{"id":25241,"date":"2020-01-23T01:28:20","date_gmt":"2020-01-23T01:28:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2020\/01\/23\/espers-balancing-act-in-pensacola-showing-support-after-shooting-while-encouraging-training-foreign-allies\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T06:22:57","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T06:22:57","slug":"espers-balancing-act-in-pensacola-showing-support-after-shooting-while-encouraging-training-foreign-allies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/training-sim\/2020\/01\/23\/espers-balancing-act-in-pensacola-showing-support-after-shooting-while-encouraging-training-foreign-allies\/","title":{"rendered":"Esper\u2019s balancing act in Pensacola: showing support after shooting while encouraging training foreign allies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">NAVAL AIR STATION PENSACOLA, Fla. \u2014 Six weeks after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.navytimes.com\/news\/your-navy\/2019\/12\/06\/active-shooter-at-nas-pensacola-reported-dead\/\" target=_blank>a Saudi trainee killed three sailors in a shooting spree<\/a> that has since been termed a terrorist attack, the community around Naval Air Station Pensacola \u2014 including 140 Saudi students still on base \u2014 is trying to adjust to normal life<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And during a visit to the base Wednesday, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper attempted to thread a careful line: expressing support and understanding for those impacted, while urging that the incident not lead to cutting off military training for allies and partners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Speaking with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis at the base, Esper said \u201cthe United States is safer when we have allies and partners,\u201d something DeSantis, who previously said Saudi Arabia will \u201cowe a debt\u201d following the shooting, supported \u2014 up to a point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cLook, there\u2019s a great thing with relationships we\u2019ve built throughout the world, with different countries. We\u2019ve got some incredible allies, that\u2019s obviously a good thing,\u201d DeSantis said. \u201cAt the same time, though, we cannot be bringing people over here who want to do things like this with our country. So the fact [the Defense Department is] taking action on this is very, very significant, and hopefully we get the ducks in the row on that going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Capt. Tim \u201cLucky\u201d Kinsella Jr., the commanding officer at the base, echoed those sentiments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI know the value of the interaction of foreign militaries and with our allies. This is an incredibly important thing that we do. Whether that\u2019s my opinion or not, it\u2019s fact. It\u2019s important,\u201d he said. &#8220;We cannot survive in this world alone. It\u2019s a multilateral world, not a unilateral world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/news\/your-military\/2020\/01\/22\/pentagon-gives-conditional-ok-to-resume-saudi-military-training-in-us\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/515300.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Pentagon gives conditional OK to resume Saudi military training in US<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">The Pentagon has given the Navy and other military services conditional approval to resume training of Saudi Arabian nationals in the U.S.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Kinsella said the community reaction for the remaining Saudi students has been largely positive, and that &#8220;people here recognize that [the Saudis] are victims here as well\u2026 these are young kids. Now they feel there is extra scrutiny on them, just because they come from a different place.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Still, Kinsella acknowledged \u201cnatural apprehension\u201d among those living on base, saying he and his leadership team have conducted 25 town halls since the attack in order to hear concerns from residents and try to address them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On the plane heading down from Washington, Esper also pushed back at the idea that Saudi students should only be allowed to train in their home country, saying \u201cthat\u2019s something that we will discuss with the commander when we get down there. Right now, that\u2019s not under active consideration.\u201d He also used a pair of media availabilites on base to repeatedly stress the importance of continuing to train and work with partners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>A return to normalcy?<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After the Dec. 6 shooting by the Saudi flight officer trainee at Pensacola, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.navytimes.com\/news\/your-navy\/2019\/12\/14\/navy-posthumously-advances-pensacola-shooting-victims\/\" target=\"_blank\">killing three service members<\/a> and wounding eight others, the Defense Department ordered a security review to sweep not only international students, but to look for holes in a host of security regulations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a memo dated Jan. 17, Deputy Secretary of Defense David Norquist ordered that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/your-military\/2020\/01\/16\/training-for-saudi-military-students-in-the-us-could-resume-soon\/\">non-classroom training can resume <\/a>once the military services have met certain conditions, including implementing a prohibition on the possession \u2014 on or off U.S. military property \u2014 of privately owned firearms and ammunition by international military students and their families.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/news\/your-military\/2020\/01\/17\/new-regs-to-restrict-firearms-base-access-travel-for-international-military-students\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"216\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP19340555923593.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">New regs to restrict firearms, base access, travel for international military students<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">Each of the services will implement new restrictions.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The military services must also ensure that all international military students are under continuous monitoring for potentially disqualifying behavior. The continuous monitoring, which was ordered last week by Esper, is intended to allow U.S. officials to pick up on signs of radicalization or other problematic behavior that might not have been apparent when the student entered the training program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While at the base, Esper said that other steps are being considered, potentially to include increased mobile or stationary patrols in order to deliver a \u201cgreater sense of confidence\u201d to residents of the base.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On the plane ahead of the visit, Esper said the purpose of the trip is largely to \u201cgo down there and take a sense \u2014 the pulse of the community, the command, how people are feeling like. So that\u2019s why I wanted to come down here, to get that granularity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As part of his visit, Esper met with a number of first responders who were on the scene during the shooting, including MA3 David Link Jr., part of the base security forces team. Link told reporters that he was in the process of issuing a speeding ticket when he got the call about an active shooter, before jumping in the car and rushing to the scene, becoming one of the first to arrive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Link said that while life has returned to normal on the base since the attack, the community remains shocked by the incident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI know, when I got home, it was kind of like \u2014 immediate relief. I got to see my wife, my daughter. To know I got out of that situation with my life, I\u2019m completely healthy still, I wasn\u2019t injured or anything, so to be able to go home and see my family, that was pretty great,\u201d Link said. &#8220;But for the following days, it was \u2014 it was heartbreaking, for the three that didn\u2019t make it, that didn\u2019t get to go home to see their families. That\u2019s kind of where my mind was for the following few days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The defense secretary met with first responders six weeks after a shooting by a foreign military trainee left three service members dead and eight others injured.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":54414,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":26,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[160,36,26,164],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3378],"class_list":["post-25241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-newsletters","category-training-sim","category-training-simulation-report"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"SGTXJQAHHFGP7IYVLOO4XG4HBU","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/your-military\/2020\/01\/23\/espers-balancing-act-in-pensacola-showing-support-after-shooting-while-encouraging-training-foreign-allies\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Esper\u2019s balancing act in Pensacola: showing support after shooting while encouraging training foreign allies - Defense News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The defense secretary met with first responders six weeks after a shooting by a foreign military trainee left three service members dead and eight others injured.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Esper\u2019s balancing act in Pensacola: showing support after shooting while encouraging training foreign allies\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The defense secretary met with first responders 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