Naval Air Station Patuxent River Research Articles

Keeping a Crooked Sixpence: Coin Magic and Religion in the Colonial Chesapeake

This article explores the probability that a silver sixpence, recovered at the Naval Air Station Patuxent River’s Webster Field Annex in St. Inigoes, Maryland, represents an everyday item that had supernatural significance for the individual(s) who once owned it. Between 1637 and 1942, the land that now comprises Webster Field had been home to a Jesuit settlement. Throughout this period, coin magic was practiced in the British Isles, and silver sixpences incorporated many of the symbolic properties that made them useful as protective amulets, emblems of vow-making, and other less defined representations of luck. The presence of such a coin at St. Inigoes is indicative of the interplay between folk traditions and church-sanctioned religious objects employed at the settlement, and coin-bending practices are examined through archaeological finds in the Chesapeake.

Implementing an environmental quality assessment program at the naval air station patuxent river

AbstractThe Naval Air Station (NAS) Patuxent River is proactively establishing an environmental quality assessment program (EQAP) for environmental excellence in accordance with emerging Navy policy to implement such a program. The EQAP will replace the Navy's Environmental Compliance Evaluation (ECE) program. Under the ECE program, shore‐based Naval installations were required to annually perform a self‐ECE of their compliance status. Under the new program, Naval installations will be required to develop and execute an internal assessment plan that addresses environmental quality within the “fenceline.” The assessment will address all applicable compliance requirements on a schedule based on the environmental concerns, vulnerabilities, and risks and may also cover program management processes, the environmental management system (EMS), and measures of merit. Implementation of the EQAP is especially critical at the NAS due to the tremendous growth that it has experienced as a result of the Base Realignment and Closure Act (BRAC). Presented in this article is a description of the NAS's EQAP and how it evolved from the predecessor ECE program.