A member of my artillery battalion in W. Germany lost an M-16 during field training in the German countryside. A German national found it and reported the find to the Polizei. The rifle was returned to military control & the German civilian was paid a finderโs fee that was specified in German law. The soldier was given a field-grade Article 15 and the whole unit was detained on post until the rifle was found.
๐ ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ฎ๐บ ๐ข๐ณ๐ต๐ช๐ญ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ณ๐บ ๐ฃ๐ข๐ต๐ต๐ข๐ญ๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ช๐ฏ ๐. ๐๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฎ๐ข๐ฏ๐บ ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ด๐ต ๐ข๐ฏ ๐-16 ๐ฅ๐ถ๐ณ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ง๐ช๐ฆ๐ญ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ณ๐ข๐ช๐ฏ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฎ๐ข๐ฏ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ต๐ณ๐บ๐ด๐ช๐ฅ๐ฆ. ๐ ๐๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฎ๐ข๐ฏ ๐ฏ๐ข๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ข๐ญ ๐ง๐ฐ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ช๐ต ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ต๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ง๐ช๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ฐ๐ญ๐ช๐ป๐ฆ๐ช. ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ณ๐ช๐ง๐ญ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ข๐ด ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ต๐ถ๐ณ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฎ๐ช๐ญ๐ช๐ต๐ข๐ณ๐บ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ต๐ณ๐ฐ๐ญ & ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฎ๐ข๐ฏ ๐ค๐ช๐ท๐ช๐ญ๐ช๐ข๐ฏ ๐ธ๐ข๐ด ๐ฑ๐ข๐ช๐ฅ ๐ข ๐ง๐ช๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ณโ๐ด ๐ง๐ฆ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ธ๐ข๐ด ๐ด๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ค๐ช๐ง๐ช๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ช๐ฏ ๐๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฎ๐ข๐ฏ ๐ญ๐ข๐ธ. ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ฐ๐ญ๐ฅ๐ช๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ธ๐ข๐ด ๐จ๐ช๐ท๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ข ๐ง๐ช๐ฆ๐ญ๐ฅ-๐จ๐ณ๐ข๐ฅ๐ฆ ๐๐ณ๐ต๐ช๐ค๐ญ๐ฆ 15 ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ญ๐ฆ ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ช๐ต ๐ธ๐ข๐ด ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ต๐ข๐ช๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ด๐ต ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ต๐ช๐ญ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ณ๐ช๐ง๐ญ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ข๐ด ๐ง๐ฐ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ฅ.
I was at Bagram Airbase in 2011, one guy from my squadron left his M-16 on one of the buses that’s constantly hauling people around the base perimeter. The rifle was found by a third country national and given back to us. I don’t know if that person was compensated. A couple of months later, another guy in our squadron accidentally left his in one a B-hut that was run by the chaplains, and an Army guy found it.
Both these Airmen were also involved in trying to lie about cutting a FOD screen on an F-15’s inlet ramps, and trying to cover it up with an NCO who was present for the incident, no article 15 were given for that or the rifle incidents. One guy of those three did wind up losing a stripe because after the FOD screen, after losing his rifle, he thought it would be a good idea to violate Air Force Technical Orders and drop a 600 gallon external fuel tank without making sure it was completely empty first, thus spilling a couple of hundred gallons of fuel on the ramp.