Navy: Sailor in Norfolk base shooting died protecting colleague

NORFOLK, Va. — The sailor who was slain during a shootout aboard a guided-missile destroyer at a Virginia base saved another sailor's life by jumping between her and a civilian gunman who was trying to board the ship, Navy officials said Wednesday.

The Navy identified the slain sailor as Petty Officer 2nd Class Mark Mayo during a news conference, saying he acted heroically when the civilian approached the USS Mahan shortly after 11 p.m. on Monday. The civilian gunman, who was also killed in the shootout, hasn't been identified.

The truck driver used a legitimate transportation worker's credential to get onto Naval Station Norfolk, although officials say he didn't have a reason to be on the world's largest naval base on Monday night. The Navy hasn't said why the truck driver was trying to get onto the ship, but officials have ruled out any link to terrorism. They also said there's nothing to indicate he had a previous relationship with the ship or anyone on it.

He parked his tractor-trailer cab near Pier 1, was able to walk onto the pier and began heading up a ramp toward the USS Mahan when he was confronted by Navy security, said Mario Palomino, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service special agent in charge of the Norfolk field office.

The man then got into an altercation with a female petty officer and disarmed her, Navy officials said. Palomino said Mayo stepped over the disarmed officer and fired his weapon at the assailant. He was serving on watch for the installation that night and came to help once he saw the civilian board the ship.

Multiple pistol rounds were fired between the gunman and Navy security forces responding to the scene, Palomino said. The Navy has said previously that the truck driver fired the shot that killed Mayo.

The base's commanding officer, Capt. Robert Clark, said Mayo's actions to protect the disarmed officer were extraordinary.

""He basically gave his life for hers," said Clark said during a news conference.

Mayo, a 24-year-old from Hagerstown, Md., joined the Navy in 2007 and had previously been stationed in Bahrain and Rota, Spain before coming to the Norfolk base in 2011.

On Wednesday, the Navy appointed Rear Adm. Jeffrey Harley to lead an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the shooting. Harley's role will be different from that of criminal investigators, and will include a review of base procedures, according to the Navy.

To get onto the base, civilians must be escorted or have identification that allows them to be there. Clark said the gunman was found with a TWIC card, a transportation worker's credential issued by the Transportation Security Administration to personnel such as truck drivers who require unescorted access to secure areas.

He said investigators were looking into why the truck driver was allowed onto the base when he didn't have a reason to be there that night. The base is reviewing its security procedures.

"If I find the procedures were not adhered to, I will take immediate and appropriate corrective action. The security of this installation is my highest priority," Clark said.

In addition to the base's entry gates, all 13 piers also have their own security.

The shooting on the Mahan comes about a month after the Navy held anti-terrorism and security exercises on bases across the U.S., including a drill on simulating a shooting at Naval Station Norfolk. And it follows a September shooting at the Washington Navy Yard, in which a gunman — identified as a contractor and former Navy reservist — killed 12 civilian workers before being shot to death.

The Norfolk base was briefly on lockdown after the shooting but resumed normal operations aside from the Mahan's pier Tuesday. On social media, many of those who had connections to the ship or its sailors changed their profile pictures to the ship's emblem.

Naval Station Norfolk covers more than 6,000 acres and is the home port for 64 ships. About 46,000 military members and 21,000 civilian government employees and contractors are assigned to the base and its ships, according to the Navy figures.

Friends and family remembered Mayo as an above-average student with an infectious smile who joined the Navy for its educational opportunities.

Born in Washington, D.C., Mayo moved with his family in 1998 about 70 miles northwest to the Hagerstown area because his mother felt it was a safer environment. They initially lived in public housing but moved in 2005 into their own home.

"He pulled himself up by his bootstraps. He worked really hard," said Williamsport High School guidance counselor Randy Longnecker. The family

Mayo's parents Sharon Blair and Decondi Mayo said their son's actions reflected his strong, caring, nature.

"He protected people. He was a protector," Blair told reporters at her home.

Mayo's older brother Timothy Borum Jr., 29, said he wants to know how the shooting could have happened on the Navy's largest base.

"I always felt that he was safe on a military base, always felt that he'd be protected," Borum said.

Associated Press writer David Dishneau contributed to this reported from Hagerstown, Md.

Navy football player Will McKamey, who collapsed at practice, dies

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Navy football player Will McKamey, who has been hospitalized since collapsing at practice three days ago, has died while in a coma. He was 19.

