Weapons accessories – such as laser sights – are missing from a Joint Base Lewis-McChord Stryker brigade, leading to an entire 100-member infantry company being locked down while the Army investigates, the Army said Saturday.
The company under investigation is from the 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, said Lewis-McChord spokesman Matt Hinkle.
I Corps spokesman Maj. Chris Ophardt said the missing items are not weapons, but weapons accessories. Army officials described the missing equipment as “sensitive.”
The lockdown will continue until an investigation by the Army’s Criminal Investigative Division is complete, Ophardt said. The lockdown started Wednesday, he said.
“They’ll be on base until the items are found,” Hinkle said. “This is the unit’s property that’s come up missing.”
The 4th Brigade has been to Iraq twice; it currently doesn’t have deployment orders. It is one of the base’s three Stryker combat brigades.
Ophardt said the company is restricted to its barracks and dining facility on Lewis-McChord. Soldiers’ families can visit them.
The Army is offering a reward of $10,000 for information leading to the recovery of the missing equipment.
The Army is interviewing soldiers and trying to recover the items, said. Lt. Col. Gary Dangerfield , also an I Corps spokesman. Results of the investigation will be made public, he said.
“We’re going to continue to conduct this investigation as thoroughly as possible,” Dangerfield said. “We will get to the bottom of this matter.”
Steve Maynard: 253-597-8647
steve.maynard@thenewstribune.com
blog.thenewstribune.com/street
Staff writer Adam Ashton contributed to this report.
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