Jon Visits Newport News Shipbuilding

U.S. Rep. Jon Runyan (left) received an update on the progress on the aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) during a tour of Newport News Shipbuilding Thursday. Also pictured (left to right) are shipyard leaders Tom Cullen, Rolf Bartschi and Geoff Hummel. Photo by John Whalen

“I want to thank HII for hosting me in Newport News today. I was very impressed by their facilities and all that they do to help our men and women in uniform. I was especially intrigued by their use of EMALS, the system that catapults jets off of Navy vessels, on the ships they are building. This system was created, developed and tested at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst back in my home district in New Jersey. These types of working relationships between the Department of Defense and private industry are what we must encourage if we want to maintain and strengthen our nation’s last major domestic manufacturer, the defense industry.”