South Korean and US Marines conduct a joint infantry exercise under the 26-2 Korea Marine Exchange Program at the 1st Marine Division. The photo above is unrelated to this article. [Provided by the 1st Marine Division]
South Korean and US Marines conduct a joint infantry exercise under the 26-2 Korea Marine Exchange Program at the 1st Marine Division. The photo above is unrelated to this article. [Provided by the 1st Marine Division]

Multiple firearms and ammunition management failures have been confirmed at the unit where a Marine Corps noncommissioned officer was found dead from a gunshot wound on Aug. 3 at the 1st Marine Division in Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province. Investigators found that the required practice of having both an officer and an NCO enter the armory and ammunition depot together was not followed, and that keys were stored not in the command control room but in the deceased's personal office desk drawer.

Marine Corps Command said at a briefing Thursday that safety management of firearms and ammunition at the unit to which the deceased belonged was found to be partially inadequate. "The armory and ammunition depot keys should be kept in the everyday key storage box in the command control room, but they were found in the deceased's office desk drawer, among other deficiencies," the command said.

When the deceased entered the armory and ammunition depot, regulations required an officer to accompany him, but he entered with two armament soldiers instead.

A Marine Corps official said the officer's absence was likely because the officer, who served as the battalion's logistics support section chief, had other duties at the time, adding that the specific reason was still being confirmed.

Asked whether skipping the officer escort had been a routine practice, the official said it was not, describing it as an exceptional lapse that arose from a situation in which it had repeatedly been difficult for an officer to accompany personnel.

The armory and ammunition depot keys were also confirmed to have been stored in the deceased's office desk drawer rather than in the command control room key box as required.

It was also found that the firearm involved in the incident, which had been held for maintenance, was stored together with standard operational weapons in the reserve armory rather than being kept separate as required.

"Only sealed and vacuum-packed weapons designated for wartime mobilization should be kept in the reserve armory, but the firearm in question was stored there for maintenance efficiency, resulting in this regulatory violation," a Marine Corps official said.

On July 28, the deceased and two armament soldiers removed two rifles from the reserve armory under the pretext of replacing their stocks. One rifle had its stock replaced and was normally issued to a subordinate company, but the other was captured on CCTV only in the process of having its stock replaced in the office and was never returned.

CCTV footage at the unit's entrance showed the deceased leaving for home with a bag on his back on three consecutive days — July 29, 30 and 31.

On July 30, two days after the rifles were removed, the deceased appears to have taken 10 rounds of ammunition — one clip — from the training ammunition depot. He entered on the pretext of returning spent casings and conducting practice, and removed the rounds while armament soldiers were counting the casings. There is no CCTV inside the depot, so the removal could not be directly confirmed.

The deceased was found dead from a gunshot wound at an off-base officers' residence in Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province, on the morning of Aug. 3. A forensic examination of the scene and an autopsy found no signs of outside intrusion and no suicide note, and no injuries other than a gunshot wound to the head were confirmed.

Following the incident, the Marine Corps conducted a special inspection of firearms and ammunition across all units, confirmed no irregularities, and said it had fully separated and restored the operational weapons that had been mixed in with the reserve armory.

A Marine Corps official said an inspection led by the command's inspector general's office covering the entire 1st Marine Division, including the unit involved, has been under way since Sunday. "Those responsible, including the key management department head and commanders, will be dealt with in accordance with laws and regulations based on the results of the investigation and inspection," the official said.

The Marine Corps plans to expand a biometric-based armory access system — which requires two people to approach simultaneously without a key for the door to open — to all units by 2029.


rimsclub@heraldcorp.com