The Pentagon’s Inspector General has begun a comprehensive research project on how the military branches’ various law enforcement agencies have responded over the years to active shooter incidents and violence in the workplace on installations.

The brief July 28 announcement by the IG did not state what triggered the project, but recent incidents have raised questions ranging from access to bases and weapons, to the vetting of personnel participating in training programs.

The most troubling of the recent incidents occurred Dec. 6, 2019, at Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida when a gunman later identified as Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani, an aviation student from Saudi Arabia, opened fire in a classroom building.

Using a 9mm Glock handgun and extra magazines, Alshamrani killed three sailors and injured eight others before he was killed by responding deputies from the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office. The FBI later classified the shootings as a terrorist incident.

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WASHINGTON — World War II was raging in 1944. American troops were instrumental in the effort to take back France, including the beach landings in Normandy that caught the Germans off guard. American forces took possession of Rome, and a Soviet counterattack pushed Germany back into Poland.

In the Pacific, Japan had gained more Chinese territory, but the communists’ presence limited Japan’s success. The Allies fought back by taking Saipan and invading the Philippines.

Meanwhile, in Philadelphia, 24-year-old nurse Regina Benson and three of her nursing school classmates joined the Army Nurse Corps right after graduation to serve their country. They were assigned overseas and remained lifelong friends.

Benson’s three brothers were also serving, so for her, joining the Army as a patriotic duty was not unusual.

“She was kind of fearless,” her daughter, Phyllis Benson, said in a recent interview.

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Five years ago today, the first women graduated from the U.S. Army Ranger School at Fort Benning.

It marked a significant moment in the gender integration of the Army.

Ranger School is arguably the toughest course the U.S. Army offers. It tests mental and physical toughness — in a challenging environment that deprives soldiers of food and sleep.

On August 21, 2015. Capt. Kristen Griest and Capt. Shaye Haver were the first women to graduate from Ranger School.

Five years later, Griest and Haver are still in the Army, assigned to units in the Washington D.C. area.

This week they did exclusive interviews with News 3 and reflected on the Ranger School experience.

“I wanted to go to Ranger School since I heard about it when I was 18 at West Point,” Griest said. “It was an eight-year process for me to get into that school. I wouldn’t have missed the opportunity, I tried to enjoy it while I was in it. I think after about eight hours I was ready to get out. It was definitely not the fun experience I thought it was going to be.”

She says it was worth it.

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The use of National Guard reconnaissance planes in four U.S. cities to monitor the widespread protests earlier this year didn’t violate rules against the military collecting intelligence on Americans, a Pentagon report has concluded.

The investigation by the Air Force inspector general found that the planes were used to gather information about crowd size, crowd flows and fires but they did not monitor individuals. The probe was ordered by Defense Secretary Mark Esper in response to questions within the department and Congress about whether the military illegally conducted surveillance of American citizens during the unrest after the death of George Floyd.

The flights in late May and early June came as President Donald Trump was calling for tougher measures to quell the widespread unrest. Floyd was a black man who died after a white Minneapolis policeman pressed his knee into his neck for several minutes.

National Guard troops were used to assist local law enforcement in a number of cities around the country.

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