What do you get when you combine a Special Operations AC-130W Stinger II gunship with the Navy’s P-8A Poseidon recon plane and a patrol coastal ship?

A big boom and a spray of debris.

A joint exercise launched March 8 and 9 in the Persian Gulf involving the Cyclone-class Monsoon and the two aircraft was designed to see how well a surface patrol ship and a long-range spy plane could select targets in the Persian Gulf for a Special Operations Command Central gunship to blast to bits.

The scenario envisioned the U.S. forces providing maritime security, such as during convoy operations, in contested waters.

“Our surface forces integrating with aircraft that have the firepower of an AC-130W brings a capability to the joint force that profoundly enhances our lethality in the maritime environment. The addition of the gunship to the joint maritime battle significantly enhances our ability to detect, track, engage and defeat surface threats in order to control water space in the Arabian Gulf,” said Capt. Peter Mirisola — the commander of Destroyer Squadron 50 and Combined Task Force 55 — in a prepared statement released Sunday.

“The effectiveness of this joint capability to conduct maritime strike, reconnaissance and armed overwatch was clearly displayed during this live-fire event.”

Although Special Operations MH-6M Little Bird helicopters were integrated with U.S. Navy forces during Operation Earnest Will, which tried to protect convoys of tankers against Iranian attacks between 1987 and 1988, this was the first exercise of its kind in the Persian Gulf linking the patrol coastal fleet with a Poseidon and AC-130W Stinger II.

The Gulf tapers into a vital choke point — the Strait of Hormuz — where roughly 21 million barrels of oil per day are carried on large commercial vessels, about 21 percent of the globe’s liquid petroleum liquids consumption.

It also came amid ongoing tensions between Iran and the United States that has included six strikes against oil tankers in May and June of last year, acts of terrorism that Washington blames on Tehran.

“We’ve effectively employed similar joint capabilities in the past to counter belligerent forces that attempt to disrupt or hinder the free flow of commerce and freedom of navigation in this region using force, or attack U.S., coalition, or partner forces in a conflict,” said U.S. 5th Fleet commander Vice Adm. Jim Malloy.

The $122 million Lockheed Martin AC-130W Stinger II is a modified C-130 Hercules four-engine turboprop plane that can fire the 30mm GAU-23 cannon, 105 mm M102 howitzer, standoff precision-guided munitions, the GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb and the GBU-53/B StormBreaker — a highly precise glide bomb — during both close air support and air interdiction missions.

The plane has a range of 2,500 nautical miles but can be refueled in midair.

Between the announcements came a mission launched by the Coast Guard to rescue an elderly patient — who isn’t sick with coronavirus — from a quarantined cruise ship off California.

Sent shortly before 8 p.m. from the Pentagon, the brief email message indicated that a Marine assigned to Virginia’s Fort Belvoir had tested positive for COVID-19 and is being treated at Fort Belvoir Community Hospital. He recently returned from an unspecified destination overseas where he was on official business, the message stated.

Defense Secretary Mark Esper had been briefed and the White House notified of the latest case.

“The information in the release is what is being provided at this time,” a Pentagon duty officer said after being contacted by Navy Times.

Fort Belvoir Community Hospital’s official social media accounts confirmed late Saturday that health workers there had sent the Marine’s preliminary test results to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for final confirmation.

Assuring the public that hospital staffers have expertise in infectious diseases and are well equipped to deal with coronavirus cases, the officials indicated that they also are coordinating with Virginia’s Department of Public Health and the CDC.

“The protection of our staff, patients, beneficiaries and visitors is paramount,” the message stated. “We have identified isolation rooms to ensure patients are away from others who are receiving care.”

On Friday, a U.S. Navy sailor at Naval Support Activity Naples tested positive for the disease, becoming the first COVID-19 case of an American service member in Europe.

The sailor is restricted to his or her residence and will continue to receive care prescribed by the CDC and Italian health agencies, officials said.

Those who are suspected of having been in close contact with the unidentified sailor also have been notified and are in self-isolation at their residences, according to a prepared statement released Saturday by U.S. European Command.

It remains unclear how many sailors and their families have been affected by the coronavirus case there and officials have not disclosed the severity of the illness for the infected sailor.

Italy’s coronavirus outbreak has been concentrated in the northern region of Lombardy, more than 480 miles north of Naples.

For additional information, Pentagon officials referred Navy Times to EUCOM in Germany, which did not return messages.

In the meantime, military health workers are conducting what European Command officials in their prepared statement called a “thorough contact investigation” to locate any other personnel who might have been exposed to the potentially lethal virus.

