Army Base Still Searching for Machine Gun That Went Missing Days Ago

An Army base in Washington state spent part of the long holiday weekend searching for a missing part to a.50 caliber machine gun.

Soldiers with Joint Base Lewis-McChord's 1-2 Stryker brigade combat team, or "Ghost" brigade, had their four-day weekend cut short on Friday due to a missing piece of equipment, a flurry of rumors and what one soldier described as a classic Army debacle.

It took most of the rank and file over 12 hours to find the missing M2.50 caliber machine gun. The Army was still investigating Monday.

The Army Secretary says that senior leaders should stay out of culture wars on social media.

The receiver assembly is useless on its own and has not been found. A search of the base was recommended by a judge advocate.

Following a decade-long effort to downplay the number of lost or stolen firearms from units across the country, the Department of Defense has come under scrutiny over its firearm safekeeping over the last year.

The scare began as soldiers were getting ready for the unit's upcoming Expert Infantry and Expert Soldier Badge qualifications. The qualification includes the operation of an M2.50 caliber machine gun.

In the event that off-duty troops wanted to practice operating the weapon, Freigo said the plan was to leave the gun with staff duty.

Freigo said that an M2 had been signed over to staff duty to allow soldiers to train for testing through the weekend.

The soldiers took the receiver out of the sight of the duty troops. One soldier involved in the search told Military.com that there was an opportunity to create chaos. It is not clear when the component was taken.

Freigo said that staff duty found the component and reported it to their chain of command. He said that the brigade had been recalled to aid in the search.

In official statements, the Army did not say that the weapon was stolen, but the day it went missing, the brigade judge advocate recommended a probable cause search.

Soldiers from the 2nd infantry were called in to look for the receiver after a search for it. The rest of the "Ghost" brigade was recalled to look after it.

A soldier involved in the search said that a culprit was identified that day. The soldier admitted to throwing the receiver into the dumpster. The contents of the trash bin had been emptied and taken away.

The soldier said that early on there were indicators that the dumpsters were important. It sucked even if they were full or empty.

There are only so many places you can look at.

Freigo told Military.com that the receiver was the only part of the weapon that made it fire.

An extensive search of the brigade area was unsuccessful and the unit personnel were released later in the day. As of October 10, the receiver has not been found.

Soldiers took to social media to spread rumors. When equipment is lost in the Army, the response is usually to gather a group of soldiers to find the item that grows bigger.

The shared punishment leads to frustration among those who have been ripped from other jobs. It leads to rumors about the event and the alleged perpetrators.

A post titled "Who else lost their four-day weekend to a stolen 50?" was one of the first online scuttlebutts. Several soldiers tapped into social media to weigh in, saying that they knew the rank and state of mind of the alleged culprit, as well as what staff duty was doing when the component went missing.

The spokesman for 7th ID, Freigo, did not comment on the rumors because they are still being investigated.

The M2 is a heavy machine gun that shoots.50 caliber rounds. Both dismounted and mounted operations can be done with the system. Direct contact is one of the main methods of contact at the line level.

The soldier told Military.com that it was only the receiver that was missing. It was silly to search for something. You were told to go walk around and look for it.

It was frustrating for everyone when it was confirmed that someone was in custody. When people were allowed to go home, there was a long time between that.

What many might see as a frustrating and fruitless saga at the unit level tapped into an organization-wide issue of weapon accountability.

The Army had the highest number of missing weapons in the 2010s according to the AP.

It's possible that a missing receiver could end up in the wrong hands. The systems that account for weapons can be flawed and the circumstances in which they go missing can vary.

Drew F. Lawrence can be reached by email. You can follow him on the social networking site.

Steve Beynon can be reached at Military.com. You can follow him on the social networking site.

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