Dude, where's my M16?

Today was not the typical day here at Ft Sill. This morning my friend and I went by the Clothing Sales to pick up a few items for our uniforms and while we were there we heard quite a story. A couple of the ladies working there were talking about how the gate security was taking almost 2 hours to let people off the base. On the base, the security usually does its job when people are trying to get on base. If you have no base registration sticker, they will search your car and check your ID and it takes maybe 5-10mins to get through the whole process. When we leave, it is just a matter of driving through the gate. No search, no hassle. Well come to find out, a Private First Class had somehow "lost" his M16 rifle on the way out to a range. I am unaware of all of the details around it but it affected the entire base. In the military, your weapon is your life. Your career and your weapon are directly related. In this case, I would hate to be in that PFC's chain of command. It is such a big deal to lose a sensitive item such as a weapon that the security was stopping every person trying to leave the base and searching their car for the M16. This goes on for several hours this morning and on through lunch. For a couple of friends in my class that live off base, a typical 15min trip home was stretched out to a 2 1/2 hour ordeal. The day does not end there though. We had a block of instruction this afternoon with two platoons of LTs. About an hour in to class, our Battery Commander informed instructor that he will have to take the class out to the parking lot and there, one by one, search every personally owned vehicle for the rifle.

Ever heard of the saying "arms across America?" When a unit is out in the field for any length of time and a soldier happens to lose, misplace, forget or all of the above a sensitive item like a weapon, artillery fuse (that is another story for another day) of night vision goggles, regardless of the size area, the unit will search for it. What this involves is every soldier, will line up within reaching distance and walk side by side through the area until the item is recovered. This time it affected a non-related unit in an entirely different environment. Fortunately for us, the search lasted no more then 20min because in that time I guess that the weapon was recovered. The whole base was forced to virtually halt all work and training for one M16.

Points to take away:
1) Your actions effect others in ways that you may not realize.
2) Keep track of weapon. If you lose your M16 you may lose your career.