U.S. military explosives vanish, emerge in civilian world
The Marine Corps demolitions specialist was worried — about America, and about the civil war he feared would follow the presidential election.
And so, block by block, he stole 13 pounds of C4 plastic explosives from the training ranges of Camp Lejeune.
“The riots, talk about seizing guns — I saw this country moving towards a scary unknown future,” the sergeant would later write, in a seven-page statement to military investigators. “I had one thing on my mind and one thing only, I am protecting my family and my constitutional rights.”
His crime might have gone undetected, but authorities caught a lucky break in 2018 as they investigated yet another theft from Lejeune, the massive base on coastal North Carolina. In that other case, explosives ended up in the hands of some high school kids.
These are not isolated cases. Hundreds — and possibly thousands — of armor-piercing grenades, hundreds of pounds of plastic explosives, as well as land mines and rockets have been stolen from or lost by the U.S. armed forces over the past decade, according to an ongoing Associated Press investigation into the military’s failure to secure all its weapons of war. Still more explosives were reported missing and later recovered.
Troops falsified records to cover up some thefts, and in other cases didn’t report explosives as missing, investigative files show. Sometimes they failed to safeguard explosives in the first place.
The AP unearthed dozens of explosives investigations by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, Army Criminal Investigation Command and Defense Criminal Investigative Service. In the majority of these 63 cases, the military didn’t realize any explosives were gone until someone recovered them where they shouldn’t be. These were not rusty war trophies cast out of grandpa’s attic. They were taken from military shipments or bases.
Military officials said thieves are a small minority of service members and that, compared with overall stockpiles, the amounts of lost or stolen explosives are minuscule.
“We want to get the number to zero, so there is no loss, but it doesn’t mean that we don’t take seriously losses that happened,” Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Uriah Orland said.
The AP’S AWOL Weapons investigation has shown that poor accountability and insider thefts have led to the loss of more than 2,000 military firearms since 2010. Some guns were used in civilian crimes, found on felons or sold to a street gang.
In response, Congress is set to require that the military give lawmakers detailed loss and theft reports every year.
One thing those reforms won’t do: Make it harder to steal explosives such as C4.
Explosives are harder to account for than firearms.
While troops check guns in and out, explosives are distributed with the presumption they will be detonated. Although at least two people are supposed to sign consumption reports, it’s an honor system.
Representatives of the four armed services described explosives security as a high priority and said they could account for nearly all explosives. The amounts that are missing add up, however, given the military’s vast supplies.
AP sought detailed loss or theft data from 2010 through 2020.
The Army provided a chart that totaled nearly 1,900 entries for missing explosives, about half of which it said were recovered. The majority was described as C4/TNT. Other categories included artillery, mortars, land mines, grenades, rockets and armor-piercing 40 mm grenades shot from a launcher.
Despite a painstaking, manual records review, Army researchers couldn’t always determine amounts, spokesman Lt. Col. Brandon Kelley said. So, for example, it was not possible to know exactly how many pounds of C4/TNT were represented in the 1,066 entries, Kelley said.
The Air Force provided a chart that reported about 50 pounds of C4, more than 800 feet of detonating cord and several dozen 40 mm armor-piercing grenades had disappeared without being recovered.
The Navy said only 20 hand grenades have been stolen, with all but two recovered. The AP found military records showing an additional 24 grenades were reported missing from a ship’s armory in 2012.
The Marine Corps released data that was too unclear to calculate a precise tally.