Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF):
• FOX and the Washington Times reported that there was a possible terror threat against Ft.Huachuca
• These claims are bunk because if there had been a threat it would have succeeded (details below)
FOX news echoed a rather dated report from the Washington Times which claimed that Ft. Huachuca, AZ (where I am at and was at the time):
“changed security measures in May after being warned that Islamist terrorists, with the aid of Mexican drug cartels, were planning an attack on the facility.”
In a very real way the “changes” were to reduce the security presence here, not to increase it. But it really doesn’t matter because the threat couldn’t possibly have been credible in the first place.
How can I say such a thing definitively? Easy, because if the Llama Freedom Militia for Sexual Relations With Octogenarians (LFMSRWO???) or a disgruntled piece of bed linen decided to mount any sort of assault on Ft. Huachuca they would have succeeded handily no matter how poorly funded they were.
Security here (and at most Army installations to be honest) is nothing short of a bad joke. Illegal aliens cross this post (and thus are breaching it’s physical perimeter) so often and in such large numbers that students in the Intel and Signal schools have to be warned to not interact with them when they are in the training area.
Some few months back a group of poorly supervised trainees had their MRE’s stolen from them during a field training exercise. They were actually fortunate that the illegals did not opt to take any of their equally poorly secured weapons instead.
Most of the “perimeter” consists of 3-strand cow fence and in many portions this fence has been breached for quite some time. In other portions there are simply physical gaps left in plain view from the road.
None of that matters either though since gaining access to the post can be obtained by going to the gate with an ID, vehicle registration from any state, and proof of insurance (or a reasonable looking forgery of any of these since there is no checking done unless you have an AZ drivers license or military ID).
Just drive up, ask for a 30 day pass, present the above documents, and the vehicle is now authorized. I emphasize that part since at that point anyone with any state ID whatsoever is authorized to use that vehicle for unrestricted access to post. Go anywhere at any time.
Security? After those last two paragraphs can anyone seriously use the word security in relation to this Army post?
The fact is that even the most inept of would-be terrorists could find a dozen security holes here in less than 20 minutes of scrutiny. I would go into the reasons that this problem exists but the article would grow too long even for my tastes. Perhaps I will detail the problems that crop up when you try to secure physical access to large areas in another post.
No one ever came here with the intent to harm the post because they would have succeeded. We simply don't take physical security here seriously enough to deter anyone at all. Thankfully, our enemies are even more laughably incompetent and disorganized than our security planners are.
