Man busted with weapons arsenal, maps of U.S. military base

As NOPE has always preferred facts over fear mongering, this story should make the Department of Navy question its sanity before willingly opening Naval Weapons Station Earle to unimpeded civilian access and to civilian tenants who can pony up a monthly rent check for a Laurelwood townhome on the base, presumably come September.

According to the Star-Ledger, a U.S. Navy deserter named Lloyd Woodson was arrested in Branchburg yesterday with a "trove of high-powered weapons, including a grenade launcher and two assault rifles, along with maps of a U.S. military base and civilian neighborhood," plus a night scope and police scanner, and clad in a bulletproof vest. CNN has picked up this story as well.

The FBI, according to NJ.com, finds no terrorism link with Mr. Woodson, and the maps found evidently are of a base outside New Jersey, but the obvious association to NOPE's objections to unimpeded civilian housing and access to Earle is that any crackpot with a checking account, and perhaps bad intentions, will soon live inside a Naval weapons station, posing a significant threat to servicemembers or the weapons base's mission at large for the next 30 years and our own security.

Interestingly, the DoN's stance throughout this process has been don't worry...we can handle it (civilian housing on a fully functional munitions depot), but in light of yesterday's arrest, combined with the Fort Hood massacre, the Fort Dix arrests, the break-in of a nuclear armaments base (Kitsap) in Washington, and well-publicized and thwarted homegrown terror attacks against military personal (Quantico, Arkansas recruiting center), we are left shaking our heads as to why the Department of Navy is so eager to turn Earle into a potential haven for disturbance.

Area residents might want to start calling their legislators and contact Naval Weapons Station Earle (732.866.2171) and start asking for themselves - "why does the U.S. Navy want to expose itself and us to obvious danger?"