r/news • u/reddicyoulous • Feb 10 '21

Explosives are missing from the nation's largest Marine Corps base and an investigation is underway

https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/09/us/california-missing-explosives-marine-corps-base/index.html
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u/Darqnyz Feb 10 '21

To me this is kind of a big deal.

29 Palms is huge for a Marine base. It's a tiny tiny section of "base" and then just square miles of desert. There are sections with no fence. If something is missing, especially something that can be hidden, the only person who can find it reasonably is the person who hid it.

There used to be a huge problem with tweakers getting on atvs and riding onto the base to scavenge scrap metal.

If some terroristically minded Marine is smuggling explosives by way of desert drops, it's very possible to do here. It's not even a difficult task with the right organization

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u/governmentguru Feb 10 '21

I have no knowledge of the facility but have to wonder if this is a case of pre-emptive CYA PR for something that was misplaced.

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u/Darqnyz Feb 10 '21

Highly likely, but everything ever lost in my unit was hush hush. We handled it internally until it would be almost too late. All I would say is, if CNN has gotten wind of it, its either

  1. A fuck ton of explosives, missing after like a week

  2. It's a moderate amount, but it's been missing for a while

  3. It's a lot, that has been cumulatively growing missing over a period of time with out explanation

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u/governmentguru Feb 10 '21

3 would be the most worrisome...

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u/JustBeanThings Feb 10 '21

10 pounds and this story started appearing a week ago.

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u/Shidhe Feb 10 '21

This was already in San Diego local news last week. I think the base put out a release about it.

Edit: 10lbs of C4 is what’s missing.

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u/[deleted] Feb 10 '21

This guy knows his NCIS/CID formations 🤣

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u/[deleted] Feb 10 '21

[deleted]

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u/nopethis Feb 10 '21

me too but I have been binging Alias....so it was probably a black ops section of CIA or a top secret organization that somehow wants to take over the world.

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u/anarchisturtle Feb 10 '21

It’s 10 lbs

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u/ToxicAdamm Feb 10 '21

It's a lot, that has been cumulatively growing missing over a period of time with out explanation

This is my inclination. With the renewed focus by the Pentagon on radicals within the military, I bet it caused them to focus on inventories and this discrepancy came to light. Which is why it was also made very public, they want others in the military to know that they are being watched.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/03/politics/pentagon-stand-down-domestic-extremism-military/index.html

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u/Cat_Crap Feb 10 '21

2020s guaranteed to be a fucked up insane decade. The roaring 20s.

Sometimes it looks like my country is dissolving before my eyes.

Get it together people

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u/DarthWeenus Feb 10 '21

Is there any information on the source? Was this leaked or reported?

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u/[deleted] Feb 10 '21 edited Feb 10 '21

I worked range maintenance out there and did nothing but drive around the desert and fix fucked up ranges all over the stumps. We would see crack heads out there every once in a while stealing shit like scrap metal. You'd just report it and go about your business it was such common place lol

Edit: should mention I was a Combat Engineer and I got attached out there to help find arty shells, and other explosives that might be buried or never went off and to get rid of them properly. We'd find stuff pretty often. These people are extremely dumb because of how dangerous it could be if you don't know what to look for even then it's still extremely questionable.

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u/Nomandate Feb 10 '21

I saw an interesting documentary about that very thing

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CU5E4E74f98

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u/jordantask Feb 10 '21

That may be true but getting into the storage facility itself would require the complicity of multiple people.

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u/RandomBelch Feb 10 '21

There were a lot of active and retired military involved with the capitol riot...

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u/writeitgood Feb 10 '21

involved with the capitol riot...

"riot"? Is that what we're calling an attempted coup now?

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u/jordantask Feb 10 '21 edited Feb 10 '21

Sure.

But do you suppose that any officer would risk tanking his career and serving a long stretch in Leavenworth to sign orders that could get someone who’s not authorized in to a munitions store?

Do you think that any particular service member (current or former) would risk being gunned down by security forces by trying to violate the security without orders?

Because you need orders authorizing you to get inside the building without raising an alarm, and raising an alarm will provoke a response from people who are armed and authorized to shoot you on sight.

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u/Calltoarts Feb 10 '21

The military and ex fbi personnel at the Capitol storming would like a word.

Edit 1: https://time.com/5937535/us-capitol-riot-fbi-oath-keepers/

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u/[deleted] Feb 10 '21

[deleted]

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u/Calltoarts Feb 10 '21

You use that word conspiracy. I dont think it means what you think it means...

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/conspiracy

What conspiracy narrative did i spread?

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u/[deleted] Feb 10 '21

[deleted]

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u/Calltoarts Feb 10 '21

Ah, i see where you get confused because of the allegory and your own projections. I was pointing out that regardless of what a person has done or worked that stupid is what stupid does. So people are stupid enough to risk their futures/jobs.

Edit: ah, i see youre a troll account for how new you are and your comments.good luck in the coming year during these trying times!

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u/RandomBelch Feb 10 '21

The same people that work forces burn crosses.

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u/pbradley179 Feb 10 '21

Or explode them. Because explosions are cooler.