“Depending on the results of that investigation, additional precautionary measures may be taken,” the statement indicated.

EUCOM officials say that they are coordinating with the U.S. Embassy, Italian authorities and public health experts to ensure the health of both American service members, their families and the local population.

In Italy, Civil Protection Agency officials announced that the death toll from the new strain of coronavirus there has risen to 197 following the largest hike in fatalities there since the global outbreak began.

It’s the most deaths in any nation except China, where the virus emerged in the city of Wuhan in December.

Italian authorities say that they are tracking more than 4,600 reported cases. Globally, the World Health Organization say the coronavirus has sickened more than 101,000 people, killing more than 3,000, mostly in China.

U.S. Forces Korea on Sunday said the Army has stopped moving all soldiers and their families to and from South Korea because of COVID-19 concerns. The order also applies to soldiers scheduled to attend professional military education in the United States. The orders are in effect until May 6 or until further notice.

Following the coronavirus infection of a U.S. Army soldier in South Korea, on Feb. 26 U.S. Pacific Fleet commander Adm. John C. “Lung” Aquilino directed all vessels visiting nations in the 7th Fleet area of operations “to remain at sea for at least 14 days before pulling into another port in order to monitor sailors for any symptoms” of COVID-19.

The measure was taken to prevent the spread of the disease to both the U.S. military and populations in the ports that personnel visit.

California health authorities are forcing similar precautions on the Grand Princess.

The ocean liner has been barred from docking in San Francisco after reporting one death amid about 20 coronavirus cases that broke out on board the ship during a previous voyage.

It remains anchored about 50 miles offshore while California officials consult with Vice President Mike Pence — who was in Florida meeting with cruise line executives — about potentially moving the vessel to a federal pier.

Coast Guard Sector San Francisco officials told Navy Times that on Saturday morning they medevaced a Grand Princess passenger with an illness unrelated to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Notified by the ship’s captain that a woman reported to be in her mid-70s needed treatment, watchstanders consulted with the duty flight surgeon and CDC experts, who recommended that she be evacuated from the ocean liner.

According to a statement emailed to Navy Times, the crew of the cutter Tern transported the patient and her husband to awaiting paramedics and CDC personnel at Coast Guard Sector San Francisco on Yerba Buena Island.

She was last reported to be in stable condition.

It was the second mission in as many days for the Coast Guard. On Friday evening, an Air Station San Francisco MH-65 Dolphin rescue helicopter crew delivered face masks and other protective gear provided by Princess Cruises to the liner.

Aquilino’s unclassified Wednesday order is part of a larger Navy effort to control the spread of a disease that emerged in China’s Wuhan City last year and now has been detected in 37 locations internationally, including cases in the United States.

On Tuesday, a U.S. soldier stationed in South Korea became the first service member to test positive for the virus but Navy officials insist no personnel in the sea service have shown signs of the disease.

Previous Pacific Fleet directives have included instructions on how to detect the disease in crews and the steps medical teams should take to treat the illness and prevent its outbreak.

The latest measure is designed to better protect the force while also safeguarding allies, partners and friends of the United States from potential infection.

Based in Japan, the 7th Fleet is the largest of the Navy’s numbered fleets, with up to 80 warships and submarines operating within an area of responsibility that extends from the International Dateline to the borders of India and Pakistan and south to Antarctica.

That adds up to 36 maritime nations that contain more than half of the world’s population.

Nations in the 7th Fleet AOR that have recorded COVID-19 cases include Japan, Australia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.

Commands assigned to the 7th Fleet annually engage in more than 100 bilateral and multilateral exercises and ships schedule more than 200 port calls.

Wednesday’s directive applies only to afloat units. It takes into account the vast distances across the Pacific and Indian oceans vessels must travel, which should make the 14-day underway order easy to enforce.

Crews and embarked Marines likely to be affected by the new order include the 7th Fleet flagship Blue Ridge, the amphibious assault ship America and the dock landing ship Green Bay, which recently arrived in Thailand to participate in Exercise Cobra Gold.

There’s no expiration date on the Pacific Fleet’s mandate, but officials will continue to monitor the coronavirus outbreak and tailor directives to address it.

Reached by Navy Times in Hawaii, Pacific Fleet officials declined to speak on the record about the new measures but pushed back at concerns the order was tantamount to a quarantine.

