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-   -   Man arrested with explosives at airport was Army expert (http://www.professionalsoldiers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36367)

wmaousley 01-03-2012 05:40

Man arrested with explosives at airport was Army expert
 
http://news.yahoo.com/man-arrested-e...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.

Pete 01-03-2012 06:09

Boneheads
 
Boneheads do slip through the cracks every now and again.

greenberetTFS 01-03-2012 06:14

Anyone know this guy?..........
 
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

Quote:

"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

Idiot!
 
I was praying he wouldn't turn out to be an 18c. Dumbass!:mad:

Electron 01-03-2012 13:43

Double Whammy
 
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.

glebo 01-03-2012 15:01

He...and his chain of command. What a way to start the new year:rolleyes:

caveman 01-03-2012 16:24

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

Smoke grenade a week earlier...
 
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

Paslode 01-03-2012 16:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by caveman (Post 429947)
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.

Hammock 01-03-2012 16:49

update
 
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2012/0...osives-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.”

kgoerz 01-03-2012 17:19

He is either stockpiling and finally got caught. Or somebody played a very bad joke on him.

lindy 01-03-2012 17:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paslode (Post 429949)
...you can't bring down a plane with a knife...

:confused:


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