Forum: Air Force Life

Man held after explosives threat on Nellis Air Force Base

By LAWRENCE MOWER
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
A man who drove through the gates of Nellis Air Force Base in a U-Haul truck and claimed to have explosives in the vehicle Thursday afternoon prompted a shutdown of the base for about two hours.
There were no explosives and nobody was injured during the incident.
Authorities have not confirmed who the man is, but Col. Dave Belote said he is believed to be a 25- to 30-year-old civilian who has never been on the base before.
FBI Las Vegas spokesman Dave Staretz said FBI and Air Force officials were still questioning the man late Thursday afternoon. He wouldn’t release the man’s name.
“We’re not confident the name he’s telling us is accurate,” Staretz said.
At 1:40 p.m., the man approached the base’s north gate, north of the main entrance at Craig Road and Las Vegas Boulevard North. When he came up to the guards, he held a cloth or a handkerchief up to his face and accelerated into the base, Belote said.
Once inside, he made a right turn toward the base’s security headquarters and then made a U-turn and accelerated toward the base’s flight lines, Belote said. He was cornered next to the Thunderbirds hanger and security established a perimeter around him.
He at first refused to speak to anybody, but eventually started exchanging written notes from the cab of the truck with base security officials, Belote said. That’s when the man claimed he had something in the truck that could explode at a certain time, Belote said.
The man eventually allowed himself to be taken into custody about 2:45 p.m., Belote said. The truck was empty and the man was found to be unarmed.
Belote said security forces responded to the situation within seconds and did not shoot the suspect because he hadn’t posed a threat.
“If he were ever threatening human beings, he would have been in much more danger,” Belote said. “He wasn’t. He had backed himself into a corner, and so our men and women responded very, very cautiously.”
He said people do occasionally attempt to drive on base without clearance. Last week he said a drunken driver attempted to drive through the main gate but was stopped.
“It happens,” he said. “More often than not they don’t make it past the gate. Every once in a while they do, and we have the procedures in place to respond.”
The base was reopened about 3:45 p.m.
Staretz said investigators hadn’t determined what the man would be charged with as of late Thursday afternoon.
“He basically alleged that he had explosives on a government property, so there will be something there to charge him with. We just don’t know where we’re going to go with it at this point,” Staretz said.

Contact reporter Lawrence Mower at lmower@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0440.

BOMB HOAX: Suspect to have psychiatric exam Doh

Man held in Nellis incident

By LAWRENCE MOWER
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
The man who drove onto Nellis Air Force Base in a U-Haul truck with what he claimed were explosives was ordered to have a psychiatric evaluation after a bizarre appearance in a federal courtroom Friday.
Anhwar Telly Young, 30, stood handcuffed in front of U.S. District Judge Peggy Leen and refused to speak. The Fresno, Calif., man stared at the floor in his white Adidas T-shirt and sagging blue jeans, with his blue-and-white-striped boxer shorts showing.
Leen asked him several questions, including his name, and noted for the record each time that he did not respond. Finally, Leen explained to him that she was there for his benefit.
"I know that this is a difficult situation for you ... Is there something you want to say to me?" she asked.
Young then wiped his eyes with a sleeve of his shirt.
Leen repeated her original questions, and Young began to nod or shake his head in response to some of them.
He nodded his head "yes" when asked whether his name was correct and whether he had the ability to speak.
He shook his head "no" when asked whether he understood where he was and why he'd been arrested.
When Leen asked whether he had been on any medications, he nodded his head "yes." But he shook his head "no" when she asked whether he could say what those medications were.
His lawyer told Leen that Young had refused to speak with her prior to the court appearance.
Young didn't make eye contact with anybody.
Young's incident prompted a two-hour shutdown of the base Thursday afternoon. Authorities said he speeded past the security checkpoint at the north entrance of the base about 1:40 p.m. and drove to the Thunderbirds hangar, where he stopped. The Thunderbirds are the Air Force's aerial demonstration team.
According to his criminal complaint, he held a white cloth to his face as he drove past security.
When he stopped, he refused to speak but passed notes from inside the cab of the truck to security personnel. He indicated he had no weapons and wanted to leave the base, according to the complaint.
He then explained that he had an explosive in the back of the truck made up of two types of fluids mixed together in several canisters, according to the complaint.
He wrote that the explosives would detonate in 21/2 hours, or could be detonated by any radar equipment on the base, the complaint states. He kept looking at the U-Haul's dashboard clock, "indicating time was expiring," according to the complaint.
At one point he told security personnel he wanted to die.
At 2:45 p.m. he tossed his keys outside the cab and allowed himself to be arrested.
There were no explosives in the truck. The base was reopened an hour later.
Young is being charged with threatening to kill or cause damage by an explosive, according to the complaint.
Young has no significant criminal record in Fresno. He was arrested for a misdemeanor resisting a police officer and a traffic violation in February 2008.
Contact reporter Lawrence Mower at lmower@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0440.

