Incursion at MacDill raises security questions

[teach1st]

http://blogs.tampabay.com/breakingnews/2006/09/incursion_at_ma.html">Incursion at MacDill raises security questions
St. Petersburg Times, 9/20

TAMPA — Two teens in a stolen car zoomed past security at MacDill Air Force Base early Wednesday, driving past U.S. Central Command before they turned around at a construction barrier.

The teens, both 16, were caught and taken into custody after they rammed a Tampa patrol car. But the situation calls into question security on the base, the home of the planning center for the war efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan. After all, the teens made it past a base Burger King, commissary and CENTCOM, the intelligence center of the nation's war efforts.

Military personnel are conducting an investigation, which is likely to take a couple of days, said MacDill spokesman Lt. Larry van der Oord.

http://blogs.tampabay.com/breakingnews/2006/09/incursion_at_ma.html">More

[wakeme2008]

1. This one was not as much fun as the one in the 70s at Seymour Johnson AFB

Goldsboro NC. They got on to the flight line with a trail of State Troops and Air Farce Police behind them :rofl: OK there has a few SAC B-52 on the flight line at the same time...... They ended in a ditch.. :rofl:

[Retired AF Dem]

5. Be carefull on who you call Air Farce Police

You just might get your eye shot out.

Brown, who has been in law enforcement and the Air Force about six years, said in a telephone interview that he is very proud of the award and what it represents, despite the tragedy that merited his winning it. The 25-year-old airman shot and killed former A1C Dean Mellberg, who had gone on a shooting rampage at Fairchild June 20, killing five people and wounding 23 others.

"Looking back, I have to remind myself of what could have happened had I not been there," said the soft-spoken Brown. "A lot of other innocent people might have died."

Brown, who is 6 feet 2 inches tall and weighs180 pounds, was on bicycle patrol the day of the incident. He had just stopped to talk with the gate guard before going to patrol the housing area outside the base when the call came that shots had been fired at the base hospital, which is also located outside the base perimeter.

Brown raced the three-tenths of a mile to the hospital parking lot, where he found scores of screaming people fleeing the area.

Brown tried to determine the location of the gunman but got conflicting reports from the panic-stricken crowd. Once past the crowd, Brown spotted Mellberg who was armed with a MAK-90 assault rifle. Instinct and training then took over, Brown said.

http://www.ipmba.org/newsletter-0010-airman.htm

[benEzra]

6. Shot the guy using a 9mm pistol at a range of around 100 YARDS, IIRC...

fired four shots, hit with two, from an unsupported position.

I've hit 24" disk targets at 110 yards with a 9mm pistol (S&W 3913), but from sandbags, and I had a guy spotting for me. Doing that from an unsupported position, with no spotter and a guy shooting back, after having hustled 500+ yards on a bicycle...that's damn good shooting.

[Poppyseedman]

2. I am very familiar with this base.

If these kids make it pass the BK and CENTCOM, that is a very, very serious problem. That is at least a mile into the base proper

There was a 50 MM gun placement at the gate at one time. These kids are very fortunate the guards showed restraint and not blow them away.

[htuttle]

3. Are the guards at the gate rent-a-cops nowdays?

Seriously -- I thought I read they were contracting that sort of duty out to PMC's now.

[seriousstan]

4. They should have been shot at the gate.

[saigon68]

7. And then Drawn and Quartered with Chains and Pick-up trucks.