View Full Version : Man arrested with explosives at airport was Army expert
wmaousley
01-03-2012, 05:40
http://news.yahoo.com/man-arrested-explosives-airport-army-expert-001817371.html
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SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) - A man arrested on New Years Eve at a Texas airport with explosives is an Army-trained demolitions expert and member of the elite Green Berets who served in Afghanistan and is stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, military officials said on Monday.
Trey Scott Atwater, 30, was being held in the Midland, Texas County Jail on a federal charge of attempting to board an aircraft with an explosive, the FBI said.
He was detained after a routine Transportation Security Administration (TSA) check noticed he had explosives in his carry on luggage while trying to board an American Eagle flight from Midland International Airport to Dallas Saturday morning, according to an FBI statement.
Officials declined to speculate on the reason Atwater had the explosives, which city officials said were in "military grade explosives wrapping" in his bag.
"At no time was there any danger to the people at Midland International Airport or the people of Midland Texas," Mark Morgan, Special Agent in Charge of the El Paso office of the FBI said in a statement.
Michael Martinez, an FBI spokesman in El Paso, declined to say what type of explosive he was carrying, or the quantity of the explosive. It is not known whether he was in uniform at the time. Records show Atwater is a 1999 graduate of a Midland, Texas high school.
The address listed for Atwater in the Midland jail records is the home of Bonnie Atwater, Trey's mother. A woman who identified herself as Bonnie Atwater at that address told Reuters "I have no comment," and then hung up the phone.
Lt. Col. Tom Bryant, a spokesman for Army Special Operations Command at Ft. Bragg confirmed that Atwater is an Army Sergeant First Class in the elite Green Berets, assigned as an instructor at the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School at Ft. Bragg, where he is a member of the Special Forces Engineers.
Bryant told Reuters on Monday Atwater is an engineering and demolitions expert, and in that role would be "comfortable" with explosives, although he did not know whether he would have had explosives on his trip back home to Midland.
"I can't say if that might have been required," Bryant said.
Bryant confirmed that Atwater recently returned from deployment to Afghanistan. A notice in the Odessa American newspaper in March of 2010 said at that time Atwater was preparing for his third deployment to Afghanistan.
Bryant said Atwater's arrest had surprised military personnel at Ft. Bragg.
"We in the Special Operations Command take pride in upholding the highest standards. The entire team is disappointed," Bryant said.
The Army is cooperating with the FBI and local authorities in Texas, and he said military punishment is also possible for Atwater, regardless of the outcome of the federal case.
Boneheads do slip through the cracks every now and again.
greenberetTFS
01-03-2012, 06:14
He's apparently on active duty,anyone know him personally..........:rolleyes:
Big Teddy :munchin
ddoering
01-03-2012, 06:19
What, you guys don't keep a pack of M112 in your carry on bag for emergencies?
I imagine Ernie T has been getting phone calls.....
Streck-Fu
01-03-2012, 06:52
"military grade explosives wrapping"
I wonder if he had some mylar stuffed in a pocket.
Electron
01-03-2012, 07:25
Maybe he figured he might need it just in case. I'm curious to see his explanation.
Utah Bob
01-03-2012, 07:28
I was praying he wouldn't turn out to be an 18c. Dumbass!:mad:
Electron
01-03-2012, 13:43
After the civilians are done with him, he still has the Army to deal with. He'll be busy for the next few years with this one.
He...and his chain of command. What a way to start the new year:rolleyes:
In his defense, I forgot I'd left a kershaw blur in my pack when I came home from deployment. I used the same bag to go on leave and had the knife confiscated by TSA. That's pretty much the same thing.
Eagle5US
01-03-2012, 16:31
News is now recounting that he was stopped at Fayetteville Airport on 24 Dec and detained / admonished for having a SMOKE GRENADE in his bag (same bag). 18C says he had "forgotten" about the smoke grenade...then "forget" to tell the FBI investigators about the 24 Dec incident.
