“Fox News reported Sunday that a number of Navy pilots who remained anonymous plan to send the draft letter to colleagues for signatures before presenting it to lawmakers on the House and Senate Armed Services committees in the hopes of spurring change after three people were killed in a shooting at Naval Air Station Pensacola.
The pilots told Fox News that the purpose of the campaign is to “discontinue what has become a severe irony burdening our servicemembers: that they can be entrusted to fly multimillion-dollar aircraft over hostile territory, command companies of infantrymen into battle, or captain ships around the world, all while holding the nation’s top security clearances, but when back home are not trusted to carry a simple pistol in order to protect themselves.”
“It is reprehensible that a military installation, much less its warfighters based there, be at the mercy of off-base, civilian law enforcement when faced with an immediate threat to their lives,” reads the letter.”
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