Last March, Bahrain-based 5th Fleet officials also bristled at the q-word when asked about the dock landing ship Fort McHenry, which had been forced to ply the Arabian Sea, Persian Gulf, Gulf of Oman and other waters for three months, avoiding port and direct contact with international training partners after an on board outbreak of viral parotitis.

An infection that triggers symptoms similar to mumps, with fever, dehydration and chills, it had been detected in about 3.5 percent of the sailors and Marines on board the Florida-based warship.

He was 97 and passed away in his Colorado Springs, Colorado, home surrounded by his wife of nearly seven decades, Velma, and his son, Randy, a Facebook post stated.

“One of Donald’s final wishes was that people remember Pearl Harbor and the men aboard the USS Arizona. Share their story and never forget those who gave all for our great country,” it read.

As a seaman 1st class, Stratton had to scale three ladders to reach his battle station on board the battleship Arizona’s sky control platform before General Quarters sounded amid the bedlam of the Japanese attack that launched the United States into World War II.

His job was to direct four of the 5-inch guns in his portside section.

“We were firing,” Stratton recalled in a 2006 interview with World War II magazine, a sister publication of Navy Times. “There were only 50 rounds of ammunition in the ready box behind each gun, and I could see that some of the crews had to break the locks off the boxes to load their guns.”

By the 2006 interview, Stratton was one of only a handful of Arizona survivors still alive.

Most of the crew — 1,177 officers and sailors — died on that terrible morning in 1941.

The vast majority of the Arizona’s survivors were ashore when the bombs fell and didn’t witness the carnage from the deck of the doomed battleship.

As the Japanese dive bombers found their target, Stratton’s guns blazed away for only six minutes.

An armor-piercing bomb from a Japanese plane struck near the Arizona’s Turret II, sawing through the steel deck, and within seven seconds ignited the magazines in the forward section of the warship.

“There was a ball of flame that went about 500 to 600 feet in the air, and it just engulfed the whole foremast up there where we were and the whole bow of the ship,” Stratton recalled.

The explosion cleaved the battleship in half, rained metal upon Ford Island and unleashed fires that raged for two days across what was left of Stratton’s vessel.

“As soon as I came to my senses, I tried to hide under some of the equipment to keep away from the blaze, but I still got burned,” Stratton told World War II magazine. “The fire came right into the director.”

Stratton was torched from thighs to ankle and across his back, arms and left torso, plus his face. He was burned bald on his head, and the flames had chewed through part of an ear.

More than three out of every five inches of his skin had been scorched.

And his ordeal wasn’t over. He and five other burned men staggered across a splintered warship that glowed red hot from blazes fueled by oil and munitions.

Six survivors banded together, looking for an escape route to the water, but never found one.

But then an alert sailor on board the nearby repair ship Vestal spotted them. After several tries, he tossed across a heaving line and heavy line so they could claw, four stories above the inferno, the 70 feet of rope to reach the Vestal’s deck.

Two of the six later died from their burns. Stratton was one of the four who made it.

During his long recovery, Stratton’s military surgeons urged him to let them amputate his burned limbs, but Stratton refused and forced himself through the pain to relearn how to walk.

Medically discharged in late 1942, Stratton could’ve stayed out of the war. But about a year later he went back into the Navy through his draft board, which meant he had replay boot camp to prove he still could serve.

After graduation, he was posted to Naval Station Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay when he drew orders to report to the destroyer Stack as a gunner’s mate third class.

Stack survived New Guinea, the Philippines and then destroyer picket duty off Okinawa, Japan.

He survived America’s first great battle of the war and the nation’s last.

In 2001, Stratton began fighting the Pentagon bureaucracy and Congress to honor Joseph Leon George.

Boatswain’s Mate 2nd Class George was the alert sailor on board the Vestal heaving the lines to the Arizona, and Stratton had discovered he’d never been decorated for his lifesaving efforts.

A retired chief petty officer, George died in 1996 at the age of 80.

In 2017, Stratton and one of his fellow survivors, retired Navy Fire Control Chief Lauren Bruner, traveled to Washington, D.C., to personally petition Congress and President Donald J. Trump to award a posthumous medal to George.

And they won their final battle of World War II.

On Dec. 7, 2017, George’s family received on his behalf a Bronze Star with a “V” device for battlefield valor.

Bruner died Sept. 10, 2019, at age 98.

On Dec. 7, 2019, he became the last Pearl Harbor survivor to be interred inside the Arizona.

