Timothy John Arnold; AF OSI weapons instructor convicted
Timothy John Arnold, a weapons instructor for the Air Force’s Office of Special Investigations (similar to CID or NCIS) was convicted the other day of using his expense account to buy weapons parts and then assembled those parts and sell the results for personal profit, according to Stars & Stripes;
With some of Arnold’s bulk purchases amounting to as much as $96,000, Kramer said Arnold ran an operation that stretched as far as Illinois, where he sold six guns he made to a sheriff’s office. Of the 38 gun barrels entered into evidence, Kramer said 34 were 16 inches long and intended for civilian use, rather than the 14.5-inch barrel on military weapons.
Arnold also frequently bought items he and his friends thought were “cool” with the credit card, such as tomahawks, throwing stars and stenciled golf balls, prosecutors alleged.
And, oh, yeah, he embellished his career;
Other items Arnold bought included an Army Ranger patch and a SCUBA patch he frequently wore on his uniform, [U.S. Attorney Frederick] Kramer said. He also said Arnold told people he was a Marine sniper, after taking a class taught by one.
Kramer argued those instances speak to Arnold’s character. “He is a poser. He’s a fraud,” Kramer told the jury. “This is a man with no honor in him.”
He’s facing 25 years in prison and a $3/4 million fine.
Category: Phony soldiers
Some else here always says it better than I. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
Grumpycat.jpg…. He’s facing 25 years in prison and a $3/4 million fine. ….. GOOD.
Another victimless crime.
Lie about one thing, lie about the other. I remember having an argument with a guy about this concept once. He showed up on here a few months ago. I guess I won that argument.
This guy:
http://valorguardians.com/blog/?p=35775
Tried to convince me that just because someone lies about something, doesn’t mean that they are inherently dishonest.
Over and over again, these posers prove him wrong.
YMMV
Yes, he played the “Stupid Game”, and his prize will be plenty of dates with Bubba, Thor, & Company, they’ll literally straighten his ass out!
Ummm, I really, REALLY do NOT want to offend airmen like the ones on TAH, virtually all of whom honorably and competently serve our country, but…it really seems to this civilian like the Air Force is suffering. It doesn’t seem like two weeks go by before they have another scandal. The AF Academy spying scandal, Jeff Krusinski, nuclear weapons mishandling, this, and all the other stuff. I think that particular branch could use some serious reform…
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Sounds like this guy found out the hard way that someone does indeed do so.
And that’s a good thing.
What a toad. I was a USAF weapons instructor before I got out (3P0x1B, Combat Arms Training and Maint). The urge to take things is pretty high. Ammo is the biggest thing stolen, you have a class so you pull X ammount of rounds off the hill PLUS X ammount for refires and failures. Class goes better than expected and you now have those extra rounds that you have to return. The process to return the ammo is such a pain that quite a few instructors take it home and write it off as expended. Weapons parts were another biggie, our shop had such an outdated inventory that you could take almost anything you wanted and chances were that no one would ever know.
@6 HS Sophmore…I’m one of the resident AF guys and no I’m not offended by you pointing that out.
I’M OFFENDED BY MY BELOVED AIR FORCE ACTING LIKE A BUNCH OF DRUNKEN FRATBOY DOUCHENOZZLES
*THAT* is what I’m offended about.
/Jebus tapdancing on a cracker Christ.
@6 HS Sophmore – I’m prior Air Force and I take no offense at you pointing out that lately my former branch has been having issues with retards. Sadly the actions of these few retards are making the thousand’s of good Airmen look bad, stupidity knows no bounds.
APL material.
Damn
You could murder a couple of people and get less time than that guy got.
That guy got the blue weenie. Aim high!
@6 it comes down to 2 key issues: leadership who are more worried about numbers: how many of their people pass PT and have unblemished records; and lack of consitant messaging and lack consitantly holding people (especially senior officers) acountable.
The other problem is with all the writing on the wall of where we are headed (DoD as a whole not just AF), the smart people are starting to say “peace out”. In a way it almost worse than it was in the 90’s.
-Ish
@12 – The blue weenie. That’s funny. I’ve been speckled by the Big Green Weenie on a couple of occasions, I’d never heard of the blue one. Pfft – “tomahawks, throwing stars and stenciled golf balls” – the golf balls alone earn him that sentance. Who thinks they can get away with this shit these days.
@6–it’s not just the AF. Sadly, a lot of senior enlisted and officer who know better, or at least SHOULD know better, have been caught sticking their dicks (or vaginas) in places they ought not be, doing shady financial deals, bringing fake chips into casinos, you know, little shit like that.
And most of the time, the blueshirts get the “YFG” (you fucking guys) speech, whether they’re at fault or not.
Not trying to defend this turd by any means, but I can’t find in this article that he was military, or in AFOSI. If he were an AFOSI Special Agent, they probably would have referred to him as such…most (I would guess in the 90% range) of the firearms instructors at FLETC are civilians employed by Homeland Security. There are a few active duty AFOSI Special Agents who work for the FLETC firearms branch, but they are usually referred to as Special Agent first, firearms instructor second. The “Air Force credit card” line doesn’t make much sense to me, either…unless they mean a GPC card. Not saying he isn’t guilty, not saying he doesn’t deserve what he got, just saying the Stars n Stripes article has a few holes.
