Preserving Heritage and Nature During the “War on Terrorism”: The North Carolina Outlying Landing Field (“OLF”) Controversy

摘要

This paper investigates a controversy between the U.S. Navy and rural North Carolinians in which Navy officials tried to procure local property for a Navy training facility or outlying landing field (“OLF”). Analysis suggests that locals who defined themselves as patriotic, common sense agents, and the scene as heritage, built a more credible connection to a patriotic American ethos than did the rhetoric of the Navy, which defined the OLF debate primarily as part of the war on terrorism. The locals' ultimate success reveals the rhetorical possibilities and limitations of war on terrorism and local heritage arguments, which both constrain local advocates and widen their access to oppositional voices.