The co-author of the bestselling “All the Gallant Men: An American Sailor’s Firsthand Account of Pearl Harbor,” Donald Stratton is survived by his wife, Velma; children Robert, Randy, Gypsy and Roxanne Jo; plus 13 grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

This is a breaking story, and Navy Times will continue to update it.

“I am proud to endorse Mike Bloomberg for President of the United States,” said Richard V. Spencer, according to a transcript of his remarks sent to Navy Times by the campaign. “I have the utmost confidence that Mike will faithfully execute his duty as commander in chief.

“He will preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution and uphold the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Mike will honor the service and ensure the equal treatment of all women and men in uniform. He also will respect the advice of military advisers.”

Tossing verbal darts at Trump while standing in the shadow of the museum battleship Wisconsin, Spencer promised that Bloomberg — the billionaire former mayor of New York and a fierce advocate of stronger gun control laws — would restore “America’s standing in the world” and mend “relationships with our allies.”

Bloomberg, Spencer continued, “has the experience, integrity and self-discipline to lead our armed forces, unite our country, and rebuild America.”

Bloomberg returned the praise, lauding Spencer for his service, leadership and integrity and “for always honoring the oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States of America, even in the face of tremendous pressure.

“I can’t think of a person I respect more for their character. You really are the definition of a great American and we all appreciate it.”

What neither man mentioned in their flowery speeches was that Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper demanded Spencer’s resignation on Nov. 24 after discovering an alleged pattern of deception tied to a series of sham hearings rigged to yank the coveted tridents of several SEALs mired in war crimes allegations, especially the pin worn by Special Warfare Operator Chief Edward “Eddie” Gallagher.

Trump had intervened multiple times in Gallagher’s case, including restoring his chief’s anchors after he had been demoted to petty officer first class following his conviction for posing next to the corpse of a dead Islamic State detainee.

Esper believed that Spencer followed his guidance to let uniformed Navy officers and senior enlisted leaders handle the trident review panels. During a visit to the White House at the height of the controversy, however, he and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley discovered Spencer secretly tried to broker a wink-wink deal that would restore Gallagher’s trident after it was taken by the administrative board.

While Spencer’s alleged double-dealing with the White House appeared to call into question the real reason for the SEALs’ administrative hearings and larger problems involving the sorry state of the Navy’s criminal justice system during the ex-secretary’s tenure, he sought to paint a different picture of his departure.

In a resignation letter released after he exited the Pentagon, Spencer said he really quit over the “deadly serious business” of preserving good order and discipline in the Navy, a perspective he believed Trump didn’t share.

But Trump took to Twitter to gripe about Spencer’s inability to stop cost overruns and contracting problems in major procurement projects while also voicing his displeasure with the Navy’s handling of the Gallagher affair.

Although charged with murdering the prisoner of war, shooting at innocent civilians and other war crimes, a panel of his peers tossed the specifications against Gallagher during his summer court-martial trial, leaving only the photo accusation, a charge the SEAL never denied doing.

Gallagher’s case already had been dogged for months with allegations of misconduct by Navy prosecutors and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service under Spencer’s watch that included a warrantless spying program targeting defense attorneys and Navy Times.

Bloomberg’s campaign team asked Navy Times to interview Spencer on Friday but later canceled, saying in an email that he was “booked for the rest of today” but might be able to chat next week.

Questions submitted by Navy Times to the campaign by email weren’t answered but the staff sent Bloomberg’s speech and a list of endorsements the campaign received Friday from lawmakers with ties to the military.

They included U.S. Rep. Max Rose, D-N.Y. — a former Army platoon leader wounded in Afghanistan — and Rep. Mikie Sherrill, D-N.J., a former Navy helicopter pilot and Russian policy officer.

“I served in the Navy with members of our military community dedicated to making our country safer and stronger, and it’s clear we need the same level of commitment from our political leaders,” she said in an email forwarded by the campaign to Navy Times. “Mike Bloomberg embodies the integrity we need from leadership and I am proud to give my support to him today.

“His unwavering commitment to making our schools and streets safe from gun violence, investing in our region’s infrastructure, creating opportunities for our veterans, and protecting our environment is proof that Mike Bloomberg won’t back down from the many serious challenges we face as a country. Mike is a true public servant, and I’m confident he will move this country forward into a bright future.”

Bloomberg echoed her glowing endorsement during his Friday visit to Norfolk, where he pitched a plan designed to appeal to military veterans in Virginia, which will participate in the Super Tuesday primaries on March 3.