@16… Second paragraph sums up who he was assigned to X while attached to Y. His rank was probably military since most of AFOSI is, but it doesn’t specify.
Here is the thing. It is often repeated that a few bad apples make the all of the good apples look bad. The thing is how can people not in the Air Force really know that it is a few bad apples. These are examples of the ones that have been caught. But how many out there that have not been caught. How many out there are there that are not a bad apple yet but are on their way to becoming one? It is often claimed that only 10% of the drugs comming in to the US actually get interdicted.
So would it be to far fetched to say that only 10% of the bad apples in any institution get decteded? the reader might think that those that he works with are trustworthy but unless you spend all of your off duty time with some one how do you really know?
Just guessing here, but since he was convicted by a civilian court, odds are that he was a civilian employee? Not that it says if he faced a military court martial earlier or might later.
For we who served, it is an important distinction, one which we all know is not easily explained to others.
Wait, si this guy was a civie agent and they can be a USAF weapons instructor? It’s okay to throw shoes n stuff at me, I’m basically clueless concerning the Air Force.Only thing I know about ’em is, those jets go up and they come down, but sometimes they don’t land on all three tires either.
@19, The actual article states he is/recently was an employee of Sig Sauer, he was on trial for crimes committed between 2006 – 2011. I’m still trying to figure out if he was actually an AF member when he was a firearms instructor at FLETC.
@20, AFOSI gets trained at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC). Most agents are military, but some of the instructors are Department of Homeland Security civilians. If this guy was a firearms instructor at FLETC, he was teaching LE students how to shoot, and it is possible he may have been AF while doing it.
I admit AFOSI can be confusing; we are different than both NCIS and CID, but we usually get lumped in with them since some of our missions overlap.
The individual in question was a Security Forces Senior NCO attached to the AFOSI Academy located at FLETC Glynco. He never attended the Combat Arms Inctructor Academy but was certified by FLETC to teach firearms. It was my understanding that he retired and was working for SigSauer as a full time instructor. Not sure how he fell so far from grace that it led him to the abuses he was convicted of.
Yea, okay I think I can understand how AFOSI could be confusing and different than NCIS and USACIDC. Alrighty then, where’s Gibb’s? Think I am in need of a Gibbs slap, lol. 😎
I knew this individual, was stationed with him, trained with him & respected him. $ makes people do stupid things.
@ AF REDHAT – you are correct, he was not a red hat, but I would have him helping us on the range often. Very knowledgeable, very reliable.
A small attaboy for the boyz in blue…US Air Force member tackles jewelry thief at NJ store:
http://video.foxnews.com/v/3095213240001/us-air-force-member-tackles-jewelry-thief-at-nj-store/#sp=show-clips&v=3095213240001
Sometime in the near future…
*Cell door slams shut*
Huge, Burly Inmate, (“Thor”) HEY! How long ya in for?
T.J. Arnold: X years!
Thor: X YEARS? DAMN, that’s gonna be like we’re married! Whaddaya wanna be, the Husband or da Wife?
T.J. Arnold: HUSBAND!!
Thor: AWWRIGHT, fine by me, NOW GET OVER HERE AND SUCK YOUR WIFE’S DICK, YA LITTLE BITCH!!
I was stationed with Tim @ AFDW (The Chief’s Own)MANY years ago(not sure what they’re calling the place now seeing we were called Security Police and not Security Forces yet). I was very shocked and sad to read the article in Stars & Stripes. This was not the Tim I knew. I’m not sure when it happened, but he turned down the wrong road. There is no amount of money or thing in this world worth going to prison for (I’ll make an exception to causing serious harm or death to someone who molests your child).
Tim was working with OSI at FLETC as a military Firearms instructor (even though he wasn’t certified by the Air Force). They did a backdoor deal and certified him thru a FLETC course to be an instructor. While working as a military instructor he was charging employees at FLETC to build them personal guns, repair or upgrade their guns, storing parts, equipment and safes at his house. Amazing what you can buy with a Gov purchase card.
I have been researching this case since 2011 and this, as well as the Stars & Stripes article, are highly inaccurate and misleading. I will publish an article this week with the facts of the case. As a hint, it is my conclusion that the lead investigator was looking for a feather in his cap, a fall guy, and a promotion. He found all three and, after many dirty tricks, has an innocent man heading to prison. For those who know the defendant and think the charges are out of character, you are exactly right. Many honest OSI agents who are putting their necks on the line, standing up for Arnold, and questioning the investigator are suffering blowback. This is a huge story.
Read this: http://benswann.com/exclusive-air-force-veteran-and-firearms-expert-convicted-of-manufacturing-weapons-speaks-out/
Perhaps this article, along with the Stars and Stripes article will show that something isn’t adding up. I am in no way saying the guy is innocent, but one article is talking about illegal weapons charges and the other talks fraudulent spending. I would be curious to see the actual court transcripts and evidence.
http://benswann.com/exclusive-air-force-veteran-and-firearms-expert-convicted-of-manufacturing-weapons-speaks-out/