A long Valentine’s Day weekend turned into a lockdown on base for more than 450 Schofield Barracks soldiers after a "sensitive" $20,000 piece of night-vision equipment went missing, according to family members.
The 3rd Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment, has been on what Army officials call "100 percent recall" since Wednesday morning, forcing some married soldiers who live off base to sleep on the floor in a maintenance bay as the unit’s command seeks the return of the equipment, angry spouses say.
"At this point the lockdown has gone beyond a regular investigation and can be termed more accurately as a mass punishment, something that is not allowed in what people are calling the ‘new Army,’ but would have been routine a few years ago," said Jessica Swonger, whose husband is in the unit.
Chris Hayes said he and his wife, who is signing out of the unit Tuesday and leaving the Army, are expecting movers Wednesday to ship their household items to Arizona — making their departure more complicated.
"I can understand holding soldiers that are suspects, but the rest of the 450-plus soldiers should not be punished for something they have nothing to do with," said Hayes, who didn’t want to identify his wife.
Both Hayes and Swonger expressed concern about possible repercussions.
Swonger said in an email Saturday that the soldiers were being told "there is some evidence, but not enough to conclude the investigation, and the investigator is not working over the weekend."
"I guess they took their four-day weekend, (and) on Tuesday, ‘We’ll come back and help you guys out,’" Hayes said of the investigator or investigators.
Swonger said Sunday she was informed that "the soldiers have nothing else to search and now are just cleaning and being told to say that they are searching."
When the recall/lockdown will end was not clear Monday.
"Basically, it will last until the equipment is recovered or until it’s determined that all the areas where it could reasonably be expected that this equipment might be at have been checked and inspected," said 25th Infantry Division spokesman Lt. Col. Will Griffin.
Griffin said the intent was not to make the recall a punishment for the soldiers.
Keeping them in the squadron area "allows the commander to have the maximum resources at hand to go ahead and conduct the inspections of the various areas — turn over every stone possible to recover the equipment," he said.
Hayes said his understanding is that the squadron is looking for a $20,000 experimental night-vision sight that can take pictures and video.
The device was in an equipment room with soldiers responsible for it, but others were allowed in the room, and the gear was gone about two weeks before commanders realized it was gone, Hayes said.
At a town hall meeting for family Sunday, Hayes, a former soldier, said he told the command, "You guys have searched everything six or seven times. What makes you think that it’s just someone who’s going to be like, ‘Oh, look, I’ve found it’?"
Griffin said he could confirm that a "sensitive" item is missing that was not arms or ammunition, but he declined to say it was a night-vision device.
The reconnaissance squadron’s commander "did order up a 100 percent recall of personnel, and they are directed to stay in the unit area until such time as the commander released them," Griffin said.
Soldiers who live in the barracks are being allowed to sleep in their rooms, Swonger said.
Hayes said his wife was told to "go home, pack your bags, shower and come back," and has been home twice briefly since Wednesday.
About a dozen married soldiers out of maybe 150 in the unit have been allowed to go home every night for unspecified reasons, Hayes said.
Soldiers were released for a few hours for church Sunday and to participate in the Great Aloha Run on Monday, family members said.
Those in charge are not considering what the families of the soldiers are going through, Swonger said.
"I personally am pregnant, and without my husband I do not have the emotional or physical support to handle day-to-day operations," she said.
Hayes said a sergeant major who is "an old-school-type guy" told the soldiers in the unit to tell their families "to stop complaining, and compared this to a deployment."
In 25 years in the Army, Griffin, the 25th spokesman, said, "I’m not going to say I’ve been through a lot of these, but they are not rare. They happen once in a while."
He added, "I understand that family members are upset, and certainly that’s why I think the squadron commander and the folks really tried to get the information out there as much as possible, because unfortunately, this was a long weekend (and) unfortunately, Valentine’s Day was this weekend. We had a confluence of unfortunates in that category. And certainly, any time when soldiers have unplanned absences away from family, it puts a strain on them."