The academy says the freshman running back from Knoxville, Tenn., died at the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore on Tuesday with his family by his side.

"We are all so very heartbroken by the death of Midshipman Will McKamey," Naval Academy Superintendent VADM Mike Miller said in a statement. "This is devastating news for his family, his classmates, his teammates and the entire Naval Academy family. We offer our deepest condolences to Will's family, friends and shipmates in the wake of this tragedy."

He collapsed during spring practice Saturday and was airlifted to the Shock Trauma Center.

Earlier this week, McKamey's family said in a statement released through the school that their son did not sustain "a bad hit or unusual or extreme contact" in that practice.

"The Navy coaches have poured through the films of practice and seen nothing more than Will carrying the football normally, doing what he truly loves," the family said.

McKamey's father, Randy, a high school football coach at Grace Christian Academy in Knoxville, posted on Twitter that his son underwent surgery Saturday to relieve pressure on the brain.

Will McKamey played for his father and ran for more than 2,000 yards as a senior at Grace Christian in 2012. He suffered a head injury during a game late in the season that caused him to be hospitalized.

His family said he had been cleared to resume playing football after seeing four neurosurgeons and undergoing several CAT scans and MRI exams.

The 5-foot-9, 170-pound McKamey did not play in a game last season. He was an oceanography major in 3rd Company at the Naval Academy.

"During this most difficult of times, first and foremost, our prayers and thoughts turn to Randy, Kara and their beautiful family," Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo said. "Our deepest and most sincere condolences go out to their entire family and friends. As our Navy football family mourns the loss of one of our brothers, we also celebrate and honor his life. He loved his family, his friends and his teammates. The Brotherhood loves you! Keep the ball 'high and tight' in Heaven."

Navy said funeral arrangements are pending.

Pentagon: Some US commissaries may close due to budget cutbacks

WASHINGTON — Despite earlier promises that no commissaries would be closed as a result of proposed pay and benefits cuts, a Pentagon official told lawmakers Wednesday that some closures might happen.

To slow the growth in personnel costs, which have increased 83 percent since 2001, the Defense Department proposed cutting commissary subsidies when it submitted its fiscal 2015 budget request earlier this month. Over a three-year period, the subsidies would decrease from $1.4 billion annually to $400 million, although overseas commissaries and those in remote locations will continue receiving direct subsidies to ease the burden on servicemembers and their families. The commissary cut will be accomplished not by closing any commissaries, but by reducing the savings relative to civilian markets that patrons enjoy. Under DOD’s plan, those savings will go from about 30 percent to 10 percent.

“We are not shutting down any commissaries. We recommend gradually phasing out some subsidies but only for domestic commissaries that are not in remote locations,” Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel told senators after the budget proposal was unveiled.

Because stateside stores will continue to operate tax-and-rent free, they will still be able to provide people with a very good deal, Hagel said.

But during congressional testimony Wednesday, a top DOD official said that some stateside commissaries might in fact have to shut down due to a loss of business that would likely result from the price hikes.

“It’s a possibility [but] I don’t know what the probability is,” Frederick Vollrath, assistant secretary of defense for readiness and force management, told members of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Personnel.

Industry officials and military associations have warned that the subsidy cuts might ultimately force commissaries to close because of the loss of business stemming from customers being turned off by the reduced savings that accrue from shopping at commissaries instead of public retail outlets. Vollrath acknowledged that commissary sales will likely decline as a result of the proposed changes.

“In working with some of the other retail organizations [we know that] when your price goes up the patronage tends to go down. So we would expect a reduction in patronage,” he said.

He predicted that retirees would be most likely to change their shopping habits.

“We know that some of the patrons, particularly retirees, will drive a long distance because of the current savings, and then they may not if the savings drop. They may not drive two hours from wherever they are retired to come in to get those savings. So there is a probability that the patronage will go down,” he told the subcommittee.

But Vollrath is hopeful that the commissaries will still maintain enough sales to stay in business.

“Our hope in working this, which is an art, [is] that we will still offer enough benefit that the servicemembers and their families will value that,” he said.

harper.jon@stripes.com

Twitter: @JHarperStripes

Scaparrotti: N. Korea able to fire missiles 'with very little warning'

SEOUL — The top U.S. military commander in South Korea told U.S. lawmakers Tuesday that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is more dangerous and unpredictable than his father.

