Air force `loses' machine gun barrel

The air force lost an anti-aircraft machine gun barrel under mysterious circumstances last November and has failed to recover any trace of the barrel, according to defense officials.

The lost barrel was a reserve barrel for a 20mm anti-aircraft gun that belonged to the 206th anti-aircraft artillery battalion of the air force's 499th wing in Hsinchu, the sole Mirage 2000-5 fighter wing of the air force.

The barrel was reported missing as it was removed from one barracks to another at the air base along with many other items, the air force general headquarters (AFGH) said.

"It is hard to believe that a machine gun barrel, which is much larger than a rifle, could have been stolen during the removal process. But we have to admit that the removal task was not done in perfect order," said an official with the AFGH.

"The 499th wing has searched all over the camp in an attempt to recover the lost barrel but in vain," the official said. The Taoyuan military court has taken over the investigation of the case.

The official could not explain how a machine gun barrel -- an object too large to be carried away unnoticed -- could have disappeared in front of the many soldiers involved in the removal process.

He also said that they could not figure out why it might have been stolen, given that it holds little commercial value.

He declined to confirm whether initial investigations by the 499th wing had uncovered certain problems existing in the 206 battalion, which might be related to the disappearance.

According to another air force official, there is a significant amount of tension between soldiers and their superiors in the 206th battalion.

"Many soldiers in the company complained that their superiors, including the company's leader, had been treating them unfairly. They said some of their superiors had refused to grant them leave that was due to them," the official said.

"It might be too early to guess, but the gun barrel might have been stolen as a means to take revenge against the company's officers -- we can't rule out that possibility, since similar incidents have happened before," he said.

No matter what the motives might be behind the mysterious missing gun barrel, the officers of the company, including the battalion leader, all stand to be punished over the incident.

The officers involved are still serving in their current positions, pending the outcome of the Taoyuan military court's investigation, after which any punishments will be meted out.