Unit in Lock-down Over Missing Goggles

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. -- About 120 Fort Bragg paratroopers have been in lock-down since Oct. 29 because a pair of night-vision goggles is missing.

The Army is conducting a criminal investigation into the loss, said Maj. Brian Fickel, a spokesman for the 82nd Airborne Division's rear detachment at Fort Bragg.

"They have reason to believe it was not an accident," Fickel said.

Lock-downs are standard procedure when the military loses sensitive items such as weapons, high-tech devices or communications security equipment. No one is allowed to come or go from the unit area.

The PVS-14 goggles were lost in the vicinity of Sicily Drop Zone during last week's Joint Forcible Entry Exercise. The Soldiers expected to be in the field for three days.

"The unit involved was playing the aggressors for the training exercise, the opposing force," Fickel said. "They were already out in the training area."

The prices of the goggles range from $3,600 in stores to $2,949 online, according to the Web site opticsbestbuy.com.

The Soldiers are assigned to Company B of the 1st Battalion of the 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment.

"Once they were lost, as per standard procedure, they were locked down," Fickel said.

About 85 of the Soldiers are in field, and the rest are in the 2nd Brigade Combat Team area off Butner Road, Fickel said.

"The conditions they are in now are typical field training conditions," Fickel said. "These units are accustomed to going to the field for long amounts of time."

Fickel said loses of sensitive items are taken very seriously.

"Everything they are doing right now is with that end in mind, which is recovering the equipment," he said.

While the Army investigates, the Soldiers have been eating MREs, or ready-to-eat meals, which are Army field rations.

"This is an infantry company," Fickel said. "This is not new to them. The unit has to do everything they can to recover the equipment."