The US Army is missing an M240B machine gun. It belongs to the 2nd Brigade Combat Team of the 1st Infantry Division, from Fort Riley, Kansas.
To me, there are two possibilities here:
- It was in California. One of the local troops from Fort Irwin just made themselves some extra cash, and a Mexican cartel has itself some additional firepower.
- There is a patriot somewhere who is waiting for some IRS or FBI agents to come calling. Maybe there are some soldiers who saw an opportunity to increase their own firepower. God help them if anyone rats them out.
14 Comments
Jay Bee · August 27, 2022 at 11:05 am
Probably 10ish years ago I ended up on a webpage where the Air Force had listings for stolen equipment/firearms. I kept checking back over time and learned the Air Force loses a lot of rifles.
John McClane · August 27, 2022 at 11:29 am
*ding* Now I have a machine gun. Ho-Ho-Ho.
Divemedic · August 27, 2022 at 11:53 am
Damn. That should have been the title of this post. I can’t believe I missed the opportunity.
Big Ruckus D · August 27, 2022 at 2:57 pm
Feel free it change it, I won’t even charge royalties. Was the first thing I thought of when I read the post earlier. But then thats how my mind works, which may not be a good sign. And excuse my momentary misappropriation of Officer McClane’s identity.
it's just Boris · August 27, 2022 at 12:01 pm
A touch out of season, but, yeah. 🙂
BobF · August 27, 2022 at 11:49 am
Can’t address full weapons, but I can tell you there were attempts to cover up unauthorized M-16 discharges by turning in mags with pencils or chalk where a round should be. The armorers knew what was going on and played the cat and mouse game with those who were turning in weapons at end of shift. AF Security Police.
McChuck · August 27, 2022 at 2:32 pm
Or c) It’s sitting somewhere out in the desert, where it was left behind or fell off the truck.
Divemedic · August 27, 2022 at 9:11 pm
True. I just assumed that they had already looked into that, or they wouldn’t have needed posters with lame email addresses on them.
Jonathan · August 28, 2022 at 11:02 pm
They may not know when it was lost, just when it was discovered missing…
More than likely a soldier decided to keep it, and most likely will be found with it soon, unless he was unusually smart in how he took it.
dave in pa. · August 27, 2022 at 5:08 pm
check out old issues of army times. shit like this used to happen all the time. one staff sgt. was found to have a smallish supply of machine guns,
ammo, plastic boom items and more. back around 2004-5 I think
FT. Campbell, KY. back in the 1970’s there used to be inspections for this kind of thing all the time. ammo, det cord and other “stuff” went missing all the time. BTW, 3 wraps of det cord around any traffic light or stop sign will come down rather nice. don’t ask me how I know this,
hardest item to get used to be blasting caps. but if you put 3 stick kitchen matches in a split section of time fuse, it will light,,,
pair or splice that to your det cord and away you go.
but that was a long time ago
joe · August 27, 2022 at 8:18 pm
was in irwin in the 80s and found a saw buried in the sand…ended up belonging to an mp unit…didn’t even get a thank you for finding it…assholes…
mike · August 28, 2022 at 8:06 am
There was supposed to have been an abandoned 2 1/2 truck deep in the woods of Ft. Drum that had been left behind by the NJARNG. If true (I did not see it), that must have been quite a story for them to write it off as a loss. There was also an M-60 that had been left leaning against the wall on the drill shed floor of a northeast state NG armory in the late 1970’s. It took a walk and could not be found. The Brits found it in Belfast Ireland when it was directed at them.
Fact of the matter is that soldiers are sloppy with personal weapons. The more time they spend with them in the field, the more this is true. Some individual troops are more disciplined than others, but there are some group generalizations that are true. For instance, CS and CSS troops are known for their laxness in security measures. You can typically walk up to a typical battalion field train or any type of CSS tactical deployment or bivouac and not be challenged unless you come through the main entry point. Sneaking around after dark is a breeze and waling off with just about anything that is unattended takes little effort. These type of units are all armed of course, but the weapon gets in the way of their” real” jobs ,and sooner or later gets left unattended while some other task is performed. Officers and NCOs trying to discipline against these bad habits frequently “steal” unattended weapons and put a panic into the offender. Anyone with mal intent would be able to do the same thing very easily. Good thing the military has such high standards of ethical behavior and personal conduct.
Matthew · August 28, 2022 at 8:14 am
Possibility #3: Nobody really knew how many they had in the first place. There could be none missing, there could be 10 missing…
Aesop · August 28, 2022 at 2:24 pm
Plus ça change…
The dotGov will be getting that M240 back come the day…bullets first.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uY9DV1NBco
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