Navy sailors gathered in Norfolk to hold a memorial service for their former shipmate Randall Smith, one of the five servicemen killed in a Chattanooga shooting. A father and a husband, he is remembered as honorable and brave. VPC
The Tennessee National Guard has spent millions and is nearing completion in installing security measures at facilities across the state after gunman killed five in a 2015 shooting spree in Chattanooga.
Maj. Gen. Terry “Max” Haston, adjutant general for the Tennessee National Guard, told House lawmakers on Monday during a budget hearing that an array of security measures have been put in place to protect recruiting facilities and the troops in them after Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez killed four Marines and a Navy sailor in a shooting spree at a recruiting center and Navy reserve facility miles apart.
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Last year, Haston told lawmakers in a similar briefing that fully outfitting all the armories and recruiting centers across the state would take $6.8 million. But since then, he's all but completed most of the projects, funded with both state and federal dollars.
"If you put $6 million in front of me today, I couldn’t spend it," he said Monday.
Increased security measures were in high demand nationally after the 2015 attacks, he said, slowing the acquisition of barriers, shields and other items.
"It became kind of a popular thing to order all this stuff … and manufacturing has not been able to keep up,” Haston said. “We’re getting this stuff as rapidly as we can."
All facilities across the state have been equipped with the shatterproof glass, bulletproof shields and other measures to protect recruiters, Guard personnel and equipment that could be targeted.
Haston said they have extended federal funding by installing some measures themselves, and "progressively getting through these projects."
Haston said closed-circuit cameras, video phones and other measures have been installed across the state, and a federal provision allowing the carry, arming and use of federal firearms by recruiters has been put in place.
The moves are similar to other measures installed at recruiting centers in other states in the wake of the shooting, officials said.
From 2015: Chattanooga attacks a 'tragic day for all of Tennessee'
Reach Jake Lowary at jlowary@tennessean.com or on Twitter at @JakeLowary.