Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Unbelievable - Guards at the Navy base are unarmed, and dead!

This infuriates me. BTW, the father of the young man is my daughters teacher in high school.

https://video.foxnews.com/v/6114557391001#sp=show-clips

I guess they figure a gun-free zone also applies to guards as well.

The top 5 people in charge of that base, need to spend sometime in a prison.

The link says "ACCESS DENIED - You don't have permission to visit this site."

Okay.

L.W.

That's SOP................my son is also in the Navy; none of the sailors who routinely stand watch have weapons at any of the bases, at least at the 2 he's been stationed at.

MM

Isn't standing watch and standing guard two different things?


My buddy said that the Marine security guards were armed.

WTF. I walked guard duty with a loaded M14

So Guard is now a Demonrat word for Target.

Got it.

When I heard about it, I thought it was a bit odd that the Sheriff's Dept. had to come out and take charge of the situation.

My opinion,...a military base should have it's own security,...armed and well trained.

As I understand it, he was standing watch over securing the building's entrance. I realize the Navy "stands watch" over everything, but standing watch over the buildings entrance = security guard to me.

I was just at Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey (prior to Pensacola shooting) the entrence to the base was guarded by armed DOD employees. PA also has an armed police force. WTF is up with the Navy?

Here's a brief article about one of the other Sailors killed.


SAVANNAH, Ga. — Fresh out of boot camp, Cameron Walters proudly told his father in Georgia during their nightly video chat that he had passed the exam qualifying him to stand watch and help secure building entrances at Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida.

When news broke the next morning of shots being fired at the base, Shane Walters called his son’s cellphone repeatedly throughout the day. There was no answer. The 21-year-old airmen apprentice from Richmond Hill had been killed along with two other sailors by a gunman authorities later identified as a military aviation student from Saudi Arabia.

Shane Walters told The Associated Press on Sunday that his son died standing watch at the classroom building where the shooter opened fire.

“He was just looking forward to getting his wings and being a part of flying and whatever job they gave him,” Shane Walters said. “He just wanted to earn his wings. He was looking so forward to having those wings pinned on his chest.”

You'd never see that in Israel.

Ft. Hood would never have happened in Israel. In the first place, they wouldn't have a Muzzy as a Major in the Medical Corps.

AND, by the time a perp did get off a shot, maybe two, he'd be riddled in a cross fire from several Uzi's.

This P.C. stuff is getting good people killed.

Soldiers, some with multiple combat tours, can't carry a weapon. At least in combat, they can return fire.

DF

In the case of the watch they were standing in the schools command, it is essentially logging in and guiding visitors to the right place, keeping track of key personnel, ensuring offices are secured (when people turn in keys), manning the phone and in off duty hours making sure the building is secure (from fire/theft) and in an emergency initiating the recall/personnel accountability recall list and ensuring colors are raised and lowered. . There are other duties but that's 90% of it.

There is also a certain amount of training going on to teach young officers and sailors how to stand a watch since it is a very junior watch position for both officer and enlisted. This is often the first watch that they have ever stood and people do need training for more important/empowered watches that they will stand later in their careers. As the watch officer, it is likely your first time leading enlisted in a formal role.

This was Schools Command. This watch has been stood for decades by generations of Naval Aviators and Naval Flight Officer students and nothing even remotely close has ever happened. Like 9/11, another game changer driven by tragedy. Every one of us that has proudly worn gold wings, officer and enlisted aircrew have walked the halls of that building and undergone training there. If there is a physical nexus of Naval Aviation it is building 633.

Thanks for the insight Pugs.

When I was in the Army in the mid 80's, we often pulled guard duty on training deployments, guarding the building where our weapons and ammunition were stored, with empty rifles. Rifle and magazine, extra mags but no ammunition. We always thought it was stupid but we were low ranking enlisted and had to follow orders.

The services in general are at all time low manning levels. The USN has about 277K Sailors - at any given time 1/3 are on sea duty on ships and deployed (90-95 ships are deployed at any given time). You then have a lot in training that also do stand some watches, people on leave, people that are not of the correct grade to stand a gate watch etc.

The reality is the services (all of them) use DoD and Contract guards a lot to free their enlisted and officers for their primary duties. Fort Meade has contract guards for most of the entrances and that is typical.

There was a time when lots of duties on base were handled by draftees/shytbirds. Mowing, cleaning, maintenance, chow halls etc. In the volunteer service in a good economy reality is there are not enough people in the services to do those jobs plus the critical service jobs. Those jobs are contracted out now. The services fight to keep their good people and telling a young airman/seaman that we value their work is rarely highlighted by sending them off to someplace where they told they get to do something non-rewarding that didn't sign up for. Sure, it's still done and part of being in the service but less and less as every body is potentially valuable and trainable.

God rest that Warriors Soul.

Not unusual... But maybe, in today's world, they should be... When I stood some base watch duty at one of the Navy schools in '67, I had a radio, a duty belt, and not a damned thing else..

And even then bored sailors get in trouble. Our line watch at NAS Whidbey on mids was armed with a nightstick - He then decided to go whack all the lower VHF/UHF antennas off on all our squadrons airplanes as well as the next squadron...... Didn't work out well for him.