Joint Expeditionary Base

Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek–Fort Story (JEBLC-FS) is one of the most strategically significant military installations in the United States, located entirely within the independent city of Virginia Beach, Virginia. Established on October 1, 2009, it is a joint base of the United States military situated in Virginia Beach, Virginia. The installation is made up of the former U.S. Army post Fort Story and Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek, and was created as the result of the Base Realignment and Closure, 2005 process. Straddling both the Chesapeake Bay shoreline and the Atlantic coast, the base serves as the primary hub for amphibious warfare training and expeditionary operations for the U.S. Navy's Atlantic Fleet, while also anchoring the broader military presence that defines Virginia Beach as a center of national defense.

Origins and Founding

The two installations that comprise JEBLC-FS have separate but interwoven histories stretching back more than a century.

The story of the Little Creek side begins in the opening days of American involvement in World War II. On July 16, 1942, a Navy truck drove off the scenic Ocean View–Virginia Beach highway and stopped in a waterlogged bean field of the Whitehurst farm. The reason for this mass mobilization in a bean field 12 miles northeast of Norfolk was that, early in World War II, Navy planners saw a necessity for landing large numbers of American troops on foreign shores in the face of enemy gunfire. That such operations would be difficult was also evident. New methods and techniques in landing troops would have to be developed. Training would be needed before sufficient men were proficient in the complicated art of the amphibious assault.

Four bases were constructed on this area: Camp Bradford, Camp Shelton, the U.S. Naval Frontier Base, and the Amphibious Training Base. Camp Bradford was initially a training base for Navy Seabees, but in 1943 it was changed into a training center for the crews of landing ship tanks. Camp Shelton was an armed guard training center for bluejackets serving on board merchant ships as gun crews. The Amphibious Training Base, also known as "Little Creek," was the center for all types of amphibious training and the training of ship's crews for landing ship medium, landing craft infantry, and landing craft utility. During World War II, over 200,000 Naval personnel and 160,000 Army and Marine Corps personnel trained at Little Creek.

The four bases were partially inactivated at the end of hostilities of World War II. Shortly thereafter, however, the bases at Little Creek — because of their central location on the Atlantic coast, excellent and varied beach conditions, proximity to the naval facilities of Norfolk, and berthing facilities for amphibious ships — were consolidated into the present installation and renamed the Naval Amphibious Base, Little Creek, with a commissioning date of August 10, 1945. It was designated a permanent base in 1946.

The Fort Story component has an even older military pedigree. Fort Story became a military installation in 1914 when the Virginia General Assembly gave the land to the U.S. Government "to erect fortifications and for other military purposes." The base was named for Major General John Patten Story (1841–1915), a noted coast artilleryman of his day. During World War I, Fort Story was integrated into the Coast Defenses of Chesapeake Bay, which also included Fort Monroe (the headquarters) and Fort Wool. In World War II, following the 1941 relocation of the Harbor Defense Command headquarters from Fort Monroe, Fort Story expanded with additional batteries and installations; by 1944, it had transitioned into a convalescent hospital that treated over 13,000 patients before reverting to military use in 1946. In 1946 the mission shifted once more to transportation, and Fort Story became a training ground for Logistics-Over-The-Shore (LOTS) and Army amphibious operations.

Merger and Establishment as a Joint Base

Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek–Fort Story was formed in October 2009 by the merger of Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek and the Fort Story army base. The merger was recommended by the U.S. Department of Defense in its BRAC (Base Realignment and Closure) commission 2005 recommendations. In October 2009, it became the first joint base in Hampton Roads.

JEBLC-FS has one command with two separate properties. JEB Little Creek and JEB Fort Story are located a little over ten miles apart and are both tasked with training the nation's Expeditionary Forces. The command structure falls under Navy Region Mid-Atlantic, with the United States Navy holding operational authority over both sub-installations.

Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek is the major operating base for the expeditionary forces in the United States Navy's Atlantic Fleet. The base comprises four locations in three states, including almost 12,000 acres of real estate, with the Little Creek location in Virginia Beach totaling 2,120 acres of land. Outlying facilities include 350 acres located just north of Training Support Center Hampton Roads in Virginia Beach and 21 acres known as Radio Island at Morehead City, North Carolina, used for U.S. Coast Guard ships and personnel as well as serving as an amphibious embarkation and debarkation area for U.S. Marine Corps units at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.

Geography and Physical Description

The two components of the joint base occupy dramatically different portions of Virginia Beach's coastline, each offering distinct terrain that serves specialized training needs.

The Naval Amphibious Base, Little Creek, the largest base of its kind in the world, is the major operating station for the amphibious forces of the United States Atlantic Fleet. The base's location totals 2,120 acres of land and is sited at the extreme northwest corner of Virginia Beach. Little Creek is a small inlet on the southern shore of Chesapeake Bay approximately midway between Cape Henry and Naval Station Norfolk. The base's harbor infrastructure supports large amphibious vessels; the entrance channel to the Naval Amphibious Base, Little Creek has a project depth of 22 feet, passing between two jetties into Little Creek Harbor.