Source: http://www.lvrj.com/news/37759659.html

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Makes me wonder why they didn't raise the spikes and barriers on him when he went through the gate. Every base I've been on, or been stationed on, since about 03 or 04 has them.

TC wrote:

Makes me wonder why they didn't raise the spikes and barriers on him when he went through the gate. Every base I've been on, or been stationed on, since about 03 or 04 has them.

Me too ... they have the barriers. Maybe complacency? slow on the draw?

Nevertheless, not good to let a truck run your gate! Embarassed

The gate guards are contractors, aren't they?

That particular gate doesn't have barriers. All the rest do. Funny how he knew which gate to go through.

What say the odds are that this gate will soon be mod'ed with barriers? Laughing

TC wrote:

What say the odds are that this gate will soon be mod'ed with barriers? Laughing

Need to have an AFSO 21 event before it can be approved though.

AfterburnerDecalsScott wrote:

The gate guards are contractors, aren't they?

Yes they are contractors and that gate has barriers.

Why in the world would you say it doesn't have a barrier system? It does. I watched the construction several years ago.

I'm guessing those contractors ain't got jobs no more, bet from now on, it's going to be M16-totin' AF Security Forces personnell.

Can someone post a map of where the gate is compared to where the nutjob was captured? That is, if it doesn't violate Investigational OPSEC

Not saying this dude is a terrorist or part of a terrorist group, from the story this dude seems to be just a nutjob. But this is similar to a tactic terrorists use when they are planning an attack. They will probe and test the security measures of the target trying to find the weakest points.

It is extremely disturbing someone could penetrate so far into the base before being stopped. Especially considering he was in a u-haul truck.

Well, from the sound of things, it does seem as if they left the gate to the control of Barney Fife and Gomer Pyle.

"Gol-lee Sgt. Carter, that's a BIG TRUCK speedin' through them gates!"

"C'mon Andy! Just gimme 1 bullet!"

D@mn rent a cops. Go back to working your b#ll$h!t casino doorman and mall security jobs. It's painfully obvious that the simple task of checking IDs at a gate was kicking your @$$.

I am sure that gate has the concrete barriers. They place about 3 or 4 of them as you approach the cops shack so you have to weave left and right and slow down. I can tell you first hand from being there TDY that weaving a 15 passager van around those concrete barriers is a tough job so I can't imagine how someone could do that with a Uhaul.

Why is the fact that someone in a Uhaul who breached a security checkpoint not a threatening enough action to warrant leathal Force? Haven't we learned from history? Just ask those marines who where stationed in Beruit in 1983 if they think this nutjobs actions is enough to warrant leathal force.

Is this the gate that has the 25 club right outside it?

I'm not stickin up for the gate guards but how do you know that the guard didn't just freeze up, the contractors don't get training like the SF guys do. even then they would like to think they're training would take over and perform but some people just freeze.

Come on guys...I've talked to cops first hand and they all bitch and moan on how things should be done but they aren't allowed to do it that way. The AF talks a tough game on security but then ties the hands of the folks who are supposed to implement it. If there was true force protection implemented on bases, people would bitch and moan all day long.

Forum: Air Force Life

Bonehead Alert (Nellis Bomb Threat)