Soldiers lose their guns on exercises

A soldier allegedly lost a gun and failed to tell his superiors for two days, leaving his comrades to suspend their training exercise and spend nearly a week hunting for the pistol.

Another New Zealand private was disciplined this year after leaving her pistol in a portable toilet or shower while on an exercise in Australia. The blunders can be revealed after Stuff obtained military police reports via the Official Information Act.

On the morning of March 27 this year, One Section, Cassino Platoon, set off in three groups in Unimog trucks in the Tekapo training area in Canterbury to conduct a three-day patrol, part of Exercise Southern Warrior. One of the groups started its patrol in rough country, according to Air Commodore AJ Woods, chief of staff at Defence Force headquarters, writing in a letter attached to the documents.

About 10pm that night, after completing a simulated night attack, a soldier noticed his Glock 17 pistol was missing.

He allegedly decided to put off reporting the loss because his commanders were asleep. The next morning a non-commissioned officer wrongly reported all equipment was accounted for, and it was only the day after that the section commander was told the pistol was missing. On day six of the search, April 5, the soldier directed the searchers to the route he had walked when his section started its training patrol. The pistol was quickly found.

Air Commodore Woods said it was possible charges would be laid under the Armed Forces Discipline Act against both the private who lost the Glock and failed to immediately report the loss, and the non-commissioned officer who conducted equipment checks verbally rather than physically examining all A-Class items and reconciling serial numbers. Soldiers training at the Tekapo military camp.