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Vice President Vance Delivers Remarks at Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach, VA, Jul. 1, 2026

July 1, 2026 · The White House · 0:25:33

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

Vice President JD Vance delivered remarks to service members at Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach, Virginia on July 1, 2026, opening the administration’s America 250 week at one of the Navy’s master jet bases. “I can’t think of any better group of people to spend this week before America’s 250th birthday,” he said. “From the President of the United States and the entire cabinet, we are proud of you guys. You guys have done more in the last 18 months — the President of the United States has asked you to do more than I think any group of service members has ever been asked to do. And yet, you’ve done it.”

Vance thanked Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Secretary of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins by name, and Representative Jen Kiggans, whose last active-duty station, he noted, was Oceana itself. His centerpiece welcome was for Carrier Air Wing 8, home in May from what he called a historic 11-month deployment: “The wing logged nearly 12,000 launches across the deployment and over 5,500 flight hours in support of Operation Epic Fury alone… welcome home. We’re proud to have you guys back.”

Why it matters

The Oceana remarks open the 250th-birthday week where the administration chose to open it — with the fleet, at a working jet base, honoring a carrier air wing just home from an 11-month deployment. This chronicle files it on the Foreign Policy & Defense hub with the deployment figures attributed to the Vice President.

Scoreboard watch

Scoreboard watch: the Carrier Air Wing 8 figures as stated by the Vice President — nearly 12,000 launches and over 5,500 flight hours in support of Operation Epic Fury across an 11-month deployment — are dated operational claims for the record. Noted for the scoreboard editor; no entry is published from this page.

Sources: The White House, “Vice President Vance Delivers Remarks at Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach, VA,” July 1, 2026 (official upload, embedded above). All figures and characterizations as stated by the Vice President at the event.