US Army Hazmat and Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) teams responded to a suspicious package that arrived at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst’s visitor center Tuesday afternoon, prompting base leadership to lock down the 30,000-acre installation and issue shelter-in-place orders.
The joint base in Burlington County, New Jersey, supports 18,000 soldiers and approximately 20,000 dependents and civilian contractors. It is a training hub for Army Reserve, National Guard, and active-duty troops, and home to a federal prison, For Dix HCI, which holds roughly 4,000 inmates.
Per our sources familiar with the incident, the base went to FPCON Charlie, or heightened alert, after staff spotted a shoebox-size cardboard box with insulated 28 AWG wires taped to the lid, as well as “white powder particulates” clinging to transparent tape.
The package was isolated, and the building was evacuated. Within minutes, U.S. Army Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) and EOD specialists arrived on scene. EOD deployed a TALON—a lightweight, durable, and highly mobile tracked robot primarily used for dangerous missions like Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD), IED destruction, and reconnaissance—to investigate the suspicious box. Outside the building, the TALON’s operator watched a live video feed of the robot inspecting the package with its robotic, clawed arms. The red and green wires on the box top did not reach the interior, leading the operator to believe the package held no explosives. Nonetheless, since TALON was unable to unseal the box, a specialist wearing an EOD bomb suit cautiously approached the box and unpeeled the tape. He felt relieved—no explosives in the box. But, through his blast headgear, he saw a thin layer of white dust coating not just the tape but also the sides of the box.
A HAZMAT team responded with urgency. Donning Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical (NBC) suits, they placed the box inside a plastic pouch, which they hermetically sealed. It was flown under armed guard to CBRN’s primary decontamination center at Aberdeen Proving Grounds, Maryland.
We’ve yet to hear about the results, but we will update this story when we do.