That Missing Machine Gun From Minot Turned Up In The Worst Possible Place

A1C Doug Towsley - when an inventory is supposed to be done as often as it is I guess they didn't do a very good job on it. Sound like all they did was sign it off instead of actually checking to see they had all the equipment they should have had. I also find to very hard to believe those grenades just fell off a truck. I sure would never sign off on received equipment at any shift change unless I was sure it was either there or properly accounted for. The bottom line is don't ever assume anything, check it !

A1C Doug Towsley - True enough what You say but in my own experience We did actually physically check those items to included weapons in the armory each and every shift. The same held for vehicles, if something was out of order or damaged and You didn't record it on the vehicle checklist You could be held responsible for the damage once another person noted the problem. Many of the places I had been including both military units and even civilian Police Departments the oncoming shift didn't accept the vehicle from the off going shift Who was required to stand by until they had checked it and accepted the vehicle. If You accepted a vehicle that had damage or other defects and a problem resulted You then owned that problem. Equipment in the trunk was also checked to insure especially Emergency Equipment on every shift change. All of these items had checklists which showed any defects and had to be filled out and were kept. The Police Department I retired from also everything in every patrol car was located in the same place in the vehicle and there were compartmented boxes that were made to keep them organized that way. You also didn't accept a vehicle that was dirty inside or outside. You are correct about a top down system being in place to make these things work, that's why the places I had worked didn't have those problems. It all stems from the leadership from the top on down.

A1C Doug Towsley - No, I understand what pencil whipping is, the shortcut signing off things without actually checking them. If a lot of people get in the habit things will pass that should not have. Its the lazy, half assed way of doing things. Sooner or later though it usually catches up to someone or even quite a few in some cases. Setting up someone to fail is a whole other game and speaks very poorly of those above Him or Her in their chain of command. That is toxic leadership !

SMSgt Lawrence McCarter Every time I had CQ, I checked every single thing on inventory. That is what NCO's do.