CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – An Army Special Forces soldier has been arrested following the discovery of about 100 pounds of explosives outside his Tennessee home.
Federal and military officials searched his home early Monday morning after a pair of hunters found the C-4 plastic explosive in a field by the house outside Clarksville. The house is near Fort Campbell, a sprawling Army post on the Tennessee-Kentucky border where the soldier is based.
Maj. April Olsen, a spokeswoman for Army Special Forces at Fort Campbell, said the soldier, who was not identified, is currently being held in the county jail.
Olsen said the search was conducted by agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the FBI and U.S. Army criminal investigators.
Ted Denny, spokesman for the Montgomery County sheriff, said the explosives found late Sunday evening appeared to be military ordnance.
Lon Santis, manager of technical services for the Institute of Makers of Explosives, the safety and security association of the commercial explosives industry, said most C-4 explosives are used by the military, but there is limited commercial use, such as in demolitions.
Santis said the ATF has record-keeping and identification requirements they can use to track explosives, but those requirements do not apply to military explosives.
Another Fort Campbell soldier was arrested in October and charged with selling four stolen hand grenades and a stolen anti-tank rocket to an undercover officer in Tennessee.
Prosecutors said the transaction with Pfc. Joshua Bartlett Etherton, a 101st Airborne Division soldier, was arranged after police in the small town of Paris received a tip, but they would not say who he believed was the buyer.
He remains in prison without bond.
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