"Sensitive item" missing?

www.armytimes.com...

Here's an odd little item that I wonder how or why is in the news....
Locking down 130 soldiers and then making a news item about it seems a little draconian.....

FORT BRAGG, N.C. — About 130 82nd Airborne Division soldiers have been confined in their unit area for a week as criminal investigators search for a “sensitive item” that a post spokesman would not describe.

The soldiers are assigned to Company C of the 3rd Battalion of the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment. They are scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan for a year this spring.

The Army confines soldiers to their unit areas to find missing items that have to be accounted for at all times, such as weapons or equipment that is expensive or secret. Each unit can determine what equipment is sensitive, division spokesman Sgt. Chuck Meseke said.

The lockdown is not punishment, Meseke said. “It’s to give the investigators a controlled environment,” he said.

Mmm....the Plutonium Diode Uplifting Turbo Plasma Cannon with Dual Dylithium Power Rods must be missing...

I wonder though. Could be a new piece of equipment or maybe even some data thats missing. Who knows? One thing for certain is, we will never know!!! If they cant tell us now, they will never tell us. And I am certain that story is in the news by total accident. Meaning they want as little attention as possible.

Yeah so someone lost a set of nods. That sucks.


I remember being locked down on the land nav range (we were doing night land nav) for about a day and a half because someone dropped their M16.

We got on-line and scoured that range for hours.

I don't see how losing a sensitive item is particularly newsworthy either. It happens once a week at least somewhere in the military.

I have to agree with DeltaChaos, loosing a sensitive item happens all the time. They went to the field and someone lost thier NODS or Promask. Every unit has a sensitive items list that has to be inventoried every month.

It's usually just the expensive cool stuff that people would like to steal like weapons, nods, or pluggers. It also includes radios and crypto. So no its no big deal.

Definitely not a conspiracy.

First I do not think anyone was implying it was a conspiracy.

If it missing it should have been returned. And contrary to your statment if it also includes radios and cryto is no big deal! Geesh get a life will ya. How would you like it if someone could decode a message or let alone send one that might end up killing you?

[edit on 12/20/2004 by shots]

The last time they did that at one of our local bases there were several sets of the latest nightvision goggles missing. It's also happened for M16's. Both items would make nice christmas gifts - you have to admit.

No not in my book they are weapons for defense and should be used accordinly. What real purpose would an M16 fill in real life other then having an object you can brag about?

... you just need to ask all those who rejoiced when the ban on automatic weapons came off that question ....

When exactly did the ban on automatic weapons "come off"?


Oh, I remember,.... it didn't.

Could'nt stop laughing when I heard that, you made my day skippy gw.
All I could picture was a marine asleep holding it on his chest with empty beer cans everywhere.

I can remember one time when I was in the military our company comander lost his little decode book and we had to stay out in the field till we found it. It was eventually found, but I can imagine our company commander got his butt chewed out by the battlion commander.

Netchicken, there has never been an automatic weapons ban. The law regarding automatic weapons is today as it was in 1934. No legislation that has been passed since then has affected automatic weapons ownership, even the stupidly written "assault weapons ban." The M-16 and it's civilian variants, none of which are automatic, have a plethora of uses from hunting to varminting to self-defense.

However, owning a stolen M-16 would in my mind be less than worthless. Criminals might find one useful, but these weapons have never been popular among the criminal classes for a number of practical reasons.