Thirty-one M17 pistols went missing from Fort Moore’s Cresenez Consolidated Equipment Pool sometime between March and May, a CID spokesperson said. The division is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the individual or individuals responsible for the theft. (Army Criminal Investigation Division)
Army officials are investigating the disappearance of more than two dozen service pistols in recent weeks from a weapons cache at Fort Moore, Ga., the service’s Criminal Investigation Division said Monday.
Thirty-one M17 pistols went missing from Fort Moore’s Cresenez Consolidated Equipment Pool sometime between March and May, a CID spokesperson said. The division is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the individual or individuals responsible for the theft.
CID requests that anyone with information about the missing handguns call the department’s southern field office at 706-577-4074. Those with information can remain anonymous in a phone call, according to CID. Anonymous tips also can be submitted online at www.p3tips.com/tipform.aspx?ID=325.
“The payout of cash rewards to military and federal employees for information leading to conviction is contingent upon their exceptional actions regarding the information provided,” CID said in a statement.
The M17s are the Army’s newest sidearms, first fielded by soldiers in 2017 to replace the decades-old M9. The 9mm M17s are built by Sig Sauer and based on the company’s P320 civilian handgun. Those handguns retail for about $650 each, according to the company.
The missing handguns are the latest in a long string of firearms that have been stolen from U.S. military bases in recent decades. An investigative series on missing military firearms published in 2021 by The Associated Press found nearly 2,000 U.S. military guns were lost or stolen from bases in the 2010s. It also linked dozens of those missing weapons to violent crimes on America’s streets.
The Defense Department implemented several changes to how to track its weapons after the AP investigation was published. The U.S. military’s top general at the time, now-retired Army Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called the AP’s findings shocking when asked about them by lawmakers shortly after the series was published. Among those changes were efforts to move reports of missing, lost or stolen weapons from paper to digital formats.
Army regulations instruct soldiers to account for all weapons in equipment pools by serial number each month unless the weapons have been stored in a sealed container. If soldiers find evidence a sealed container has been “tampered with,” they must take 100% account of all weapons in that box, according to the regulations.
CID officials did not say how the missing M17s were discovered at Fort Moore or how the missing handguns went unnoticed for more than a month. The officials declined to say if any suspects had been identified.
A spokesperson for Fort Moore said senior installation officials were aware of the missing guns but could not provide additional comment, pending the CID probe.
Entrance to Fort Moore, Ga., on May 11, 2023. (Corey Dickstein/Stars and Stripes)
