Last edited Wed Aug 6, 2025, 04:13 PM - Edit history (1)

I got the feeling we will never know what really happened or what the condition of these soldiers is

If only good guys with guns were there.
And we expect teachers to do battle with a mad man intent on killing.

That’s what I used to hear from the soldiers anyway

But there are rotating shifts of security details at gates, restricted areas and even living quarters.
On the Navy base every ship mored up at a pier has 24/7 hour Quarterdeck watch at the entry point to come aboard. All the ships had maned watches throughout the ship and I am pretty sure all bases have a significant number of armed soldiers throughout.
I spent many hours with a chief or Jr officer on Quarterdeck watch, both of us armed with a 45, and a shotgun at reach, 2 sailors on watch all the time in port. Plus roving security detail covering every area of the ship.
But you are right, not every soldier is armed on base.
Not sure why any idiot wanting to shot people would want to find out who got guns and who don’t.

Maybe he knew how to avoid the armed guards. That is very interesting about the navy ships being guarded though, it’s good to know. I guess we’ll never know if he was using his service weapon or not

He had to have some idea of where to hit. It is not easy to even get on base with an unauthorized gun.
But this is not the first base shooting. Hope to hear what his motive was. Why he did not seek to be taken out.

...if you have a military, dependent, or retiree ID. They only do random vehicle searches occasionally, and even then, they look in consoles, glove boxes, and trunks. I've never seen one look under a seat.

I drive onto Ft. Belvoir every weekend to do a commissary pickup, they scan my retiree ID, and I'm in. I could have four or five hidden guns in my vehicle if I wanted to.

Realize. When I was serving, not at sea, they were much more deliberate in searching. But things change as we elders know well. You would think in today’s “normal” with any gun you want, anywhere, bases would be at higher alert.
Not been near a base in decades. Charleston shut down, and ain’t no piers and ships near the mtns of NC.
I would sure love to tour the CIC of today’s Destroyers.

For the first 15 years that I was in, we had window stickers that differentiated rank by a strip across the bottom...red was enlisted non-NCO, yellow was NCO, and blue was officer. If you didn't have a sticker on your vehicle, it was thoroughly searched before you could get on base. They did away with those, and now you just have to show ID to enter the base.

The injured soldiers are stable and recovering, said Brig Gen. John Lubas. The Army won’t release names pending notification of family members and they won’t speculate on motive, Lt. Col. Angel Tomko said at a news conference.

Officials identified the shooter as logistics Sgt. Quornelius Radford. A telephone number listed for Radford in public records rang unanswered on Wednesday.

AP

Of course, these days anybody has a beef they start shooting

Or vice versa...

to protect the base.