First, before I begin, I am not asking this because I don’t have a sense of extreme disgust in my gut over what happened. I do. My son-in-law is Air Force. I simply believe that if there had been a radio-based alarm of some sort that could have been activated by the press of a button, all military installations within a given radius could have been instantly alerted to lockdown and take cover.
Navy MARS is not worth its cost, however small, say the upper echelon. But, if it was a MARS-based digital, auto-alert system, perhaps some lives that were lost could have been saved.
Why not a simple phone call? Too much time required. Or an “app” for cell phones? Nefarious persons could disable phones very easily, whereas a battery-powered digital transceiver would be unaffected. Frequency a concern? HF spread spectrum, if thought necessary.
Sure, it’s easy to Monday Morning Quarterback, but it hurts like Hell to think that 5 military lives were lost that might not have been if they’d been alerted to the kook and would have had the time to take cover or arm themselves.
73.