Your son had a weapon and could defend the best he could in a war zone. On a U.S. base they are all defensless!
No- they are not defenseless. You’re never far from a rifle. There are armories everywhere.
Every company (120 soldiers) has an armory.
We've been on enough bases to know that people walk around unarmed. In fact the two times we were on a base when our son came home and we were there to greet him, he left us to turn in his weapon, and then walked around without any.
Defenseless.