Largely bypassing the Iowa caucus and the upcoming New Hampshire primary, Bloomberg’s campaign has focused on Virginia, Texas, California and 11 other Super Tuesday states, reportedly saturating the airwaves with more than $300 million in TV ads.

“I won’t get into all of the details, but you can rest assured that our administration will help more veterans launch small businesses, our administration will connect veterans with good jobs and build on the skills and training that they have, and our administration will strengthen the VA to better serve those who need it,” Bloomberg said.

“One of the things we’re also going to do is make sure that we help veterans build more wealth and successful careers after service, and strengthening healthcare, and mental healthcare, and reproductive healthcare, and affordable child care for veterans and service members.”

As for how he’ll perform as the commander in chief, Bloomberg said it won’t be like several of his Democratic rivals who are legislators — such as Sens. Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Army Klobuchar —but rather as an “effective decision-maker” who has run large organizations, including the 300,000 municipal employees in New York.

“We all know the hardest decisions a president has to make are those that put Americans in harm’s way,” Bloomberg said. “Those are decisions that must never be taken lightly – or without broad consultation with senior military and civilian national security advisers.”

He promised to install a smart and nimble national security team that will sift through “data and intelligence, thinking through second- and third-order consequences, and, ultimately, making decisions and carrying them out.

“Great leaders know how to separate what is important from what is not. They know how to define priorities and keep the focus on them and not be distracted or diverted from things that really don’t matter.“

Bloomberg pointed to Trump as a “cult leader” who “acts on impulse, rather than reason,” a man who “thinks he alone has the answers” who’s saddled with an ego that “does not leave room for the concept of team.”

“He seems to view our international allies the same way — not as partners, but as lackeys who must bend to his will, or face the consequences,” Bloomberg continued. “International partnerships are crucial to America’s ability to achieve strategic goals — for our security, and our economy, and in every other important area.

Bloomberg criticized the president’s decision to “abandon our Kurdish allies” in Syria, a message the former mayor said “could not be clearer: You can’t count on America anymore.”

He called the late Sen. John McCain, a Navy hero and Republican who represented Arizona, a “good friend” who was insulted by Trump, a president who “can’t abide strong, independent thinkers” and listens more to Russian strongman Vladimir Putin than his own director of National Intelligence.

It marks the first time a flattop has paid homage to an African American, a Navy Cross recipient and an enlisted service member. And it was decreed on a day set aside to remember the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and his lifelong crusade to end racial discrimination across the United States.

With the USS Arizona Memorial his backdrop, Modly sketched how Miller rose to battle on the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, a mess attendant in a racially segregated rating that made African American men servants to white officers.

Instead of collecting the morning’s laundry, Miller carried wounded shipmates from the blazing battleship West Virginia after it was hit by enemy fire. He fought the flames as they erupted on the vessel and then manned a .50 caliber machine gun — a weapon he never operated previously — to swat away Japanese planes during the ongoing surprise attack that launched the United States into World War II.

His ammo spent and ordered to abandon ship, he was one of the last three sailors to escape the West Virginia.

Advanced to mess attendant first class on June 1, 1942, and awarded the Navy Cross for combat valor, Miller was killed 17 months later when a Japanese submarine sank the escort carrier Liscome Bay off Makin Atoll during the invasion of the Gilbert Islands.

“He died as he lived, an American sailor defending his nation, shoulder to shoulder with his shipmates, until the end,” said Modly. “Dorie Miller stood for everything that is good about our nation. His story deserves to be remembered and repeated wherever our people continue to stand the watch today.

“He’s not just the story of one sailor. It is the story of our Navy, of our nation and our ongoing struggle to form — in the words of our Constitution — a more perfect union.”

The future aircraft carrier Miller won’t be the first Navy vessel to honor the hero. On June 20, 1973, the Navy commissioned the destroyer escort Miller — which was reclassified as a frigate two years later.

Modly said that when completed, the new Doris Miller, a Gerald R. Ford-class carrier, will be the most powerful and lethal warship ever built by man.

Designed to operate deep into the 21st century, more than 100,000 officers and crew will serve on the carrier, many of them yet to be born.

The bulk of those sailors and Marines will be enlisted, the men and women Modly called “the steel spine of our ships.” He said the faces of a great and diverse crew will go with their carrier to every corner of the globe as a visible symbol of American values.

The name of the carrier also will remind the nation of its everlasting debt to the veterans of World War II who, like Miller, sacrificed so that future American generations would be free.

The acting secretary traced a similar journey Miller’s legacy took in the mid-20th century, from his day of courage in Pearl Harbor to a budding civil rights movement that leaned on him as an example to force a wartime nation to open up its defense plants to African Americans.