That being said...you would have thought that the C4 would have been caught THEN:rolleyes:
This whole thing is full of FAIL:munchin
In his defense, I forgot I'd left a kershaw blur in my pack when I came home from deployment. I used the same bag to go on leave and had the knife confiscated by TSA. That's pretty much the same thing.
The big difference is your item doesn't fall within NFA Law, BATFE scrutiny and you can't bring down a plane with a knife which C4 does and .MIL Smokes may as well.
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2012/01/ap-army-green-beret-says-forgot-about-explosives-010312/
MIDLAND, Texas — A soldier accused of bringing explosives into an airport in his carry-on bag may have flown halfway across the country with them the week before, according to what he told investigators in court documents.
Sgt. Trey Scott Atwater, 30, of Hope Mills, N.C., waived his initial appearance Tuesday in federal court, said Daryl Fields, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in West Texas. Authorities say Atwater went through a security checkpoint Saturday at Midland International Airport with C-4, a powerful explosive.
He has been charged with trying to bring explosives onto an airplane, which carries a maximum 10-year federal prison sentence. His attorney, Jason Leach, declined to comment on the case.
Atwater, based at Fort Bragg, N.C., told the FBI he is a demolitions expert who returned from his third deployment to Afghanistan in April, according to court documents. He said his Army special forces team always carried at least two blocks of C-4, but he didn’t know any explosives were in his bag when he returned to the U.S.
He said he didn’t see any explosives in the main compartment of the bag when he packed for his trip to Texas. The bag had been in his garage and hadn’t been used since he returned from overseas, according to court documents.
Atwater was detained at the Fayetteville, N.C., airport on Dec. 24 when security agents found a military smoke grenade in his carry-on bag, according to court documents. The documents don’t say whether officials now suspect C-4 may have been in his bag then but was missed during additional screening, or whether the C-4 was found in the same bag as the grenade, although a week later and at a different airport.
After the grenade was confiscated, Atwater was “admonished” and allowed to continue on to Texas, the documents said. He was stopped at the Midland airport Saturday, when he and his family were heading home. A TSA agent spotted a suspicious item in Atwater’s carry-on bag during screening, and a police bomb squad identified that as C-4.
The FBI didn’t find out about the grenade incident until being informed by the TSA after Atwater’s arrest in Midland.
“When I asked him about the December 24 Fayetteville incident after TSA informed me of it, Atwater acknowledged that it had occurred, but said he had forgotten to mention it to us during our initial interview,” the FBI agent wrote in the affidavit filed in the case.
The Transportation Security Administration did not immediately return a call from The Associated Press seeking comment Tuesday.
No one answered the door Tuesday at the home of Atwater’s parents in a quiet middle-class neighborhood in Midland, about 320 miles west of Dallas. An American flag between the two garage doors fluttered in the breeze. Relatives have not spoken publicly since his arrest or returned multiple phone messages requesting comment.
A neighbor who lives two doors down, Pam Moore, 55, said she watched Atwater grow up. She said he was a “wonderful kid” who played high school football.
“We were real proud of him when he joined the military,” Moore said. “I feel sorry that he got caught up in this. ... I just hope everything works out for him. I really do.”
He is either stockpiling and finally got caught. Or somebody played a very bad joke on him.
...you can't bring down a plane with a knife...
:confused:
:confused:
I thought about that after posting, let me re-phrase that. It isn't as likely that you (going solo) will take a plane down with a knife, but if you have 3-5 trained accomplices to assist it has been proven to work..
Perhaps I should have posted my comment in pink. I thought it unnecessary.
The Reaper
01-03-2012, 19:57
He is either stockpiling and finally got caught. Or somebody played a very bad joke on him.
Exactly, and he, as well as his family, are about to get a great big proctoscopic exam.