In testimony that came within hours of North Korea’s latest missile launches, Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, who assumed leadership of U.S. Forces Korea six months ago, said that of the dozens of missiles fired by the North since late February, many were fired in a demonstration to members of his regime, as well as the U.S. and South Korea. It shows that the North has the capability to launch missiles “on short notice, with very little warning,” he told the Senate Armed Services Committee in Washington.

The North launched two midrange ballistic missiles early Wednesday on the Korean Peninsula. Both missiles fell into the ocean between the peninsula and Japan without incident. The series of missile launches, which began on Feb. 21, have coincided with annual U.S.-South Korean spring training drills, among the largest exercises the two allies hold each year. The exercises typically prompt angry criticism from the North, and last spring Pyongyang launched an intense period of threats of war that raised tensions on the peninsula to their highest level in years.

But despite the ongoing missile launches, Pyongyang has remained relatively quiet during this year’s exercises, possibly due to pressure from neighboring China. When asked about Beijing’s willingness to push the North to return to denuclearization talks, Scaparrotti said, “I believe we’ve seen some results of China’s pressure on North Korea … in the muted rhetoric of Kim Jong Un in the past several months, particularly after the assassination of his uncle.”

Kim ordered the execution of his uncle and close adviser, Jang Song Thaek, in December, in a move that surprised analysts and led to speculation that Kim might be trying to control internal challenges to his power. A Department of Defense report released this month said the purge was “the most significant step to date in Kim’s establishment of his authority, eliminating arguably the most influential senior Party official remaining from his father’s era.”

“The sudden and brutal purge sends a strong message to regime elites that the formation of factions or potential challenges to Kim Jong Un will not be tolerated,” the annual report to Congress said.

While China does exert influence over Kim, Scaparrotti told lawmakers that the Korean dictator is “clearly” in charge.

“From what I’ve seen, he also is an independent actor and will tend to go his own way, which (I) believe has frustrated China as well,” he said.

The U.S. Pacific commander, Adm. Samuel Locklear, who also testified, said his top priority in the Asia-Pacific region is maintaining stability on the Korean Peninsula and containing the Kim regime.

On that front, Scaparrotti said that replacing U-2 manned surveillance aircraft with Global Hawk drones — a cost-saving measure contained in the 2015 defense budget — could hurt the command’s ability to gather intelligence quickly.

“In my particular case as the operational commander in Korea, the U-2 provides some unique capability that at least presently the Global Hawk … won’t provide, and it will be a loss in intelligence that’s very important to our indicators and warnings,” he said. “As they look at the retirement of the U-2, we have to look at the capabilities of the Global Hawk, and perhaps building those capabilities, so that I don’t have that intelligence loss.”

Scaparrotti also discussed the consolidation of most U.S. troops in the country to a location south of Seoul.

Initial troop movements to Camp Humphreys — the Pyeongtaek base that is the centerpiece of a massive relocation plan for USFK — have yet to begin, but should take place this year, he said.

Most forces will move in 2016, though the project faces slight delays.

“We’re on track, fundamentally,” he said. “We’re not exactly on the timeline, primarily because of construction, about a three months’ lag on that. But I think – I think we’ll be OK,” he said.

The relocation will see most troops stationed in and north of Seoul moved to hubs in Pyeongtaek and Daegu. After the relocation, the number of U.S. forces stationed in the Humphreys area will increase from 9,000 to about 24,000. About 2,700 command-sponsored families would be stationed in the area, he said.

U.S. forces were initially supposed to move to Humphreys in 2008, but the project was delayed to 2012 and again to 2016.

Scaparrotti’s testimony came as the U.S. and South Korea prepare to kick off the annual Ssang Young drill, which he described as “one of the most comprehensive amphibious exercises in the world.”

The drill is part of the ongoing Foal Eagle field exercise, which ends next month. Officials have said this year’s Ssang Young, which runs Thursday through April 7, will be larger than in previous years.

Nearly 10,000 U.S. troops will participate in Ssang Yong, along with about 4,500 South Korean troops.

Locklear told lawmakers the U.S. military does not have the ability to carry out a contested amphibious operation in the region during a crisis.

rowland.ashley@stripes.com

Will McKamey: Navy football player who collapsed at practice dies in coma

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Navy football player Will McKamey, who has been hospitalized since collapsing at practice three days ago, has died while in a coma. He was 19.

