by Fred Seely
Editorial Director
Sen. Bill Nelson flew all the way to Afghanistan and who did he eat with? People from Jacksonville.
Florida’s junior senator went to the war zone last week with nine of his fellow senators and Monday evening recounted the trip to a rapt group of about 100 at a Chamber reception.
“We flew into the airport at Kabul in total blackout,” he said. “I’ve been in a few tight situations in the air [he once rode the space shuttle] and that may have been the tightest. No lights and we were in very rough terrain.
“That young pilot didn’t flinch. The landing was so smooth that we hardly felt it.”
Then, when he exited the plane, there was a warning: don’t step off the runway. Land mines were everywhere.
“Welcome to Afghanistan,” said Nelson. “It was freezing cold and we had to watch where we walked.”
The trip included visits to various neighboring nations, including Pakistan, to talk with leaders, and also to the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, where he had dinner with two units from NAS.
“One was an S-3 group and the other flew helicopters,” said Nelson. “Believe me, it’s tough living over there, but they were tremendously dedicated people. They intend to protect America. We’re lucky to have people like that on our side.
“I know that it sounds rah-rah but it’s true. Americans respond. The terrorists thought they could break our will but they didn’t understand our character.
“We can be knocked down, but we aren’t knocked out. We are people with resolve.”
Nelson got considerable air time on the national television networks when he returned and said, “We had been in the air for 17 hours. The plane never landed; we refueled over Spain. I didn’t know whether I was up or down. I hope I made sense on TV.”
Nelson talked for 30 minutes and answered questions for another half-hour in the reception at the Chamber’s headquarters downtown.
A few of his other comments:
• “We need to work on getting Mayport capable of taking nuclear carriers. The politics in Japan may dictate that we send our carriers based here to the Pacific, so we need to reconfigure the base to be able to take a nuclear carrier, or we may lose the carriers out there.”
• He voted to reopen the BRAC (Base Realignment and Closing) process on the request of President Bush but believes that the state’s bases will remain open. “America has too many military bases,” he said, “and we’re spending too much money on them. Of course, it’s a political matter; no one wants to lose a base. I think we’re in good shape because our weather is in our favor. But, we have to be watchful, and all our elected officials are going to have to work together.”
• The Afghanistan trip included three potential presidential candidates: Joseph Leiberman of Connecticut, John McCain of Arizona and John Edwards of North Carolina. “It’s going to be fascinating to watch this unfold,” said Nelson. “I really like my fellow senators, and they’re jockeying for position now.”
• He and the Senate’s other Nelson, Ben Nelson from Nebraska, have an ongoing rivalry around football and Florida’s Nelson is getting a box of Omaha steaks for Miami’s victory over Nebraska in the Rose Bowl. He also won a bag of Virginia peanuts from Virginia’s senators on a Gator Bowl bet (Florida State beat Virginia Tech.) “Nelson was bragging to a group about Nebraska football and he was talking just loud enough to make sure I could hear him,” said Florida’s Nelson. “I went over and said, ‘You have one college team. We have six professional teams: the Jaguars, the Dolphins, the Buccaneers . . . and Florida, Florida State and Miami.’ Nebraska’s Nelson replied, “Touche.”