Navy limits installations following incidents

BANGOR, Wash. – The Navy is curtailing access to installations around the Kitsap Peninsula following two fatal shootings and a gate crash at other bases around the country in the past month.

The Kitsap Sun reports guests of base residents, workers and military members will have to be vetted by security to visit the base’s locations at Bremerton, Bangor, Keyport, Manchester and Naval Hospital Bremerton, according to Lonnie Collier, a spokesman.

Guests will also need an escort at all times and cannot go to on-base facilities including exchanges, commissaries and chapels.

The temporary restrictions are in response to unrelated attacks earlier this month by gunmen at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard and Naval Air Station Pensacola; in a third incident, a driver entered an exit from a base in Virginia and struck and killed a sailor.

“We take the safety of those working and living on Naval Base Kitsap very seriously,“ said Capt. Richard Rhinehart, commander of the base. “While these increased security measures may be inconvenient, they are necessary to ensure that all civilians, military and their families on board NBK are protected from harm.”