Modly pointed to the bitter irony of African American service members who fought tyranny abroad in World War II only to return home to a nation that denied them liberty simply because of the color of their skin.

He drew a moral arc from Miller’s heroism and quietly persuasive call for positive change during the war to the core message of Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1963 Letter from a Birmingham Jail: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.”

That same line continued to Aug. 28, 1963, on the National Mall, when King stood before the Lincoln Memorial and uttered his “I Have a Dream” speech to thousands of peaceful protesters during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

And then it all returned to Pearl Harbor, where Modly officially named a new carrier in Miller’s honor, only a short distance from where he became one of the first Americans to fight in World War II.

“In selecting this name, we honor the contributions of all our enlisted ranks, past and present, men and women, of every race, religion and background,” said Modly.

“Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. observed, ‘Everybody can be great – because anybody can serve.’ No one understands the importance and true meaning of service than those who have volunteered to put the needs of others above themselves.”

That spirit was bipartisan.

U.S. Rep. Bill Flores, a Republican who represents Miller’s hometown of Waco, pointed to the importance of a carrier named after an enlisted hero, saying that it will serve as inspiration to future generations of young service members.

Also born in segregated Waco but today representing Dallas, Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson recalled hearing the tale of Miller’s heroism from her father.

She continues to spearhead the push on Capitol Hill and inside the Pentagon to upgrade Miller’s Navy Cross to the Medal of Honor.

“My journey’s not quite over,” she said.

“He was a suspected armed gunman,” said air station spokeswoman Fifi Kieschnick. “He’s now in the custody of base security. No shots were fired. No injuries were reported. There is no known connection between this morning’s incident and other incidents around the country.”

She said that the unnamed man is no longer on the base.

Shortly after 7:30 a.m., Naval Air Station Corpus Christi ordered the base locked down and all personnel to shelter in place. By 7:47 a.m., however, the base’s social media accounts said they had “a suspect in custody.”

At 10:01 a.m., Corpus Christi Police Department officials said the lockdown had lifted, adding that they didn’t respond to the incident.

Later in the afternoon, Navy officials released a prepared statement saying that base security responded to reports that an employee at the Corpus Christi Army Depot inside the air station made verbal threats about other workers there.

After apprehending the suspect for questioning, security forces swept the area. After deeming the incident over and the installation safe, they reopened the gates to normal traffic, according to the statement.

“I am relieved to report no one was injured,” said Naval Air Station Corpus Christi Commanding Officer Capt. Chris Jason in the statement. “The safety of our employees and families, and of our surrounding community, is my top priority.

“We are keenly aware of the recent incidents at other naval installations and we train diligently to respond to such situations. I am very proud of the prompt response from our Navy and Army Security Forces, and I am grateful for the outstanding support provided by local and federal law enforcement.”

It wasn’t the first lockdown at the base this year.

In October, the air station shut down when officials said a person who was possibly armed made it onto the grounds.

In February, base security shot to death a man who crashed a stolen SUV through a gate there.

But the latest lockdown arrived in the wake of three Navy tragedies.

On Nov. 30, a civilian man driving a pickup truck breached a gate at Joint Expeditionary Base Fort Story before striking a Navy police cruiser and killing a sailor inside. He’s been charged with involuntary manslaughter.

That was followed by a Dec. 4 shooting spree at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard, when Machinist’s Mate Auxiliary Fireman Gabriel Antonio Romero, 22, opened fire, killing two Department of Defense workers and wounding a third before taking his own life.

Two days later, Saudi Air Force 2nd Lt. Mohammed Alshamrani opened fire on Naval Air Station Pensacola classroom, killing three sailors and injuring eight more before he died in a shootout with law enforcement officers.

Naval Air Station Corpus Christi’s Naval Aviator training program produces hundreds of fixed-wing jet and turboprop aircraft aviators for the Navy, Marine Corps and partner and allied military forces.

This is a breaking story and Navy Times will keep updating it. Our latest update noted that the lockdown had ended.

Addressing reporters inside the Escambia County Emergency Operations Center in Pensacola, Rachel Rojas, the special agent in charge of the Jacksonville Field Office, said 80 FBI agents and task force officers are being assisted by 100 other staffers nationwide to figure out why Mohammed Alshamrani killed three sailors and wounded eight others at the Navy base.

They’ve been joined by agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Naval Criminal Investigative Service, Homeland Security Investigations and other federal, state and local law enforcement departments and Rojas urged patience while they continue “looking very hard at uncovering his motive.”

