Quote:
Originally Posted by johndallman
This raises the issue of the M2 machine gun and the Mk19 grenade machine gun in the guard towers. They seem like very heavy ordnance for a civilian guard force to start with, so how are they justified in the absence of a security threat? Or is this "don't worry, it's technothriller"?
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They were placed there when this was a military base and when the facility came under the administration of the DHS, no one thought to remove the ordnance. After all, there was still a mothballed military facility on the island, with reservists who officially maintained and even 'commanded' it for two days a month.
Everyone had more important things on their mind during the change of administration for Manhanock Asylum than a spare gun or two. After all, there was a major kerfluffle in North Carolina in at New Year's 2000 and everyone connected to Project Jade Serenity or the preceding experiments on Jewell Island spent the next three years frantically covering their backsides and avoiding responsibility. DoD was happy to sign the entire facility over to DHS when Homeland Security came into being.
The weapons are officially still on the books as assigned to the Coast Guard post on Jewell Island and while no one has issued them new ammo or spare parts since then, no one has actively tried to remove them either. The paperwork involved is probably all rather vague, as no one wanted their name attached to a document that implied that they had
detailed knowledge about anything connected to Manhanock Asylum, in case they had to answer questions in front of a grand jury at some point.
The guards weren't going to complain, because these weapons are cool as all hell and they love playing with the AN/PAS-13 thermal weapon sights on them. It probably didn't hurt that at first, the new civilian guards were mostly the former military ones in new uniforms, as reservists rather than on active duty, so no one had to worry about giving military ordnance to some
actual civilian security guards.
The fact that Deputy Warden Tyrrell was a senior Chief Warrant Officer in the Coast Guard detail stationed at Jewell Island at the time of the transition might also have helped in getting the DoD to forget about demanding the return of any guns when they signed over responsibility. At the time, I'm sure he simply wanted to avoid having to buy radios, batons, vests, pistols, rifles and shotguns for the security company he founded to provide the guard force, but raising
any issue connected to the stores of the former military facilities on Jewell Island might have reminded bean-counters to remove everything of value.