Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 27, 1991 TAG: 9103270494
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A/8 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: JERSEY CITY, N.J. LENGTH: Medium
Weapons have been found in some of about 5,000 duffle bags shipped through Jersey City daily by homeward-bound troops, postal and customs authorities said.
"It seems as if some troops got a little carried away with their trophies of war," said John Leyden, assistant director of the Customs Service office here.
Returning troops are allowed to carry with them the weapons the U.S. military issued them; the weapons they are shipping home are "souvenirs" they picked up in the Persian Gulf.
Leyden said federal authorities have found Iraqi bayonets "too numerous to count," knives, handguns, automatic weapons and munitions in duffle bags and packages passing through the Jersey City center, the largest of 21 centers nationwide.
A postal spokesman in Washington said he knew of no other post office with the problem.
The arms have not caused any accidents since they were first discovered about two weeks ago, said postal authorities. No live ammunition has been found.
"This usually happens after a war," Frank Santora, a regional postal spokesman, said Tuesday. "But sending weapons is out of the question."
Much of the mail from the Persian Gulf is X-rayed when it arrives at the center and any weapons founds are confiscated and turned over to military authorities, Leyden said. The package is sent on, minus the contraband, with a label outlining federal regulations and penalties.
Federal law and military regulations prohibit the sending of weapons through the mails and troops shipping such contraband could be prosecuted, postal officials said.
Santora said no one had been cited yet.
Troops leaving the Persian Gulf are warned about mailing contraband home, said Defense Department spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Kenneth Satterfield.
The Defense Department lets troops bring or mail home souvenirs including clothing, helmets, gas masks and uniforms that belonged to Iraqi troops. But they are not allowed to mail guns, ammunition, hand grenades or other weapons that belonged to the enemy.
Postal union leaders worry that the military isn't doing enough to stop the shipments and that postal authorities aren't doing enough to warn employees about the potentially dangerous packages.
Tom Mullahey, vice president of Local 300 of the National Post Office Mail Handlers, Watchmen, Messengers and Group Leaders, said Soviet-made AK-47s and even hand grenades and land mines have been found.
Still, not all of the troops' war souvenirs are potentially explosive - or illegal.
The tamer trophies have included desert sand, Saudi Arabian prayer rugs, Iraqi military uniforms and parts of a captured Iraqi tank.
by CNB