What USJFCOM Does

What is USJFCOM?

Reserve & Command Support

Fast Facts

o Two main commercial airports: Newport News and Norfolk International o The main highway through the area is Interstate 64 running east to Virginia Beach or west to Williamsburg. It connects to Interstate 95, near Richmond. To the south it connects to Hwy. 168, straight to the Outer Banks of North Carolina,a popular resort area. o Four underwater commuter tunnels: the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel between Hampton and Norfolk; the Monitor-Merrimac between Newport News and Suffolk; and the Downtown and Midtown tunnels between Portsmouth and Norfolk o Four commuter bridges: the Coleman between Gloucester and Yorktown; the James River between Newport News and Smithfield; the Berkeley between Norfolk and Portsmouth; and the Compostella between Chesapeake and Norfolk

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Hampton Roads: General military information

The Hampton Roads area is home to one of the nation’s largest concentrations of military personnel.

The region’s major communities include Williamsburg, Newport News, Yorktown and Hampton on the peninsula (North Side) and Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Suffolk and Portsmouth on the South Side.

Major military units and headquarters include NATO’s Allied Command Transformation, U.S. Joint Forces Command, U.S. Fleet Forces Command, the U.S. Air Force’s Air Combat Command, U.S. Marine Corps Forces Command, and the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command. Military hardware in the area includes 70 ships, 12 submarines, 400 Navy aircraft, 80 Air Force aircraft, and a variety of Navy Special Forces and support units.

Major military installations in the area include Naval Station Norfolk (the world’s largest naval base), Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek, Naval Air Station Oceana (including Dam Neck Annex), Langley Air Force Base, Fort Story, Fort Monroe, Fort Eustis, Norfolk Naval Shipyard, and Yorktown Naval Weapons Station.

The area’s close ties to the nation’s history and the military spans nearly 400 years, beginning with Capt. Christopher Newport landing at Cape Henry (the site is on present-day Fort Story) on April 26, 1607. Newport and Capt. John Smith sailed up the James River and formed the first permanent English colony in the New World at Jamestown.

Other historical sites in the area include the Yorktown Battlefield, the site of final battle of the Revolution, Fort Monroe, Norfolk Naval Shipyard, and the Civil War battle between the ironclads USS Monitor and CSS Virginia (the former USS Merrimac). The World War II Iowa-Class battleship USS Wisconsin is open to the public in its berth at the National Maritime Center (Nauticus) on Norfolk’s downtown waterfront.

Hampton Roads also boasts Virginia’s largest employer, Newport News Shipbuilding, and the Navy is state’s largest single consumer of electricity. Additionally, Norfolk Naval Shipyard ranks as the state’s largest federal industrial employer.