Rep. Matt Gaetz has picked many bones with Pentagon leaders in recent weeks over unending wars, woke indoctrination that has hurt recruiting, and promoting environmentalism over national security.
But on Friday, the Fort Walton Beach Republican praised Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro for a commitment to boost public access to the naval museum at Pensacola Naval Air Station.
According to Gaetz, the museum has been shuttered since December 2019, when a Muslim military officer from Saudi Arabia training in Pensacola murdered three U.S. service members in a terrorist attack.
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The Defense Department did so to increase security at the installation. According to WEAR, visitors from the public must be escorted while on the base by someone with a DoD identification.
At a House Armed Services Committee hearing on the Pentagon’s 2024 budget, Gaetz questioned Del Toro about reopening public access to the facility.
Gaetz acknowledged that reopening the museum might not be the Pentagon’s biggest priority, but he added that it could help reverse the recruiting slump that has taken hold under President Joe Biden.
“It’s not going to solve all of our recruiting challenges,’ Gaetz told Del T^oro, “but it’s one more spark that we can have out there getting folks excited in a positive productive way.”
Del Toro agreed.
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“I absolutely see it as a recruiting tool. I saw it from the first day that I stepped in it,” he said.
“We have actually been very energized, and we’ve come up with some near-term solutions to increase the throughput that already paid off dividends, but we’re also looking at the long term solutions that are a little bit more costly to be able to provide a direct access to the outside world without having to have folks come in through the base itself.”
Gaetz replied that he appreciated Del Toro’s position and planned to cite his comments in pushing for money to help improve public access to the facility.
“This isn’t just a museum for the sake of recreation,” said Gaetz, “but it is a way to engage people in naval aviation in a place that’s home of the Blue Angels — the cradle of naval aviation.”
Pensacola Naval Air Station is the home of the Blue Angels, the Navy’s elite precision-flying unit that has been performing for 77 years.
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