The unarming of our military personnel seems to be a long standing Rat tradition.
Shortly after the Cuban missile crisis was over, the sailors standing guard at our ships in Cuba and in the various ports of Floriduh did so with empty side arms or rifles with no bullets.
That bs stopped in Gitmo after Admiral Bulkeley took command:
When the Cuban government accused the United States of stealing water, base commander John D. Bulkeley ordered that the pipelines be cut and a section removed.
Then, he had the seabees and marines plant land mines on our side of the fence between between Gitmo and Cuba. Sailors standing guard watch were re qualified by Marines on the base firing ranges. You didn’t stand watch until you were requalified. Then, your weapons had loaded clips in them.
He closed the gate to Cuba and the Cuban base workers had to come in by ferry from Cuba. Then, there were armed USS Navy ships on patrol in the harbor, monitoring and shadowing these ferries with zero tolerance if something happened on one of those ferries. Those workers went through security checks at the ferry terminal before going to their work sites and before getting back on the ferry to leave Gitmo at the end of their work day.
I will try to find the link to a picture of a USS Navy ship on patrol monitoring a ferry bringing in Cuban workers to work in Gitmo during that time.
Read the details of the bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Lebanon back in the Reagan administration. It might be enough to make you vomit. I was in high school at the time, and it was enough to convince me that I had no interest in serving in the U.S. military.