Chapter 3 - The Executive Officer
Major Thomas Hargrove was arrested at his home in Lawton at 21:00 that evening.
He was arrested by two agents from the Army's Criminal Investigation Command and one agent from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He was charged with dereliction of duty, obstruction of justice, and reckless endangerment.
He was forty-four years old. He had been in the Army for twenty-one years. He had been the executive officer of the 3rd Battalion for eleven months. He had been selected for promotion to lieutenant colonel earlier that year. He was a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point. He was married with three children.
His arrest was not the end of the investigation.
It was the beginning.
Because when the CID agents searched his home, they found a file folder in his desk that contained three separate documents.
The first was a range access authorization dated the morning of the incident. It was signed by Hargrove and it authorized a "maintenance crew" to enter the north gate of the range for the purpose of "inspection of target pits." The document was not on file with the range control office. It was not on file with the battalion. It had never been entered into any official record. It had been prepared by Hargrove and kept in his home for the purpose of "proving" that the access was legitimate if anyone ever asked.
The second was a memorandum dated two weeks before the incident. It was addressed to Colonel Evan Ross. It was signed by Hargrove. It said, in careful language, that "the range control officer has recommended that the next scheduled live-fire exercise be moved to a different range due to a conflict with a civilian hunting lease adjacent to the north gate." It said that "in the interest of the battalion's training calendar, I recommend that the exercise proceed as scheduled and that no notification be made to the range control office."
The third was a handwritten note. It was in Hargrove's handwriting. It was addressed to no one. It was found in the bottom drawer of his desk.
It said: "Ross knows. Ross has always known. Ross told me to keep the leases quiet. Ross told me to keep the hunters quiet. Ross told me to keep the range control office out of it. Ross is the one who is going to be in front of the general if this ever goes public. Not me. Not ever me."
The note was entered into evidence.
It was photographed. It was logged. It was sealed.
And at 22:00 on the night of Hargrove's arrest, the CID agents walked into Colonel Ross's office at Fort Sill with a subpoena for the battalion's range access records for the past two years.
They did not arrest him.
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They did not charge him.
They took the records and they left, and the colonel sat in his office alone for a long time and did not turn off the lights until dawn.