TR
Snaquebite
01-03-2012, 20:02
If he was stockpiling why would he be bringing it TO Bragg? I think he's just a dumbass that slipped through the system.
I'm with you Paslode; Take down a plane or no, a knife being found by TSA is not the same thing as C-4. At least the explosive was not in his underwear or his shoe. :roll eyes:
Seriously, the "real world" will look upon this as an aberration; a poor decision, possibly psychologically induced due to PTSD from years of extreme duty and the recent tour, or, at worst, a criminal act by a psychologically damaged mind. Regardless, for rational people, this is not an act that reflects negatively on the Special Forces community. This is an individual act, committed by an individual, that will be dealt with accordingly by civilian and military authorities as necessary. It is not an act of Special Forces, Ft. Bragg, JFK Special Warfare Center, or anything or anyone else, period. Anyone who tries to make it anything else, and there will be those people, are on a witch hunt and should be dealt with accordingly.
I wish his command the best.
mdpatterson
01-04-2012, 03:02
Hate to see one of our Elite (I'm saying Elite because he was SF, not his character or actions here) throw it all away for any reason. At least TSA caught it.....eventually, scary what does get through though. My flight attendant found 3 .22 rounds in a seat back pocket last week.
I know a few rounds is nothing compared to this, but really makes you wonder how much stuff gets through that we'll never hear about.
Mike
At least he didn't have an ignition source, he can just pleed dumbass and take what's coming. No ill intentions, just a major brain fart.
Seriously, the "real world" will look upon this as an aberration; a poor decision, possibly psychologically induced due to PTSD from years of extreme duty and the recent tour, or, at worst, a criminal act by a psychologically damaged mind. Regardless, for rational people, this is not an act that reflects negatively on the Special Forces community. This is an individual act, committed by an individual, that will be dealt with accordingly by civilian and military authorities as necessary. It is not an act of Special Forces, Ft. Bragg, JFK Special Warfare Center, or anything or anyone else, period. Anyone who tries to make it anything else, and there will be those people, are on a witch hunt and should be dealt with accordingly.
I wish his command the best.
Shit happens.
I did similar myself, once, a year or two ago. Long drive and having a good time sight seeing on the way back home with the kids. I failed to notice the signs posted 'No Firearms' and I forgot all about something under the seat.
By the time it dawned on me....all I could do was smile, stay calm and hope I didn't get directed to the search lane.
Hopefully this was just a outta sight, outta mind incident for this Soldier.
With you again and my apologies Paslode, I did not mean to sound too harsh; just meant to say that this should not reflect upon SF as a unit or on the other warriors of SF as individuals.
Right on, shit happens. Flew round trip from Houston to Boston with a handful of .22 rounds in my hunting jacket that I wore onto the plane. Apparently, I never took them out after my last squirrel hunt of the season before. I was fortunate enough that the TSA did not catch it. If they had, I may have had more than just "Dumbass" stamped across my forehead.
Take care.
An M112 Block of C4 is 1"x2"x11" and weighs 1 1/4 lbs.
Two of those would be 2"x2"x11" and weigh 2 1/2 lbs.
A full 1 qt canteen weighs slightly over 2.2 lbs.
How many of you would pick up your AWOL bag and not notice a full canteen in it?
Roguish Lawyer
02-18-2012, 12:07
http://www.oaoa.com/articles/charges-81973-dismiss-motion.html
Thanks for the update, it would have been a shame to see him prosecuted.
So basically a CTO. Hopefully this isn't a career breaker; seems the SGT has an impressive enough record to sway the investigation in his favor. Now if only the CO back at Ft. Bragg will go as easy, but I can only speculate this will probably not be the case.
Hmmmm...with "experts" like this... :eek: :confused:
Richard :munchin
CloseDanger
02-20-2012, 13:53
Yes, even I have carried through airport security unknowing myself.
This Soldier was cleared of charges (http://thisainthell.us/blog/?p=28800) (Thank God).
I bet he does not do it again.