(The Sarasota Herald Tribune posted the following Associated Press article on its website on February 18.)
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Sheriff’s officials were investigating the vandalism of a train carrying military vehicles and personal items belonging to soldiers from the Army’s 101st Airborne Division.
The FBI and Jacksonville sheriff’s officers were called early Monday to the CSX train, which was carrying equipment being shipped from the 101st Airborne’s home base at Fort Campbell, Ky.
The train was stopped while awaiting clearance to enter Blount Island in Jacksonville, where its contents were going to be loaded on a military transport, officials said. All three brigades in the 101st Airborne are deploying to an undisclosed location in the area of U.S. Central Command, which includes the Persian Gulf.
Some of the personal lockers inside the vehicles were broken into, said Susan Wiles, a CSX spokeswoman.
Terrorism is not a suspected motive, and the FBI only was called out as a precaution, FBI spokesman Jeff Westcott said. The amount of damages was not immediately known.
“In any situation like this our concern would be possible terrorism, however, that is not the case here,” Westcott said.