Blog — Whitney Westerfield

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2014

KYTC - Hopkinsville Traffic Advisory

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KYTC - Hopkinsville Traffic Advisory

The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet sent out a traffic advisory Monday night that warned of delays along Ft. Campbell Blvd.  The full alert is below:

A contractor for the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet plans to halt traffic for brief periods along US 41-Alernate/Fort Campbell Boulevard near Lovers Lane in Hopkinsville starting Wednesday, December 3, 2014.

All traffic on US 41-Alternate will be halted near the Lovers Lane Intersection from time to time to allow blasting on the Lovers Lane improvement project.  The contractor will be using explosives to loosen rock to allow trenching for a water lane adjacent to the new section of roadway.

Flaggers will stop traffic briefly about 1/4th mile on each side of the intersection when explosive charges are being detonated.  These occasional traffic stoppages are expected to continue during daylight hours for approximately one week.

Motorists may avoid these brief closures on US 41-A/Fort Campbell Boulevard by traveling the Breathitt-Pennyrile Parkway between Interstate 24 and the US 68 Hopkinsville Bypass.

 The Lovers Lane (CR-1652) Reconstruction Project is designed to improve connections between US 41-Alternate and the Breathitt Pennyrile Parkway while providing improved access to the Hopkinsville Convention Center entrance.

Westate Construction of Hopkinsville is the prime contractor on the $1,993,975 transportation improvement project.  Completion is expected in mid-August, 2015.

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We Need You All, Just Not As Many

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We Need You All, Just Not As Many

Secretary of Defense, Chuck Hagel, visited Ft. Campbell this week to address soldiers and installation commanders about two topics straight from global headlines, Ebola and the ordered force drawdown.  Here is an excerpt of his remarks, courtesy David Snow with The Eagle Post:

You all understand the perils, the threats, the challenges that face our country.

The world is shifting and changing the world order. It’s shifting like we’ve never seen before. The velocity of that change is unprecedented.

The challenges and threats that face our country in the world today are not just from Islamic fundamentalist terrorists. Yes, that is a threat that we are dealing with. But pandemic health diseases and pandemic health traits threaten the world like Ebola is part of that world scope of threats.
— Sec. of Defense Chuck Hagel

The article went on to report that Secretary Hagel told the soldiers that Ft. Campbell "has unique capabilities that no other institution in the world has."

Why, then, is the installation facing potentially enormous troop drawdowns?  The Secretary seems to describe a global military theater that needs all the might we can provide.

Image Courtesy Ft. Campbell, U.S. Army

Image Courtesy Ft. Campbell, U.S. Army

The national security concerns alone warrant maintaining current service member levels, before you even begin an analysis of the relatively less important (but impossible to overstate) economic peril to West Kentucky and North Central Tennessee.

The Secretary, with all due respect, appears to be speaking from both sides of his mouth. I do not approve.

UPDATED:  Today's news that the 159th Combat Aviation Brigade, stationed at Ft. Campbell, will be deactivated.  Ft. Campbell will see a 2400 troop reduction by the end of the 2015 fiscal year.  Senators Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul, and Rep. Ed Whitfield released this joint statement today (Nov. 20th, 2014), one that I fully agree with:

We are deeply disappointed by the Obama administration’s decision to remove the 159th CAB from Fort Campbell. It is bad news for our nation’s security and for the local Fort Campbell community. Our military’s readiness and national security must remain the highest priority for the American people, and for Fort Campbell’s troops and families in the great Commonwealth of Kentucky. We believe that cuts need to be made in places other than deployable troops as a means to make smart cuts to government spending. We also must not allow our number of troops to fall to the dangerously low levels being sought by the Obama Administration, especially at a time of increasing instability in the world.
— Sen. McConnell, Sen. Paul and Rep. Whitfield


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The Line In The Sand

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The Line In The Sand

I have never believed that I was disciplined enough to be a soldier, sailor, airman or marine.  I certainly never believed I was physically fit enough.  I have looked at the branches of the armed forces with equal parts curiosity and awe.  The culture appears, from my limited perspective, wildly different than our day-to-day.  For those serving in desert-like conditions (or elsewhere), even if we normalize for scorched earth, our military men & women live in a very different world.  Authority, rigorous calls of duty, honor, rigorous mental preparation, loyalty, uniquely challenging training, discipline; these are some of the hallmarks of military service.  With all due respect to my fellow legislators, I cannot say the same about the Kentucky General Assembly, or any other unit of government.  Those traits, those qualities, are the rule in the military.  Outside the military, they are the exception.  Those men and women were once like us, but for various reasons each one volunteered to step out of the comfortable path and onto a path marked with sacrifice, struggle, blood and death.  No, perhaps these men and women were never like us to begin with.  What they choose to do is special, and, to those of us with a mere fraction of their courage, difficult to grasp.

On Veteran's Day I attended a joint lunch between Hopkinsville's Kiwanis and Rotary clubs.  Our guest speaker was Col. David "Buck" Dellinger, Garrison Commander of Ft. Campbell, home of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault).  Col. Dellinger gave a resounding call for support for the U.S. Army and her companion branches of service.  This call for support is important to everyone in Christian County and the surrounding counties and communities of Western Kentucky, and sister communities in Tennessee.  We each certainly share an economic tie to the installation and her compliment of service members and civilian workers, but more deeply we feel a sense of responsibility to the service members and their families.  Our communities give time, money and muscle to the men and women of the service and their families.  We cook meals and celebrate returns home.  We comfort and lift up in prayer the loved ones that return permanently changed, and the loved ones of those that never return at all.  This is the least we can do.

Col. Dellinger said something during the meeting that struck a chord with me.  He made reference to the line we've heard on the airwaves recently, "boots on the ground."  The Colonel said he was one of the first 500 soldiers on the ground in Kuwait in Operation Desert Storm.  He referenced distant support from aircraft and surface fleets in the Gulf, but that it was the troops on the ground that made the greatest impact.  "Those soldiers drew a line in the sand and dared the enemy to cross."  My Veterans Day came to a grinding halt with this imagery.  Air and sea superiority are certainly mission critical, but seeing in my mind these men and women standing at the front - quite literally the front line - staring the enemy head on and daring them to cross it.  These men and women are heroes.  Superheroes.  They do that for us.  Every. Single. Day.

Be thankful for courageous women and men who choose to leave the comfortable path for the front line.  They do it for you.

 
 

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Ballots and Polling Places

Want to get a peak at the Voting Ballots you'll see in the booth tomorrow?  Here you go!

Christian County

Christian County

Todd County

Todd County

Logan County

Logan County

Live in one of the other 117 counties?  No problem!  Look up your county ballots here.

Need to know where Your Polling Place is?  Here you go!

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Convicting Testimony of Selfishness

How insincere of us to wallow in the glory and never go after the prodigal. How naive of us to fill our pockets with seeds, never intending to gather a harvest, let alone plant anything. How twisted to withhold the medicine from the sick.
— Kyle Harper, The World Race

Take time to read this piece, "My One Night with a Prostitute."  I'll let the man's blog post speak for itself.  What are we doing, indeed.

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