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© St. Petersburg Times, published April 9, 2002
U.S. Forest Service officials announced Monday that they will allow the U.S. Navy to continue to use the Pinecastle Range in the Ocala National Forest for practicing aerial bombing and strafing for the next 20 years.
The range has been used for bombing practice since 1943. Navy and other military pilots make about 10,000 practice runs a year at Pinecastle. When the planes drop live and unarmed bombs weighing 500 to 2,000 pounds, windows shake for miles around.
In 1983, a Navy jet missed its target by a half-mile with a 500-pound bomb that struck a nearby road. A Wildwood man, Johnny Teate, was driving his dump truck when he crashed into the 3-foot crater. Teate's injuries were slight and the bomb did not detonate.
Although the Florida Coalition for Peace & Justice protested that a national forest is not an appropriate location for preparing for war, forest supervisor Marsha Kearney disagreed, pointing out the long use of the site by the military and the nation's wartime status.
"Recent world events demonstrate the need for sustained operational readiness by the nation's military forces," she wrote in the April 5 decision. "The world remains a dangerous place and the nation needs forces at a high state of readiness."