pentagon misplaced destroyer?

[Antimatty]

http://www.alternet.org/environment/140060/the_case_of_the_missing_h-bomb:_the_pentagon_has_lost_the_mother_of_all_weapons?page=entire

i was reading the following article about a missing nuclear weapon, which is interesting by itself, but one particular sentence caught my attention.


Things go missing. It's to be expected. Even at the Pentagon. Last October, the Pentagon's inspector general reported that the military's accountants had misplaced a destroyer, several tanks and armored personnel carriers, hundreds of machine guns, rounds of ammo, grenade launchers and some surface-to-air missiles. In all, nearly $8 billion in weapons were AWOL.

i googled it, but i just kept coming up with other iterations of the same article.
anyone have any idea what destroyer this is?
was it a mothballed ship ? i have trouble believing an arleigh Burke could be misplaced.

[TR1]

Hey, when you got so many it happens ;)

[Britboy]

You'd think the ship's company would have twigged they were forgotten about after a while!

[Violet Fashion by Mindy]

Could be worse. Could have done what the British did once.

Build one of the worlds largest ever ship of the line warships in Lake Ontario with only a few months of the war remaining at a time when the lake was landlocked.

[Bro Jangles]

Did they find it?

[Alpheus]

Oh please. I'd bet it was still mothballed but listed as scrapped or something like that.

[LineDoggie]

Lousy Property Book accounting.

I've seen a S4 claim were missing a M3 tripod from the Arms Room, and after we showed that we never had that claim it was suddenly 10 M122 Tripods. Captain Flynn threw a fit.

I've seen the wrong Serial Number M113A2's get shipped to us in Texas from NY MATES, and the serials not match for months while the idiots figure out how to fix the problem.

Likely the Destroyer was where it was supposed to be, but some data entry pogue was late for rubbing one out and entered the wrong disposition.

[Anthony91]

Did they find it?

It was probably just one of those small Arleigh Burke-class Destroyers, nothing special. p-)

[BlackFlag]

I don't see how they could misplace a Destroyer.

Probably just unaccounted for on paper.

[Wildgoose]

You sure it wasn't one of those Philadelphia Experiment destroyers? Probably will reappear soon, don't worry.

[Bro Jangles]

It was probably just one of those small Arleigh Burke-class Destroyers, nothing special. p-)
found it,

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm112/bravo-juliet/090429-N-8607B-288.jpg

[gafkiwi]

That reminds me of a time when a mechanic returned one of our LAVs from the workshops. Every LAV has a dedicated park in the hanger, the young "new" mechanic didnt know this and parked it in another park of another Platoon and then took off for PT (the C/S panels weren't fitted at the time). One Pl couldnt find their LAV, 3 Pl were at PT and didnt know they had a spare, The One Pl LAV SGT was stomping up a storm between the workshops and the hangers trying to find his missing LAV that had been apparently returned. After a bit of a breather and a check off the other Pl LAV boards he realised it had been parked 30m the whole time. After that he always checked all the Coy LAVs before any accusations were thrown around.

[JoaMei]

Once in my time our Leutnand was yelling at me like 2 Minutes where one P1 pistol was gone I had during an exercise. It was missing.
When I finally had the chance to say something I told him he already got it half an hour before and locked it into the Weapons room on that training area.
He was like Ooooops.... I forgot about this.... :roll:

[Winger]

Pentagon's inspector general reported that the military's accountants had misplaced

I read "clerically" misplaced. More than likely it is still under proper control and inventory. However, the higher ups records don't reflect that.

[Hogan]

After WWII, A number of ships became "lost" for short periods of time because there were so many being sent to the scrappers/reserve fleet/sold to other countries so quickly....For it to happen now though...would be stupid.

[JCR]

Doesn't necessarily have to be an active destroyer.
There are still almost as many ex destroyers around than active ones, so maybe one of those got lost.
Decommissioned warships are considered "floating equipment", much like a pier or a pontoon or whatever.
So maybe the ex-USS Something is in Port A and towed to Port B to be scrapped there. The ship isn't scrapped for environmental reasons or whatever, but allready booked as nonexisting anymore = one misplaced destroyer.


Back in the navy we had the urban legend that someone once delivered an M113 to a ship in Kiel Harbor because the ship's clerk had mixed up some supply numbers and accidentally ordered an APC instead of some paint or whatever... ;)

[martinexsquaddie]

we lost a four ton truck in the Falklands bit of an achievement somewhere with one road.
somebody had written it off but paperwork not done.
more worryingly found an extra 81mm mortar in the armory. The military mind can't cope with
an extra weapon :)
took weeks to sort out ended up taking it away with us

[ColinP]

We had an extra howizter on charge for years, because one got rolled and was a writeoff, but the paperwork was never properly done, took awhile to sort out. We did find a couple of jeep trailers during exercising in the US that had been camoflaged and then forgotten out in a large training area, they were quickly enlisted into the Canadian military were they served for many years!

