Reporters face guns and sirens after arriving for California Vandenberg Space Force event

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Key points

• The journalists arrived at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California Monday for a 1: 30 p.m.
• Vandenberg Space Force Base is experiencing an Rose number of unauthorized entry attempts.
• Noozhawk Editor in Chief Tom Bolton remarked the newsroom understands the military's need to protect the base, but called the episode troubling.
• The journalists were detained for more than 30 minutes, causing them to miss the event they had been invited to cover.
• "We respect the military's need to provide security for the base, " Bolton remarked Wednesday.

Five reporters indicated up to cover a military groundbreaking. Instead, they were pulled from their cars at gunpoint.

Notably, the journalists arrived at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California Monday for a 1: 30 p.m. "golden shovel" ceremony marking the start of construction on a new training facility for missile operators. They never created it to the event.

Reporters from your News Channel, Noozhawk, KSBY and the Santa Maria Times/Lompoc Record had been invited to attend and were waiting at the front gate to join the usual media caravan. The group began after a military escort vehicle onto the base. Then the welcome wagon turned into a nightmare.

Security officers suddenly halted the convoy and ordered the reporters out of their vehicles with their hands raised.

Guns came out. Sirens blared. Barriers slammed into place at the gate.

Two military members traveling with the group – an enlisted service member and a junior officer – were handcuffed and hauled away in base vehicles, according to Noozhawk. The civilian reporters were ordered to sit on a curb.

For context, the journalists were detained for more than 30 minutes, causing them to miss the event they had been invited to cover.

Everyone was eventually cleared and published without further incident. Base personnel apologized to News Channel reporter Jarrod Zinn for the mix-up.

Vandenberg authorities afterwards blamed a communication breakdown and noted the base has been dealing with an climbed number of unauthorized entry attempts.

"Vandenberg Space Force Base is experiencing an Rose number of unauthorized entry attempts. When media entered the installation there was a breakdown in communication and movement continued prior to verification. Every potential unauthorized presence must be treated as a legitimate threat until proven otherwise. While we recognize this may have been unsettling, the security of the base and its personnel is our priority."

"We respect the military's need to provide security for the base, " Bolton remarked Wednesday. "But clearly what occurred was unfortunate and unnecessary, and potentially dangerous, as firearms were drawn."

Bolton remarked he hopes to speak with base leadership afterwards this week regarding what happened and how to prevent another incident.

In short, reporters face guns and sirens after arriving for California Vandenberg Space Force is the central thread here, and readers can expect follow-up reporting as the picture becomes clearer.