The academy says the freshman running back from Knoxville, Tenn., died at the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore on Tuesday with his family by his side.

"We are all so very heartbroken by the death of Midshipman Will McKamey," Naval Academy Superintendent VADM Mike Miller said in a statement. "This is devastating news for his family, his classmates, his teammates and the entire Naval Academy family. We offer our deepest condolences to Will's family, friends and shipmates in the wake of this tragedy."

He collapsed during spring practice Saturday and was airlifted to the Shock Trauma Center.

Earlier this week, McKamey's family said in a statement released through the school that their son did not sustain "a bad hit or unusual or extreme contact" in that practice.

"The Navy coaches have poured through the films of practice and seen nothing more than Will carrying the football normally, doing what he truly loves," the family said.

McKamey's father, Randy, a high school football coach at Grace Christian Academy in Knoxville, posted on Twitter that his son underwent surgery Saturday to relieve pressure on the brain.

Will McKamey played for his father and ran for more than 2,000 yards as a senior at Grace Christian in 2012. He suffered a head injury during a game late in the season that caused him to be hospitalized.

His family said he had been cleared to resume playing football after seeing four neurosurgeons and undergoing several CAT scans and MRI exams.

The 5-foot-9, 170-pound McKamey did not play in a game last season. He was an oceanography major in 3rd Company at the Naval Academy.

"During this most difficult of times, first and foremost, our prayers and thoughts turn to Randy, Kara and their beautiful family," Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo said. "Our deepest and most sincere condolences go out to their entire family and friends. As our Navy football family mourns the loss of one of our brothers, we also celebrate and honor his life. He loved his family, his friends and his teammates. The Brotherhood loves you! Keep the ball 'high and tight' in Heaven."

Navy said funeral arrangements are pending.

Body of Navy commander, victim of Washington mudslide, found by brothers

ARLINGTON, Wash. — Searchers on Tuesday added to the grim toll from Saturday’s mudslide near Oso, Wash., finding additional bodies in the muck and debris that once was a community.

Officials confirmed they had recovered 16 bodies since the slide and think there were as many as eight more that had been found but remained in the debris.

The announcement came in the evening, after rescue teams had expanded their search for survivors or bodies amid worsening weather conditions in a massive mudslide above the North Fork of the Stillaguamish River in Snohomish County.

Among those recovered was the body of U.S. Navy Cmdr. L. John Regelbrugge III, 49, who was found Tuesday morning on his property on Steelhead Drive, said his sister-in-law, Jackie Leighton of Vacaville, Calif.

Regelbrugge was a 32-year Navy veteran, she said.

“John was found this morning about 10 a.m. with his dog. His brothers found his body,” Leighton said.

Regelbrugge’s wife, Kris, remains missing, Leighton said: “They were both home when the slide hit, but they haven’t found her yet.”

Two of John Regelbrugge’s brothers and two of his sons “were all part of the search,” while his third son is overseas and now trying to make his way home, said Leighton.

Meanwhile, the Kitsap (Wash.) Sun reports that Chief Petty Officer William Spiller, a Navy career counselor assigned to the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility detachment in Everett, Wash., is listed as unaccounted for, along with three of his children.

In a morning news conference Tuesday morning, John Pennington, Snohomish County's emergency management director, said that teams from the Washington Army National Guard and Federal Emergency Management Agency had arrived to help with the ground and air rescue.

By midmorning, hundreds had joined in a “highly visible” search with dogs and a variety of technologies such as sonar.

Officials Monday night were working on a list of 176 reports of missing people, although Pennington stressed that many could be duplicates. By Tuesday evening, Pennington said that number rose and fell so much throughout the day that he couldn’t provide an accurate number.

Pennington said, as he did Monday, that he believes in miracles. But he noted that officials had called in a state mortuary assistance team.

“I think that speaks for itself,” he said.

Speaking during drizzling rain in front of Arlington City Hall, Pennington and other officials said that despite the morning precipitation, visibility was good enough for airborne searchers to look through the area affected by the slide.

The rain, which is forecast to continue through the week, is “going to make it even more challenging,” to find and reach victims, said Travis Hots, chief of Snohomish County Fire District 21/22. “But our guys are going to be out there, digging around just like they were yesterday.”

Hots said the weather was just another reason why people should not try to search on their own.

“The last thing we want to have happen is people showing up in their cars and sneaking up on the pile,” Hots said.