Alshamrani, a second lieutenant in the Royal Saudi Air Force, was a student naval flight officer at Naval Aviation Schools Command.

Downplaying reporting that federal agents had detained Saudi citizens in Pensacola, Rojas said that Alshamrani’s fellow students “continue to cooperate with this investigation.” She said that their Saudi commander has restricted them to base and that officials in Riyadh ordered them to provide “full and complete cooperation” to agents.

When asked if they were detained by federal law enforcement, Rojas said, “They’re not in our custody,” adding that no arrests have been made in the case.

Discounting rumors that federal officials have been unable to find Saudi citizens to interview, Rojas insisted the Navy has assured her that the sea service has “100 percent accountability on all international students” at Naval Air Station Pensacola.

Rojas refused to confirm reporting that suggested Alshamrani had attended a “watch party” featuring mass shooting videos — adding that she didn’t want “to continue the misinformation campaign” — or stories that indicated others had recorded the shooting spree.

Hours after the press conference concluded, FBI spokeswoman Amanda Warford Videll told Navy Times in an email that investigators had recovered multiple videos from base security surveillance, plus cell phone footage “taken by a bystander outside the building after the attack had started and after first responders had arrived.”

She said FBI agents interviewed the person who took the images and continue to analyze them “to determine if any details can further this investigation.”

Officials have said that Alshamrani died in an exchange of gunfire with law enforcement officers who responded to the Friday shooting.

Rojas said that the FBI is treating the case with “the presumption of an act of terrorism,” a move that frees the agency to merge counter-terrorism and criminal investigations to more quickly determine if he acted alone or as part of a wider network and find any ongoing threats to the United States.

So far, she said, there’s no evidence of a lingering threat to the people of Pensacola.

Rojas said that it appeared Alshamrani, 21, “legally and lawfully” obtained the murder weapon — a Glock Model 45 9mm — in Florida.

Federal regulations allow non-immigrant international visitors to possess firearms if they hold a valid hunting license or permit, are official representatives of a foreign government or fall under other exemptions.

She said that agents continued to interview witnesses to the shooting, base personnel, Alshamrani’s classmates and friends.

Anyone with information about the gunman is urged to telephone 1-800-CALL-FBI.

As previously reported by Navy Times, he’s Mohammed Alshamrani, 21, a second lieutenant in the Royal Saudi Air Force who was a student naval flight officer at Naval Aviation Schools Command.

“Anyone with information regarding Alshamrani and his activities is encouraged to call 1-800-CALL-FBI,” the message said.

Moments after the FBI statement came out, Navy leaders identified Alshamrani’s three slain victims:

• Ensign Joshua Kaleb Watson, Student, Naval Aviation Schools Command, 23, from Coffee County, Alabama;
• Airman Mohammed Sameh Haitham, Student, Naval Aviation Schools Command, 19, from St. Petersburg, Florida; and
• Airman Apprentice Cameron Scott Walters, Student, Naval Aviation Schools Command, 21, from Richmond Hill, Georgia.

“The sorrow from the tragic event on NAS Pensacola will have a lasting impact on our installation and community,” said Capt. Tim Kinsella, commanding officer of NAS Pensacola in a prepared statement emailed to Navy Times. “We feel the loss profoundly and grieve with the family and friends of the deceased. The sailors that lost their lives in the line of duty and showed exceptional heroism and bravery in the face of evil.

“When confronted, they didn’t run from danger; they ran towards it and saved lives. If not for their actions, and the actions of the Naval Security Force that were the first responders on the scene, this incident could have been far worse.”

FBI spokeswoman Amanda Warford Videll said the FBI Jacksonville field office “is not aware of any credible threat toward the Pensacola community at this time.”

Pentagon officials indicated that Naval Air Station Pensacola will remain shuttered to all but mission essential personnel until Monday.

While families who live on base will have access to their residences, the National Naval Aviation Museum and Barrancas National Cemetery are closed until further notice.

An Emergency Family Assistance Center has moved to the Fleet and Family Service Center to provide counselors to support witnesses, friends, family members and residents. Anyone with questions is encouraged to call 850-452-5990.

FBI officials haven’t declared the shooting spree to be an act of terrorism and Warford Videll declined to comment on reports of multiple Saudi citizens detained in the wake of the violence.

No group has claimed credit for an attack.

Speaking during a defense forum in California on Saturday, Pentagon leaders said it’s still too early to label the deadly shooting a terrorist attack, and said they hope the incident doesn’t overshadow the importance of working with foreign military allies for U.S. national security.

