Missing Goggles Prompt Fort Lewis Lockdown

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By By KOMO Staff & News Services

Summary

About 400 soldiers at this Army base were on lockdown Friday after a pair of expensive night-vision goggles disappeared.

Story Published: Jan 28, 2005 at 9:38 PM PDT

Story Updated: Aug 31, 2006 at 1:51 AM PDT

Missing Goggles Prompt Fort Lewis Lockdown
FORT LEWIS - About 400 soldiers at Fort Lewis were on lockdown Friday after a pair of night-vision goggles disappeared.

The lockdown affects about 400 members of the 296th Brigade Support Battalion. It is part of the first Stryker brigade, and returned in October after a year in Iraq, base spokesman Jeff Young said.

The goggles could not be located during an inventory on Thursday, said Young, a civilian.

"In the case of a high-value item - weapons or night-vision equipment - the Army's pretty serious about keeping track of these items," he said.

The lockdown means the battalion members must stay in the area until the missing goggles are found, or until enough evidence is gathered to allow officials to conclude what likely happened to them, Young said.

"They try to establish a chain of custody," he said.

The idea of restricting the soldiers to the area is to focus their efforts on finding the missing goggles, he said.

"Some folks believe that it is a punitive measure," Young said. "It is not. It's the energy and accountability applied by a unit to keeping track of and locating ... the type of equipment that you would not want to fall into the wrong hands.

"We're not crazy about the expression lockdown," he said. "We prefer the term 'thorough search,' because that's exactly what it is."

There's no way to tell how long the lockdown might last, he said.