Navy pilots livid over law making them ‘soft targets,’ demand changes after Pensacola attack

Dozens of Navy pilots are demanding changes to a law that they say has made them “soft targets” for attackers on military bases for decades.

A letter signed in the wake of Saudi national Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani’s deadly Dec. 6 attack at Naval Air Station (NAS) Pensacola — the second lieutenant killed three and wounded others before he was stopped with deadly force — says it’s time for a 1992 law to change.

“ENS Joshua Kaleb Watson was a small-arms instructor and captain of the rifle team at the United States Naval Academy,” the letter says of one victim, Fox News reported Sunday. “Yet when charged with standing the watch, he was equipped with nothing more than a logbook and a pen.”

The pilots say it is “reprehensible” that trained warfighters must be “at the mercy of off-base, civilian law enforcement” during an emergency.

Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper told “Fox & Friends” during an interview on Saturday that officials were “looking at that right now.”

“We can always strive to do better,” he said from Philadelphia. “But at the same time, these are communities. We’ve got to balance out all those interests. But yeah, we should and can do better. And we’re looking at that right now. And I work closely with the service secretaries and the service chiefs to get that right.”