In a strange incident early Tuesday morning, a civilian woman was discovered on Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada and said she had been kidnapped and sexually assaulted by another civilian.
In a statement, Nellis spokeswoman Rebekah Mattes said that neither the alleged victim nor her alleged assailant were authorized to be on-base. It is unclear how they got past security, she said, and an investigation is under way.
Mattes said the alleged victim approached two airmen and told them she had been kidnapped and sexually assaulted. The airmen called it in to the Base Defense Operations Center at about 5 a.m., and security forces responded.
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The victim described her alleged assailant’s vehicle to the security forces, who discovered the vehicle and alleged assailant in the parking lot of the Crosswinds dining facility on base at about 5:30 a.m. Because they both were unauthorized civilians, Las Vegas police were called in to investigate the kidnapping and assault allegations.
But questions remain about how they even got there. Mattes said both individuals came on base at the same time.
“The 99th Air Base Wing takes installation security very seriously and is looking into the matter and examining what processes may need to change to further bolster security,” Mattes said. “At no point were aircraft, classified information or personnel threatened. The investigation into how the individuals gained access to Nellis is ongoing and more information is not available at this time.”
The unofficial Facebook page Air Force amn/nco/snco, which first reported the incident, posted a video of a white van, surrounded by police, that was purportedly the alleged kidnapper’s vehicle.
Mattes said rumors online that the assailant was Russian were incorrect, and both individuals involved are American citizens.
This is the latest in a string of gate breach incidents over the past year. Last December, a British man drove a vehicle onto RAF Mildenhall in the United Kingdom, and damaged an Osprey on the airfield before being stopped.
In March, a driver drove through the main gate at Travis Air Force Base in California, crashed, and died in the fire that ensued. And in October, a vehicle smashed into a security gate at a Wisconsin Air National Guard unit. A security officer fired a gun, which led to a lockdown and the arrest of three people.
Stephen Losey is the air warfare reporter for Defense News. He previously covered leadership and personnel issues at Air Force Times, and the Pentagon, special operations and air warfare at Military.com. He has traveled to the Middle East to cover U.S. Air Force operations.