The Fort Story sub-installation, by contrast, sits at the northeastern corner of Virginia Beach. Located at Cape Henry at the entrance of the Chesapeake Bay, it offers a unique combination of features including dunes, beaches, sand, surf, deep-water anchorage, variable tide conditions, maritime forest, and open land. The base includes 1,451 acres of sandy trails, cypress swamps, maritime forest, grassy dunes, and soft and hard sand beaches. The western beaches are wide, gently sloped, and washed by the waters of the Chesapeake Bay, while eastern beaches are exposed to the rougher waters of the Atlantic surf. This dual-exposure geography makes Fort Story particularly valuable for amphibious training exercises that simulate a wide range of coastal environments.

The base is located in the tidewater region of Virginia, near the entrance of the Chesapeake Bay, the largest estuary in the United States.

Mission and Military Tenant Commands

The joint base's primary purpose is the support and readiness of expeditionary, amphibious, and logistics forces. Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek–Fort Story provides outstanding support and services to ensure maximum military readiness of operational forces and resident commands.

The base is the prime location and training environment for both U.S. Army amphibious operations and Joint Logistics-Over-the-Shore (LOTS) training events. Fort Story is the Army's only training facility for logistics-over-the-shore operations to train troops on amphibious equipment and to practice the transfer of military cargo from ship to shore.

The base covers nearly 4,000 acres of land with 7.6 miles of beachfront area. There are 18 large ships home ported there with an additional mix of 126 smaller craft.

The Expeditionary Warfare Training Group Atlantic (EWTGL) offers training in onboard maintenance, naval gunfire support, and seamanship for the marines and crews of the Atlantic Fleet. In January 2010, the U.S. Navy established cyber forces (CYBERFOR) at the base. It serves as the type command for cryptography and signals intelligence, electronic warfare, information operations, intelligence, networks, and space.

Among the tenant commands at the Fort Story sub-installation are the Army's 11th Transportation Battalion, the U.S. Army School of Music, the FORSCOM Logistics Training Cluster (Saltwater Annex), the U.S. Marine Corps Security Cooperation Group, Naval Special Warfare Group 2 ranges, Navy EOD units, and the Naval Undersea Warfare Center.

The base is also home to the U.S. Armed Forces School of Music, which trains professional musicians for service with the U.S. military bands of the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps.

Historical Significance of Fort Story

Beyond its military utility, JEB Fort Story holds exceptional historical importance as the site of the first recorded European landfall in the Chesapeake Bay region. On April 26, 1607, English colonists under Captain Christopher Newport arrived at Cape Henry, erecting a cross to claim the land for England and naming it after Prince Henry, son of King James I. This event marked the initial European settlement efforts in the area, which had previously been inhabited by Native American peoples for millennia, with archaeological evidence of Paleoindian and Woodland period occupations including hunting camps and artifact scatters.

The base preserves several historic landmarks tied to this legacy. The Cape Henry Memorial Cross, a granite monument erected in 1935 by the National Society Daughters of the American Colonists, marks the site of the first landing by English colonists in April 1607, where they planted an original wooden cross during their journey to establish Jamestown. The Old Cape Henry Light, constructed in 1792 as the first lighthouse authorized and built by the federal government under President George Washington, served as a navigational aid for ships entering the Chesapeake Bay and stands as a symbol of early American engineering with its Aquia sandstone structure. The new Cape Henry Lighthouse was completed in 1881 and is still maintained by the U.S. Coast Guard as an active coastal beacon.

The Battle of the Virginia Capes Monument honors the 1781 naval engagement where French Admiral François Joseph Paul de Grasse's fleet defeated British forces, securing the Chesapeake Bay and enabling George Washington's victory at Yorktown.

Economic Impact on Virginia Beach

The joint base is a cornerstone of the Virginia Beach economy. JEB Little Creek–Fort Story has an estimated payroll of $900 million and employs 18,091 military and civilian personnel, making it the largest military employer in the City of Virginia Beach. This workforce spans active-duty military members from multiple branches, Department of Defense civilian employees, and private contractors, all of whom contribute substantially to the surrounding communities of Virginia Beach and Hampton Roads.

The base's broader economic footprint extends far beyond its direct payroll. The concentration of resident commands, homeported vessels, and specialized training facilities draws government contracts and spending into the region year-round. Virginia Beach, as an independent city, benefits from the tax base generated by the tens of thousands of military families and retirees who reside within its boundaries.

Virginia Beach is an area of immense cultural, economic, and historical importance within the United States. Within this area lies a wealth of military significance, with numerous historic military sites, military bases, and notable military museums signaling its importance to the defense of the nation. JEBLC-FS stands as the most prominent single installation in this military landscape, sharing the city's defense footprint with Naval Air Station Oceana to the south.

See Also

• Naval Air Station Oceana
• Naval Station Norfolk
• Hampton Roads
• Cape Henry
• Virginia Beach military history