{"id":16673,"date":"2019-09-05T21:51:35","date_gmt":"2019-09-05T21:51:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/uncategorized\/2019\/09\/05\/the-gate-runner-how-a-bizarre-breach-at-mildenhall-transformed-base-security-across-the-air-force\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T20:25:29","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T20:25:29","slug":"the-gate-runner-how-a-bizarre-breach-at-mildenhall-transformed-base-security-across-the-air-force","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/news\/your-air-force\/2019\/09\/05\/the-gate-runner-how-a-bizarre-breach-at-mildenhall-transformed-base-security-across-the-air-force\/","title":{"rendered":"THE GATE RUNNER: How a bizarre breach at Mildenhall transformed base security across the Air Force"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It was about 1 p.m. when the odd man with a teddy bear strapped to his chest showed up at the main gate to RAF Mildenhall<\/a> in England. He was from the Secret Service, he said, as he attempted to show the guard a British passport as identification.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is a matter of national security, and I must speak to the president,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seconds later, he gunned the engine, tires squealing, through the gate and easily swerved around a pop-up barricade. The shocked guards quickly radioed an alert: There was an intruder on Mildenhall<\/a> \u2014 and nobody knew what he was going to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Miraculously, the ensuing chase, in which multiple shots were fired, ended with no injuries to the unidentified man aside from some bumps and scrapes during his eventual arrest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But in those hectic 20 minutes, he was still able to drag a security forces airman; breach Mildenhall\u2019s flightline; drive across active taxiways under the wings of two parked C-130s and within a few feet of a taxiing KC-10; and attempt to drive up the ramp of a parked Osprey. It ended when a security forces airman in a car rammed the intruder\u2019s vehicle, pinning it against that same Osprey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The teddy bear, which was torn to pieces during his ensuing arrest, was the only casualty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
U.S. Air Force Airman 1st Class Jacob Yarbrough, 100th Security Forces Squadron response force member, keeps watch at the gate Sept. 23, 2016, on RAF Mildenhall, England. Yarbrough and 100th SFS Airmen keep the base secure by defending the gates day and night. (U.S. Air Force photo by Gina Randall)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Dec. 18, 2017, gate breach incident at Mildenhall prompted the Air Force to do some serious soul-searching about how it handles base security<\/a> \u2014 both in terms of infrastructure and its security forces\u2019 tactics, training and procedures \u2014 and make changes to ensure something like that doesn\u2019t happen again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After all, what if that hadn\u2019t been a teddy bear strapped to the man, but something more nefarious<\/a>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was something of a wake-up call for us,\u201d said then-Brig. Gen. Andrea Tullos, who was the Air Force\u2019s director of security forces, in an Aug. 9 interview at the Pentagon. Tullos has since pinned on her second star and is now commander of the Second Air Force. \u201cThat will remain a studied case for us for years and years. Hopefully, we won\u2019t have another one.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Air Force Times obtained documents on the incident, including a use of force review, witness statements, a two-star general-led Tiger Team\u2019s review, and emails between Air Force leadership via the Freedom of Information Act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A bizarre breach<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The guards at Mildenhall\u2019s Gate 15 knew right away they had a situation on their hands when the man pulled up in a black Volvo station wagon with a 2-foot, brown teddy bear buckled to his chest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He admitted he lacked identification proving his claimed Secret Service status, and asked an airman guarding the gate if she had ever met anyone in that agency. The guard told him that she had not and asked to see some other ID.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

ERRATIC JOURNEY<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A disturbed individual driving a black Volvo XC70 station wagon managed to get onto RAF Mildenhall Dec. 18, 2017. <\/i>1<\/b><\/i>. (1300 hrs) Subject arrives at the main gate and is refused entry. He runs the gate; guards activate pop-up barriers. <\/i>2<\/b><\/i>. (1306 hrs) He maneuvers around a raised barrier and through a gap. <\/i>3<\/b><\/i>. (1307 hrs) He attempts to enter airfield, but encounters a locked gate near the fuel area. <\/i>4<\/b><\/i>. (1311 hrs) He maneuvers through a roadblock and is fired uoon 11 times. <\/i>5<\/b><\/i>. He enters the airfield. <\/i>6<\/b><\/i>. He drives under the wings of two parked C-130 aircraft. <\/i>7<\/b><\/i>. He drives in front of a taxiing KC-10. <\/i>8<\/b><\/i>. (1320 hrs) He attempts to enter a CV-22 with his vehicle and is apprehended. (Tiger Team Review of Unauthorized Vehicle Access at RAF Mildenhall, UK<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2666 \u2666 \u2666<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the man produced a British passport, the guard told him that was not valid to get on base. He began to get agitated insisting over and over again that he was Secret Service and needed to get on base. He then clenched the teddy bear and began to shake back and forth in his seat, the guard later told investigators. The car slowly pulled forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another guard told the man to calm down and stop driving. Instead, he quickly accelerated past them. A guard left the shack and activated the pop-up barriers that were intended to block an intruder\u2019s vehicle in just this sort of a situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But this gate had a serious flaw. In 2012, a fence and light pole by the main gate\u2019s westbound vehicle barrier was moved to create a safe lane for joggers. This added about three feet of space and created a non-regulation 93-inch gap in the containment area that ordinarily would have entrapped a gate-running vehicle when the barrier popped up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a result, the intruder simply drove his 74-inch wide vehicle around the pop-up barrier and through the gap, with about 9 inches to spare on either side. He then turned west on Squawkin Hawk Highway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Aerial footage aired by the BBC showed a vehicle by an Osprey on the flightline at RAF Mildenhall in England, surrounded by police. The Suffolk Police confirmed the vehicle that breached the gate at Mildenhall reached the base’s airfield. (Screenshot via BBC)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGate runner, gate runner, gate runner,\u201d a guard radioed to the Base Defense Operations Center, along with a description of the vehicle. And just like that, the intruder was loose on RAF Mildenhall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The base immediately went on lockdown. Security forces scrambled to respond \u2014 with some leaving their flightline positions in the frenzy, leaving it partly unguarded, Tullos said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The intruder proceeded a little more than half a mile and tried to enter the airfield for the first time, but was foiled by a locked gate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One defender, a senior airman, responded and encountered another black Volvo, driven by a lieutenant colonel headed in the same direction on the same road. He stopped the lieutenant colonel\u2019s car while the intruder pulled up directly behind them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The senior airman soon concluded the lieutenant colonel was not the intruder and drove on his way \u2014 past the intruder\u2019s vehicle, without stopping, challenging or blocking him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two other base defenders, a master sergeant and a technical sergeant, set up a roadblock with their patrol vehicle to intercept the intruder. Once again, the lieutenant colonel in his own black Volvo was stopped. When the NCOs started to apprehend the officer, the senior airman noticed what they were doing and turned their way, again passing the intruder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s when security forces realized who the real gate runner was. They approached his vehicle and demanded he roll down his window. The driver \u201cappeared to be mentally disturbed and \u2018was not right,\u2019\u201d the report quotes a base defender as saying.<\/p>\n\n\n\t