My goodness, but the terror briefings sure have changed since I was in.
Well…duh. Because there weren’t any.
But there were always bad guys and man, oh, man – the names on that list have really morphed over the decades.
Bases have a tough row to hoe, especially ones that are bigger – like Fort Liberty (formerly Ft Bragg) – or open to the public, like my own hometown’s NAS Pensacola. Balancing access against threats is a delicate task.
Our sleepy little home of Naval Aviation and the Blue Angels was the subject of a terror attack that came not with a visitor’s pass, but with a military ID card. All the gate guard training in the world didn’t do a thing against a Saudi flight student with a weapon in a base classroom.
Coming through the gates on any installation, one is subject to scrutiny appropriate to the venue and, frankly, the risk factor you resemble. There’s no getting around…