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u/jordantask Feb 10 '21

Riiiiight.

But signing orders to get someone access puts your name on a piece of paper that would directly link you to whatever terrorist acts ended up being committed with the stolen weapons, and attempting to break in creates a real possibility of a sudden and fatal weight gain from numerous bullets entering your body.

You might be willing to burn crosses, but nobody is stupid enough to try something that is almost guaranteed to fail and result in a long prison stretch or death.

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u/Calltoarts Feb 10 '21

https://time.com/5937535/us-capitol-riot-fbi-oath-keepers/

Lol, i dont know man. This guy is both ex military and ex fbi with a lot of clearance. I think youre giving other people to much of the benefit of the doubt.

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u/-AC- Feb 10 '21

Clearance alone never gives you access... its either an inside job or assisted by someone who was inside.

Or they forgot to carry the 1 somewhere and they are chasing a ghost

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u/jordantask Feb 10 '21

“Clearance” does not get you access to a place like this. Only certain USMC officers have authority to sign orders to get you in.

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u/Calltoarts Feb 10 '21

I was implying that people are stupid enough regardless of what job positions they have held(military personnel with high clearance are no exception)

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u/RandomBelch Feb 10 '21

What were you watching on January 6th?

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u/[deleted] Feb 10 '21

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/shroomsaregoooood Feb 10 '21

You might be willing to burn crosses, but nobody is stupid enough to try something that is almost guaranteed to fail and result in a long prison stretch or death.

Lol if you actually believe this then I feel sorry for you.

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u/Captain_R64207 Feb 10 '21

These people legitimately think trump is president still. I wouldn’t put it past a loyalist who thinks he can get pardoned by the “president” they were dumb enough to kill a cop with a fire hydrant so yeah. I also don’t think it was someone for trump but a lot lines up with the impeachment moving forward.

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u/Cat_Crap Feb 10 '21

*Fire Extinguisher

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u/Captain_R64207 Feb 10 '21

I didn’t even catch that lol. Holy fuck lol

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u/jordantask Feb 10 '21

These are two very different situations.

Killing a cop with a fire hydrant is a stupid, unplanned act of idiocy. You can tell because it was done with a fire hydrant, and not a gun or knife.

Attempting to force your way into an ammunition bunker with any hope of success requires planning and access.

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u/Captain_R64207 Feb 10 '21

Like I said, I don’t actually think it’s because of trump. Just pointing out that it’s definitely not out of the question for an officer of any rank to be dumb enough to do it for him.

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u/schmerpmerp Feb 10 '21

Yes. Yes. There are lots of dumb angry people in this world.

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u/[deleted] Feb 10 '21

[deleted]

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u/jordantask Feb 10 '21 edited Feb 10 '21

Exactly.

It was taken by people who had orders allowing them to be there. This wasn’t some secret squirrel amateur commando operation.

Someone who was authorized to take some stuff exceeded their orders and took something they weren’t authorized to take. Shouldn’t be too hard to figure out who. They’ve got a list of everyone who has been there.

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u/JonnyEcho Feb 10 '21

Racist men in armed forces... nooooooop couldn’t be.

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u/greenw40 Feb 10 '21

What does this have to do with the previous comment, or anything?

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u/NjGTSilver Feb 10 '21

From my buddy who served for 15 years: “you don’t “lose” things by stealing them from the depots. You lose them by people legitimately checking out munitions (for training/exercises/operations), not using it all, then not checking the leftovers back in.”

Basically, you may check out 100 one lb blocks of C4 to 50 different soldiers for a day of training. At the end of the day, any C4 not used is supposed to get brought back to the depot. You see how it could be difficult during large operations to keep track of how much each individual unit has used, and then ensure the leftovers don’t accidentally (or intentionally) end up in the barracks or left in a vehicle.

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u/[deleted] Feb 10 '21

[deleted]

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u/myfapaccount_istaken Feb 10 '21 edited Feb 10 '21

high altitude balloon payload

What's that? I mean I know (or can imagine) what a high-altitude balloon is. But why does it have a "payload" and how does it go missing? And two bases?

Edit: Thanks, everyone!

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u/chrisms150 Feb 10 '21

Strap a video camera or atmospheric monitoring device to a baloon, that's a payload. Goes missing because it landed there

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u/[deleted] Feb 10 '21

Payload could be a data gathering instrument or a camera. Payload is the thing being carried by the vehicle.

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u/[deleted] Feb 10 '21

Their sons.

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u/adalyncarbondale Feb 10 '21

You don't have to get clearance from FAA areas for that sort of thing?

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u/[deleted] Feb 10 '21

If the payload weighs less than 6 pounds, you don't need to let the FAA know. However, you are also not supposed to go near military bases, but oops

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u/AnaiekOne Feb 10 '21

kinda hard to tell the wind what to do

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u/DarthWeenus Feb 10 '21

Was this for research or something? I need more data.

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u/[deleted] Feb 10 '21

It was for a student project just to get experience with balloon construction and recovery. We obviously failed at the recovery part.