“That’s an advantage we bring as a military,” said Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein at the Reagan National Defense Forum in Simi Valley. “We have allies and partners, and often our adversaries don’t.

“My biggest concern would be that we would walk away from those key relationships, folks we know that we need when we go into combat.”

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michael Gilday told the audience it was “too early in my opinion to draw those types of conclusions” about terrorist links to Alshamrani and said officials were “approaching those investigations carefully.”

Airman Haitham enlisted in the Navy on July 18 and received his E-3 pay grade on Sept. 20, the day before he reported to Naval Aviation Schools Command in Pensacola, according to this military records.

Airman Apprentice Walters enlisted on Sept. 16 and received his E-2 pay grade on Nov. 22, two days before he reported to Naval Aviation Schools Command, his records indicate.

Ensign Watson was commissioned on May 24 and designated as a Student Naval Aviator in training, according to his military records.

He reported to Naval Aviation School on Nov. 15.

A graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, he previously studied at the U.S. Naval Academy Preparatory School in Newport, Rhode Island from July 22, 2014, to June 29, 2015.

During his senior year in Annapolis, Watson captained Navy’s rifle team. An expert in smallbore and air rifle, he competed in the NCAA championship, according to the Academy.

But at noon on Monday came the headline “Acting SECNAV Thomas Modly Announcing the USS Jeff Monken.”

The next 332 words described how DDG-135 — under construction at “South Hudson Shipyards” in Highland Falls, New York — came to be named in honor of the 37th head coach of the Black Knights.

“As a result of a friendly wager with my friend Mark Esper, current Secretary of Defense and West Point graduate, I am pleased to announce that the USS Jeff Monken will be the next great Navy destroyer,” Modly was quoted as saying in the release.

The wager was over last year’s Army-Navy gridiron tilt. The Midshipmen lost by a touchdown so Modly agreed to name a warship after Monken, who arrived at West Point in 2014.

Had Navy triumphed, future Army aviators would’ve been flying FARA-360s named in honor of Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo, according to the release.

Ahem.

Congress has approved funding for DDG-135, but it remains unnamed. The Naval Vessel Register indicates that while General Dynamics Bath Iron Works is the planning yard, the building will be done by Huntington Ingalls Industries.

The “Media Contact” listed at the bottom of the release was “Mike Nemeth.”

His phone number suspiciously had a Hudson Valley area code.

A ring summoned a tired voice uttering “Corps of Cadets.”

He didn’t know a Mike Nemeth but said Army does have some boats on the river. He didn’t know if the piers were called the South Hudson Shipyards.

A bit of skulduggery — well, plopping “Mike Nemeth” into a search engine — revealed the mastermind behind the release. Messages to his Twitter and LinkedIn pages soon brought a call from Columbus, Ohio, to Navy Times.

Meet Mike Nemeth, 37, Army Class of 2004. In fact, the former military intelligence officer — and current class president — pulls these pranks annually.

“It’s a great way to kick off the ‘Beat Navy’ season!” he said.

Nemeth plots his prank throughout the year, bouncing ideas off a small test circle before springing the gag on unsuspecting Midshipmen.

This year’s effort worked perfectly for a few hours after he uploaded it Sunday to the Newswire — until Esper’s bombshell that he’d asked the Navy secretary to resign.

The original release had Richard V. Spencer’s name in it, not Modly’s.

Nemeth had to scramble and rework the joke, including photoshopping Modly’s mug into a photo of a fake ship naming press conference.

“I keep a notebook of ideas throughout the year,” Nemeth told Navy Times. “Originally, my idea was to have the Navy’s biggest and baddest warship, Monken, deployed in the Strait of Hormuz, but that started to get a little complicated.”

An entrepreneur — his Emblem Athletic sells customized team apparel, including to Navy grads — he’s also an author.

“Discipline: The Annapolis Way: Lessons from the Nation’s 4th Best Military Academy” was a 2017 fake book destined to fly to the top of the Amazon Military History charts.

“Every page is blank except for the bottom, where it reads, ‘Beat Navy,'” Nemeth said.

Perhaps the saddest of the 314 Amazon reviews is from a customer, Karlie, penned last Christmas: “It’s not a serious book but I had no idea so it ruined Christmas.”

Apparently, she unwittingly bought a gift that “really upset the recipient.”

As for this year’s game, Nemeth predicts a close Black Knights’ victory, 17-14.