Naval Air Station Pensacola

Naval Air Station Pensacola
Characteristics
ICAO code	KNPA
IATA code	NPA
Coordinates	30 ° 21 ′ 15 ″  N , 87 ° 18 ′ 20 ″  W Coordinates: 30 ° 21 ′ 15 ″  N , 87 ° 18 ′ 20 ″  W
Height above MSL	8.5 m (28  ft )
Transport links
Distance from the city center	10 km southwest of Pensacola
Basic data
opening	1913
Runways
01/19	2175 m of asphalt / concrete
07L / 25R	2439 m of asphalt / concrete
07R / 25L	2439 m of asphalt / concrete

The Naval Air Station Pensacola is a naval aviator , base, the United States Navy and is located near the city of Pensacola , Florida . It is an important base for training flights, and the Navy aerobatics , the Blue Angels , are also stationed there . The National Museum of Naval Aviation is located on the base .

history

Insignia of the base

In 1826 construction began on the site of today's NAS, known as the Pensacola Navy Yard . During the Civil War , the shipyard was demolished in 1862 by the troops of the Confederate States of America to prevent its use by the invading Northerners . After the war the shipyard was rebuilt.

In 1913, when naval aviation was in its infancy, a commission appointed by US Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels recommended that a training base for naval aviators be set up in Pensacola.

After the Second World War , today's Forrest Sherman Field was opened. In 1971 the base became headquarters for the Chief of Naval Education and Training . Finally, in 2005, Base Realignment and Closure threatened the base, which was seen as a potential target for closure as Hurricane Ivan had badly damaged it. In the end, this was not confirmed; instead, reconstruction followed.

Training of the Bundeswehr

Badge of the 2nd German Air Force Training Squadron

The Air Force has been training weapons system officers for the Tornado fighter aircraft at NAS since 1995 . The task of the 2nd German Air Force Training Squadron stationed there is also the management of the personnel of the German Navy , who are helicopter pilots and aircraft pilots at the Naval Air Stations Jacksonville , Whiting Field (Florida), San Diego in California and the Randolph Air Force Base in Texas , Aircraft operations officers and technicians for their aircraft. The squadron commander is either an Air Force staff officer or a Navy officer.

Note: The Navy has trained aircrew in Pensacola since 1956.

Attack by Saudi Arabian soldiers

On December 6, 2019, 21-year-old Lieutenant Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani of the Royal Saudi Air Force , who was training at the base, shot a Glock 9mm pistol around in a class building at the naval aviation base. He killed three US soldiers and injured eight people, including two police officers. The attacker was killed in an exchange of fire with the police. The three killed were US Navy soldiers. Alshamrani had been at the base since August 2017, with interruptions for pilot training. Before the attack, he published a reason for the planned attack on Twitter . In it he criticized US wars in Muslim countries, wrote about his hatred of the American people, criticized Washington's support for Israel and quoted Osama bin Laden and Anwar al-Awlaki . Before the attack, he had thrown a party where he and three other Saudi soldiers watched videos of US mass murders. One of these three soldiers filmed the crime from outside the building and the other two Saudi students watched from a car. An analysis by the Saudi government was published on December 11, according to which Alshamrani appears to have adopted a radical ideology as early as 2015. A Twitter account believed to have been used by Alshamrani suggests that four religious figures described as radical seem to have shaped his extremist thoughts. Support for radical Islam, including terrorism, as well as support for the Taliban and hatred of the West were also presented in the analysis . The perpetrator legally bought the murder weapon from a gun store with a US hunting license that allows non-immigrants with a non-immigrant visa to purchase a weapon. The attack was considered a terrorist attack .

After evaluating cell phone data, the FBI established beyond any doubt that the assassin had contacts with Al Qaeda on the Arabian Peninsula before he even arrived in the United States . This is the first terrorist attack directed from abroad since 9/11.

Web links

Commons : Naval Air Station Pensacola  - Collection of images

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Training in the USA. In: Air Force. Bundeswehr, December 3, 2013, accessed on December 3, 2014 . 
2. ↑ 2. German Air Force Training Squadron USA . In: Air Force. Bundeswehr, June 3, 2014, accessed on December 3, 2014.
3. ↑ Saudi soldier kills three people on US military base welt.de on December 7, 2019, accessed on December 7, 2019
4. ↑ Navy identifies 3 people killed in NAS Pensacola shooting US Today on December 7, 2019
5. ↑ Saudi airman may have become radicalized before US Navy base attack Reuters of December 7, 2019
6. ↑ Official: Base shooter watched shooting videos before attack AP News dated December 7, 2019
7. ↑ Gunman in Florida base shooting may have embraced radical ideology years before arriving in US, Saudi report says Washington Post dated December 11, 2019
8. ↑ FBI presumes Pensacola base attack was an act of terror; no motive identified CNN dated December 8, 2019
9. ^ "Attorney General William Barr and the FBI said that data from cellphones of a Saudi Air Force trainee who killed three US sailors and wounded eight others at a Navy air base in Pensacola, Fla., On Dec. 6 confirmed that it was an act of foreign-planned "terrorism." The phone data “definitively establishes” that the trainee, Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani, had “significant ties to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula - not only before the attack, but before he even arrived in the United States” in August 2017. He actually had joined the Saudi military to carry out a “special operation.” “( https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/26/opinion/mike-pompeo.html )