The Darrington Fire Department said dozens of civilian volunteers showed up Tuesday morning to help with the search. Cindy White, a spokeswoman for the volunteers, said people from near and far sought to help professional searchers, and that the fire department set up a registry to keep track of local residents who are searching on their own, for their own safety.

Officials did relay some good news in the news conference, especially for the first town east of where the slide took place: Phone and Internet services were restored to Darrington around midnight Tuesday, and a second road into town, the Mountain Loop Highway, should open later in the day.

Steve Thomsen, the county’s public works director, said the North Fork of the Stillaguamish River was continuing to cooperate and should not hamper rescue operations. Earlier, officials were concerned that debris from the slide stuck in the river may cause severe flooding.

Thomsen said the river may rise a few feet, depending on the coming rain.

But much of the news coming from the morning update was grim.

Hots, the fire official, predicted that rescue and recovery effort will take weeks.

“This is going to be a very long event,” he said.

Seattle Times staff reporters Jack Broom, Alexa Vaughn and John Higgins contributed to this report.

Widow of soldier killed at Fort Hood fears losing house to back taxes

OKLAHOMA CITY — The widow of a soldier killed in the Fort Hood shooting could get relief from a $6,000 tax bill under a measure Oklahoma legislators are considering that would grant some families benefits similar to those given after acts of terrorism.

Jennifer Hunt, 30, had been married just short of three months when her husband, Jason, was killed in the rampage at Fort Hood on Nov. 5, 2009, when a U.S. Army major fatally shot 13 people and injured more than 30 others.

"He joined the Army after high school and did a tour in Iraq, and it was there that he re-enlisted for six more years on his 21st birthday so that he could continue to serve," President Barack Obama said of Hunt at a memorial shortly after the shooting.

Jason Hunt, 22, was preparing for a deployment to Iraq. He and Jennifer had recently purchased a house in Fort Hood, and Jennifer and their three children were preparing to move there.

Though some consider the shooting an act of terrorism, the Defense Department classified it as an act of workplace violence — which means family members are not entitled to the same federal benefits as survivors of an act of terrorism. Late last year, the U.S. Army began an investigation into whether it should indeed be classified as terrorism so victims would be eligible for benefits or to receive the Purple Heart.

Hunt said she was misinformed at the time of her husband's death and believed that she qualified for a property tax exemption granted to survivors of terrorism. But this year, she was notified that she was ineligible for the benefit and received a $6,000 bill for back taxes.

"I was ready to hand over my entire life savings," Hunt said. "When a military person dies, most people look at you and think you must be rolling in the cash now. My husband split the life insurance policy he had 50/50 between me and his parents, so I paid off our house and my college debt, and I don't have anything left after that. The $200 a month we get from the military will make us or break us."

Hunt went to the Cleveland County Treasurer's Office, where employees brought her situation to the attention of Treasurer Jim Reynolds, a former Oklahoma state senator. Reynolds contacted his brother, Rep. Mike Reynolds, R-Oklahoma City, who drafted legislation that would address Hunt's situation. Rep. Reynolds previously served in the U.S. Air Force, and both brothers were raised in a military family.

"Any time we have a serviceman killed while serving our country, whether on foreign soil or especially if it's at a federal facility, I just feel strongly that we should be able to take care of him," Jim Reynolds said. "I think it's an oversight: Honestly, sometimes with laws we just haven't gotten there yet, and so I think it passing committee unanimously is a reflection that others feel the same way."

According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, 100 percent disabled veterans who are disabled while on active duty received a full property tax exemption in Oklahoma.

The new measure would extend that privilege to the surviving spouse of a person killed during an act of violence occurring within a federal military installation which could be classified as "terrorism" or "combat related." The law would become retroactively effective through 2009 on Nov. 1, 2015.

"I wasn't trying to solve it just for her, the real problem is that Barack Obama has refused to call this a terrorist attack, and she would have received all sorts of benefits," Rep. Mike Reynolds said.

The bill has passed the House of Representatives, had its first reading in the Senate and has been sent to the Senate's finance committee.

Other states with larger military populations already have similar provisions to provide for military families.

"I think it hasn't been that big of an issue here, and there's not many fallen soldier families in Oklahoma, so we're not really a priority," Hunt said. "I had thought about moving out of state because I felt neglected here, and my widow friends in other states have so many resources, so it's comforting knowing someone cares."