Army-Navy game to honor three slain in Florida naval base shooting
By Phil Helsel
The three service members killed in a shooting at Florida naval base will be honored Saturday during the annual Army-Navy football game, the U.S. Naval Academy said.
Ensign Joshua Kaleb Watson, Airman Mohammed S. Haitham and Airman Apprentice Cameron Scott Walters were killed Dec. 6 when the shooter, a Saudi air force member who was in the U.S. for training, opened fire in a classroom building at Naval Air Station Pensacola.
The gunman, Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani, 21, was killed by a sheriff’s deputy, officials said.
Watson's shipmates will wear red, white and blue ribbons pinned to their lapels, and Navy’s defensive co-captain will wear a memorial patch from Naval Aviation Schools Command, where the three were assigned, the naval academy said in a statement Friday.
Others will wear patches from the flight suits of Watson’s classmates in his memory. The Navy has also posthumously awarded wings of gold to the three sailors killed and designated Watson as a naval aviator.
The commanding officer of the base has said the sailors took action during the attack and helped save lives.
Several people were injured in the shooting, including two Escambia County sheriff's deputies hurt in an exchange of gunfire