[JCR]

Sounds like the old german tanker's joke.
"Tank #3, third platoon, 2nd Company wins the annual tank camouflage contest. The winning crew is to report at the company clerk's office to file the loss report for one Tank, type Leopard 2..."
rofl

[Andy S]

I heard a tale once that after the Falklands conflict had finished they offered containers to farmers as sheds, one farmer opened it up to find a brand new land rover in it. He called the base and was told to paint it and keep it as it was more trouble to explain how it happened than to keep it lost.

Who knows though.

[Bleifuss]

Sounds like the old german tanker's joke.
"Tank #3, third platoon, 2nd Company wins the annual tank camouflage contest. The winning crew is to report at the company clerk's office to file the loss report for one Tank, type Leopard 2..."
rofl

My brothers crew lost their Luchs once after dismounting for a crew briefing , it was parked in a shallow depression with heavy camo.
Found it after about 20 minutes.

[angry cow]

A mech Captain once told me about having leaving a Bradley behind after a FTX at Ft Irwin once as a young 2LT. I don't even know how that happened.

[dave81]

It got drafted into D3LT4, along with all the "missing" weapons.

[Panchito12]

found it,

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm112/bravo-juliet/090429-N-8607B-288.jpg

That's a Spruance-class DD (with ABL instead of VLS)

[Bro Jangles]

That's a Spruance-class DD (with ABL instead of VLS)
i know, they never said it was a Burke. shes the USS Connolly

[Kaplanr]

I remember seeing Lts. and Sgts. signing for positions in Lebanon. We'd be replacing some other unit in a rush to get out and back to Israel. No one could really do a proper handover where you see the ammo, weapons and provision we'd be signing off on. We're talking 4-5 M2s and ammo, 2-3 mortars, spotlights, radios, beds and refrigerators. Everyone kind of shrugs "I did this, the people before us signed it, don't worry it all evens out."

I always wondered about the last guy who took over and then there was no one else after him. Did he get a visit by the IG - "Lt. Ashkenazi! Where are the 3 MGs, 60 boxes of 50 calibre, 46 M-203 flares, the Frigidaire and 200 kilo of eggs you signed off on at position aleph?, they were never returned,"

[TheKiwi]

I heard a tale once that after the Falklands conflict had finished they offered containers to farmers as sheds, one farmer opened it up to find a brand new land rover in it. He called the base and was told to paint it and keep it as it was more trouble to explain how it happened than to keep it lost.

Who knows though.

Ex Rif-RAF regt guy I used to work with told me that they all made a bit of money on the side selling Land Rover "spares" to the locals when he was down at the Falklands.

[dbamil]

Colin Powell lost his pistol while on duty, in the early part of career... While guarding tactical nuke missile. someone found it and returned it to him... happens...

[K0m1t4]

Colin Powell lost his pistol while on duty, in the early part of career... While guarding tactical nuke missile. someone found it and returned it to him... happens...

Good to knnow your nuclear arsenal is in safe hands :)

[LineDoggie]

Good to know your nuclear arsenal is in safe hands :) Difference between a 1911 and a Missile, a little bit harder to not miss a Pershing, Lance, Honest John, etc. than something that fits in your fist....

[K0m1t4]

Difference between a 1911 and a Missile, a little bit harder to not miss a Pershing, Lance, Honest John, etc. than something that fits in your fist....
:backhand:
Talking about the commitment of the security force (not loosing a bigass missle), and was joking.

[Avon]

A Burke Class destroyer, far less money than the Inspector General of The Federal Reserve, reported to Congress last month (05/08/09) that she does not know where $9 trillion that was given to the Federal Reserve last year, is at this time!

YouTube Video -The Congressional Inquiry
http://www.silverbearcafe.com/private/05.09/mindingthestore.html

Bloomberg Report
U.S. Taxpayers Risk $9.7 Trillion on Bailout Programs (Update1)
By Mark Pittman and Bob Ivry
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=washingtonstory&sid=aGq2B3XeGKok

[domokun]

Sounds like the old german tanker's joke.
"Tank #3, third platoon, 2nd Company wins the annual tank camouflage contest. The winning crew is to report at the company clerk's office to file the loss report for one Tank, type Leopard 2..."
rofl

Same joke probably is around in every army. Here in Finland in my unit, Pori Brigade it was just about APC. Apparently some unit lost APC in Rovajärvi training area during heavy snow fall, there is different versions of story. In another they put couple of companies to look for it and they found it after several days. In another they decided to leave it there, wait for spring and snow to melt.

In real life few years ago, armored brigade left an 23itk61 (ZU-23-2) AA-cannon to forest after exercise on fall. In spring owner of land where it was left found it, he started calling to various HQ's, all thought it was joke. Guy took it media and then army found out that it wasn't a joke. I personally can't understand how in hell they can lose a cannon, it's not hard to notice if there is one missing in weapons room.