Joint Base San Antonio tightens security after Army vet, Green Beret suspected in unrelated New Year’s attacks

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Security at Joint Base San Antonio, the largest joint military base in the nation, was heightened Friday as it suspended a program that made it easier for federal employees to enter its installations.

JBSA’s X account posted a notice Friday afternoon stating both personnel and visitors would need to submit to ID checks to enter the base, suspending the Trusted Traveler policy common at military bases.

The security restrictions come after two violent, but unrelated, attacks were committed on Jan. 1 within hours of each other by an Army veteran in New Orleans and an active-duty Green Beret in Las Vegas, one of whom was from Texas. The notice from the base did not specify whether the heightened security was related.

In New Orleans, 42-year-old Houston resident Shamsud-Din Jabbar drove a rented truck into a crowd early New Year’s Day before shooting at police, killing 14 and injuring dozens before he was killed by officers.

The FBI said in a statement it was investigating the attack as an act of terrorism, and that Jabbar had rented the truck in Houston before driving it to New Orleans. Jabbar was a U.S. citizen and served in the Army until 2020.

In Las Vegas, authorities said Master Sgt. Matthew Alan Livelsberger drove a rented Tesla Cybertruck to the front entrance of the Trump Hotel and shot himself before explosives in the vehicle’s truck ignited, injuring seven. Livelsberger suffered from post-traumatic stress, and officials with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department explicitly stated the explosion “was not a terrorist attack” during a press conference Friday.

Prior to the suspension of the Trusted Traveler policy, security was required to verify at least one Department of Defense credential per vehicle during the day, according to the base’s website. The policy still required all passengers’ IDs be checked after 10 p.m.

JBSA, which includes Camp Bullis, Fort Sam Houston, Lackland and Randolph Air Force bases, employs over 68,000 direct employees including 22,000 civilian employees and contributes over $51 billion to the state’s economy, according to the Texas Comptroller’s office.

The notice from the base did not specify when the added security checks would be lifted. A representative from the base could not be immediately reached for comment. It was not immediately clear whether other bases in the state were required to suspend the Trusted Traveler policy.

At least two other bases outside of Texas suspended its Trusted Traveler policy, as two Space Force installations in Colorado Springs announced they would suspend the program. Livelsberger was from the city, according to authorities.