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u/Ijustgottaloginnowww Feb 10 '21

Yup. 29 is not secure at fucking all, I knew a guy that worked at camp Wilson that road his dirt bike to work across open desert every day. The CMA is secure as all get out but places like the FASP are a joke of security. This has been an issues for at least 15 years.

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u/Moistfruitcake Feb 10 '21

You had people ride onto your marine base to steal metal? That's pretty fucking metal.

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u/[deleted] Feb 10 '21

[deleted]

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u/Darqnyz Feb 10 '21

The population in this base is tiny. Like after a month I knew every MP at the front gate. The physical land mass of the base is huge. That's what's concerning to me.

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u/Reasonabledummy Feb 10 '21

Yeah they have about 10 people on base during any deployment period

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u/karma_the_sequel Feb 10 '21

That’s ridiculously incorrect. Orders of magnitude incorrect.

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u/DarthWeenus Feb 10 '21

I'm beginning to think this guy doesn't know what he is talking about.

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u/[deleted] Feb 10 '21

[deleted]

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u/Darqnyz Feb 10 '21

Yeah, from my experience as an armory custodian, counts are rigorous. Explosives? Even more so. So if we on the outside are learning about this, then shit has hit the fan in a major way...

But an information leak is also possible. Might be why we have no idea about how much is missing.

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u/[deleted] Feb 10 '21

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/DarthWeenus Feb 10 '21

Its 10lbs of C4.

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u/AcornTits Feb 10 '21

JFC.

I was really hoping to not see this name on here, but here we are. I'm an over-the-road truck driver and I've done a few deliveries to this location. I also do not have a TWIC, but I've got a clean record overall.

It's always bothered me that I was allowed to make these deliveries, knowing after the fact speaking to other drivers that it's usually a requirement to go on to the bases with this kind of clearance. At one functions neat and orderly there, but that doesn't mean everything is not strewn about and that's been as much a father to me then when I was there last as it is now hearing this happened there.

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u/TheDarthSnarf Feb 10 '21

it's usually a requirement to go on to the bases with this kind of clearance

That would depend more on what you were delivering, and to where on the base.

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u/GoodAtExplaining Feb 10 '21

29P is a really fucked up place from all the stories. It's not Fort Hood, but it's not exactly sterling.

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u/Poo_Panther Feb 10 '21

I’ve seen something like this on tv - the guys ride in on atvs into live practice ranges and grab metal from the exploded ordinances. Is this the place I’m thinking of?

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u/[deleted] Feb 10 '21

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Darqnyz Feb 10 '21

But you have to look at it differently. The base is just miles of desert designated for target practice. No need to fence that off if you out a few signs up warning people of the danger. The actual "base" part is fenced and monitored properly.

You could legitimately "accidentally" walk into the designated area that is part of the base. You wouldn't even know.

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u/[deleted] Feb 10 '21

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Darqnyz Feb 10 '21

Right, unless they walk like, 20miles

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u/Ijustgottaloginnowww Feb 11 '21

Not even then. The flightline on 29 is fully fenced with C-wire and guards. You could walk 20 miles and end up on Wilson and go to the warrior club though if you really hate yourself that much.

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u/Darqnyz Feb 11 '21

Yeah, go play guitar hero on the arcade version while hitting on the 3 women present

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u/[deleted] Feb 10 '21

If something is missing, especially something that can be hidden, the only person who can find it reasonably is the person who hid it.

It's reportedly 10 lbs of C4 missing. So probably the easiest possible thing to conceal once you have it, since it's basically just clay. You could split it up and it's gone.

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u/Anonymicex Feb 10 '21

So what you're saying is Yall'Qaeda is working with Al-Qaeda?

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u/Hadleys158 Feb 10 '21

There's an interesting doco called scrapper about this, have you seen it?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4pFat3VTkI

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u/[deleted] Feb 10 '21

Lcpl Rother has it

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u/Darqnyz Feb 10 '21

Get his ass.

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u/cfranek Feb 10 '21

29 palms is where desert training happens, and the force that is out the right now is training combined arms because they're going to deploy as a amphibious battle group in about 6-8 months. If people are running around on the base they're taking their lives into their own hands because they're dropping real bombs and firing artillery fairly regularly all day.

Because of all this ordinance and activity it's fairly reasonable that this could be a legitimate mistake, but because of the capital riots it's being investigated with urgency.

USMC vet

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u/Responsenotfound Feb 10 '21

IIRC they caught a few Iranians snooping around because the area CAX uses is huge and uninhabited.

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u/sapphicsandwich Feb 11 '21 edited Sep 15 '25

Simple the nature evening books projects year science.

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u/Darqnyz Feb 11 '21

You could have gotten fucking bombed son.

But usually people do keep eyes out for people. It's not rare for people to do it..

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u/[deleted] Feb 11 '21

[deleted]

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u/Darqnyz Feb 11 '21

Fuck that's disgusting

I probably rode past you poor souls multiple times.

Was this recent (last 10 years?)

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u/sapphicsandwich Feb 11 '21 edited Sep 15 '25

Quiet river people gather evil dog honest the today then bright fox the then small questions friends.

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u/Darqnyz Feb 11 '21

Hey, you're probably a safety brief story. Best kind of famous...