No bad motives in secret military stockpile

Monday, Nov. 18, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- The Nevada Army National Guard will turn over the names of three men to the U.S. attorney's office for possible prosecution after a two-month investigation uncovered a $17,000 cache of ammunition, explosives and Jeep parts in a remote warehouse in Lyon County.

Disciplinary action also will be taken against the senior enlisted man in the Army Guard, said Adjutant Gen. Tony Clark.

The probe focused on Jack Mosby, a 27-year military veteran who holds the rank of state commander sergeant major and who faces a reprimand, demotion or a discharge.

Clark said this was "a case of larceny. I don't give him (Mosby) bad motives." But he said Mosby "took equipment away from his employer."

There was no evidence any of the items were sold or used for private purposes such as supplying a renegade military outfit, Clark said.

The investigation alleges that starting in 1980 Mosby rented a private storage shed in Wabuska, about 15 miles from Yerington. Mosby was originally a noncommissioned officer in charge of the maintenance shop at the Army Guard unit in Yerington. He later rose to a leadership position.

Mosby, along with Clarence Howard and Russell Barnhardt, who were senior noncommissioned officers with the Nevada National Guard, was allegedly involved in taking the equipment from the armory and storing it in the shed.

Mosby told investigators he would clean up the armory before an inspection and the surplus goods were hauled to the storage shed, which he personally paid for. He said he intended for these items to be used later by guardsmen.

Two years ago, he was transferred from Yerington to Carson City. Clark said Mosby realized "what he was doing was dumb" and had intended to turn all the equipment in.

The adjutant general explained that units coming in off training exercises sometimes had bullets, grenades and other items left over. Instead of going through a procedure filled with red tape to turn the goods back in, Mosby and the other two would put it in a truck and haul it to the shed, so it would not be found during an inspection. Discovery during an inspection would mean a possible downgrade and spark more questions.

Clark said Mosby said he forgot about the items. But the adjutant general questioned how it could slip his memory when he was paying a monthly rental fee.

The military, Clark said, is precluded by a Nevada law from bringing its own criminal charges in the case. The law says crimes such as murder, manslaughter, robbery, sexual assault and larceny of more than $100 must be dealt with in civil courts, not the military.

Mosby will be entitled to an attorney and have due process of law during the administrative disciplinary hearing, Clark said.

The other two, Howard and Barnhardt, were discharged in 1995 after more than 20 years. It was determined then that their positions would not be needed, Clark said. When they left the military, Mosby took the keys they had to the shed.

It appears nothing had been placed in the shed for five years. Investigators encountered cobwebs and rat droppings over the equipment. And sagebrush was piled up in front of the door.

The FBI received an anonymous tip Sept. 4 and then turned the investigation over to the military. In the shed, the National Guard investigators found blasting caps, firing devices, smoke grenades, tear-gas grenades, smoke pots, trip flares, signal devices, booby-trap simulators, demolition charges, air and ground blast simulators and live and blank ammunition.

The National Guard said it intends to review its inventory procedures and the system by which unused items may be turned back in to headquarters.