AM 530"

Not all exercises involve live ammunition, and not all the live ammunition
exercises are in the vicinity of the ICW. The guard towers also fly big red
flags if there is live ammunition

The website says: "Camp Lejeune occupies 170 square miles, (111,000 acres),
including 14 miles of beach front along the Atlantic Ocean. With 54 live
firing ranges, 15 major training/maneuvering areas subdivided into 56
individual training and maneuvering sections with 34 gun positions, 23
tactical landing zones, 26 administrative landing zones, 12 parachute drop
zones and a "Military Operations in Urban Terrain" or MOUT training
complex.

There are six major Marine Corps commands and two Navy commands aboard Camp
Lejeune.

I've been through this area right after they were doing live fire with a
ship - in 2004 - I wrote:

At 0955 around MM 255 (nearing high tide) saw 10 feet in the channel. They
are doing live firing exercises off the Marine base again today. This time
it is Navy Warship 58 (yesterday it was Navy Warship 60). We hear him
talking to a sailboat bound for Beaufort [out in the ocean]

Three little navy safety boats passed going lickety split south. CHATEAU LA
MER from Tampa passed going north. The live fire exercises are over. We are
approaching the Onslow Beach bridge. I can see people picnicking and
playing volleyball etc on the ocean side - young men with no shirts -
presumably marines.

Now we hear Navy Warship 58 has a fouled bore and is trying to keep folks
away from him 15 nm while he proceeds out to sea.

We are going through the Marine Base now, and see various pieces of
equipment in the marshes.

As we go by Bear Inlet, a small red official looking RIB whizzes past.

1335- there is a barge along side the channel with pipes, and a dredge and
another barge ahead of us. I have had the radio on scan, listening to the
Navy Warship with the fouled bore and other conversations, so I don't hear
if the barge says anything to us, but I observe a shrimp boat coming south
opposite the barge, and see with binoculars that there is a little tug
pushing the barge out of the channel.

And I used to watch A-10s head off to target practice over in central
NJ -- not all of Jersey is turnpike, urban decay and chemical dum^h^h^h
plants, just most of it ;-)