MacDill AFB orders shelter in place amid second security incident in recent days

Cars pass through the Dale Mabry gate at MacDill Air Force Base, Fla., March 3, 2023. (Lauren Cobin/U.S. Air Force)

MacDill Air Force Base was under lockdown Wednesday afternoon after a second security incident at the Florida of U.S. Central Command in recent days, installation officials said.

“A threat was made against MacDill Air Force Base,” the officials wrote in a social media post just after 11 a.m., local time. “We take all threats seriously and are taking measures to prioritize the safety and security of our installation.”

The officials declined to provide further information the nature of the threat Wednesday. MacDill, outside Tampa, Fla., houses CENTCOM, which is overseeing combat operations against Iran in the Middle East. It is also to U.S. Special Operations Command and the Air Force’s 6th Air Refueling Wing.

The new threat came just two days after a suspicious package was found at MacDill’s visitor center , which led to the closure of the center and the base’s Dale Mabry gate for six hours on Monday. Base first responders and the FBI cleared the package from the scene, officials said. That investigation remains ongoing.

MacDill increased its security posture after the suspicious package incident on Monday, raising it to Force Protection Condition-Charlie, the second-highest security level for federal government installations. Most Defense Department bases were operating at FPCON-Bravo on Wednesday, according to DOD.

FPCON-Charlie, “applies when a terrorist or hostile incident occurs within the [installation] commander’s area of interest or intelligence is received indicating a hostile act, some form of terrorist action or targeting of DOD elements, personnel or facilities,” according to a Defense Logistics Agency definition.

The Wednesday shelter- in-place order at MacDill also comes amid an increase in security incidents across the Defense Department. U.S. Northern Command, which oversees operations and troops in the United States, had already ordered higher-than-usual security measures this month after the U.S. and Israel launched operations against Iran.

Those measures include heightened gate security, 100% identification checks of individuals entering installations, more frequent vehicle searches and the suspension of the Trusted Traveler Program, which allows certain Defense Department civilian employees, service members and their dependents to escort people onto installations in their vehicles without a background check.

On Wednesday, Sheppard Air Force Base in Wichita Falls, Texas , was also investigating a “security incident,” which forced it to close a base gate. The gate reopened and was back to normal operations the same day.

One day earlier, officials at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey found a suspicious package on the base, promoting them to raise their security level to FPCON-Charlie. Officials later “determine that package posed no threat.”

On Tuesday evening, one person was killed and another injured in a shooting at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico . The incident remains under investigation.

The incidents come as Operation Epic Fury, the Pentagon’s operations against Iran, near its third week. The bombing campaign aimed at Iran’s hard-line regime was launched Feb. 28 alongside Israel’s military and has since seen American forces strike more than 7,800 targets, according to CENTCOM.

Thirteen U.S. service members have been killed in combat operations, including six killed in the crash of a KC-135 fuel tanker in Iraq on March 12. Three of the fallen members of the Air Force crew were assigned to MacDill Air Force Base , officials said.