After three months, Wild Greg’s Saloon in downtown Pensacola can once again welcome service members through its doors. The Armed Forces Disciplinary Control Board at NAS Pensacola lifted the off-limits designation at a closed-door meeting on Tuesday.
- The Ban’s Impact: “It took half our business, and that’s where your profit is. The bottom half just pays the bills,” Urban explained. The loss rippled through his entire team, with employees bearing the brunt of reduced income and hours.
The controversy began in July when the board cited Wild Greg’s for failing “to comply with various state laws and city ordinances, specifically drug usage and by not properly verifying patron’s identification resulting in underage individuals consuming alcohol.”
Background: Capt. Chandra Newman, Commanding Officer NAS Pensacola, notified Mayor D.C. Reeves by email of the ban. She cited these issues with Wild Greg’s:
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- Numerous cases of underage alcohol sales and buy-and-pass not being monitored and/or stopped
- Cocaine and other drug distribution with servicemembers gaining access to drugs at the establishment and others witnessing bathrooms stalls with multiple people using
- Fake or altered IDs being utilized and scrutiny not applied and/or IDs not confiscated
- Sex acts in bathrooms with men in women’s bathrooms and women in men’s bathrooms
Blindsided?
However, Urban was blindsided when more serious allegations surfaced in the email to Mayor Reeves.
- “We’d heard nothing since our meeting with the Navy, and then the allegations here have nothing to do with what they originally notified me of,” Urban said, calling the situation “more of a hit job than anything else.”
The NAS board lifted the ban after Urban hired Stinson, a law firm out of Tampa, and he wrote to NAS Jacksonville Commander Mathew Cutchen appealing the decision of the Armed Forces Disciplinary Control Board at NAS Pensacola. Cutchen serves as the staff judge advocate for Navy Region Southeast. Urban wrote to Cutchen that Wild Greg’s should have never been placed on the off-limits base and “WG has undertaken numerous active measures to address and alleviate any alleged issues posing a threat to members of our military who choose to frequent WG.”
Impact on Employees
Letters from Wild Greg’s employees to board members perhaps influenced their decision to lift the restriction. Bartender Hallie Speed wrote that “since the blacklisting, I have experienced a substantial decline in my earnings. On average, my income has decreased by approximately 50% making it increasingly difficult to meet my financial obligations such as rent, utilities, groceries, and transportation.”
Corey Morgan, another bartender, described the emotional toll: “The ongoing stress has affected my mental clarity and daily routine, and I worry that if the ban persists, I may need to find a second job to make ends meet. This would, unfortunately, reduce the time I can spend with my cherished wife and daughter.”
Despite the ban being lifted, Urban remains cautious about the road ahead. “This is bigger than the Navy,” he noted. “There might be other people out there we lost. It might take a little bit longer for them to come back.”
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