So in 1996 I got assigned to MAG-46 at (then) NAS Miramar, to be Group Warehouse Chief. MAG-46 is a helo group, with squadrons assigned at NAS Alameda, MCAS El Toro, MCB Camp Pendleton and NAS Miramar.
A few months in, I was promoted to SSgt, and after talking with the SupO, we both agreed I should crosstrain, so I went to the Supply Admin school to "officially" learn the basics of supply office pogue duties. Guess the 3051 Monitor was flush with SNCO's and 3043 Monitor was short, so I was released me upon graduation and the 3043 Monitor picked me up; lat-moved without even being asked into Supply Administration.
As a 3043 SSgt, there was no billet for me at NAS Miramar. But there was a SSgt Supply rep over at El Toro that was getting out at 14yrs pretty quick (some wise stock investments paid off for him & he owned a business back in Denver, so he was getting out.) The SupO and I worked it out, I was going to head over to El Toro one Monday from then on to be the Supply rep for a couple of CH-46 squadrons there. Our locale was at a hanger at the far end, open to anyone driving or running by, but abandoned of occupation with the exception of our own small office. The outgoing SSgt and I did a Mon-Thurs turnover, the job was so cush it needed no more.
Here is where it gets good…
I had not been up there the previous Friday due to medical appointments, but here it is Monday, first day on my own. Sitting in the hanger, open to the world, are quite a few wood shipping crates, all covered and aligned like you'd expect to see. Shipping labels from Roosevelt Roads…
I was able to scrounge up a crowbar eventually and open one of them up. HOLY CARP… M16's!!!!
A quick count and some easy math; 285 rifles total, 15 to a crate, unsecured, still packed up in foil, coated for shipment and everything.
By lunch they were accounted for, properly transported and safe in the armory where they belonged.
Seems my predecessor short-timer SSgt signed for them late Friday afternoon and decided he was not going to stick around for the multiple hours it would have taken to arrange for them to get properly taken care of. He just bailed without letting anyone know they were even there. So they sat all weekend long.
This event became, "my squandered opportunity to become a black market weapons dealer."
Of course, anyone with weapons experience can attest that the REAL reason I did not take them was because I knew what a headache it would be to clean them all…
