Army: soldier remains under investigation following alleged food threat at SC training base

1 soldier still investigated on Fort Jackson food

COLUMBIA, S.C. — One of five soldiers connected to a military translator program remains under investigation for alleged verbal threats involving the food supply at the Army’s largest training base, an official said Thursday.

The soldier, one of five detained in December, is being investigated by the service’s Criminal Investigative Division, Army spokesman Patrick Jones said Thursday.

Jones said he did not know whether the soldier remains in detention. He said he did not know any of the soldiers’ locations, but that four are no longer being investigated. None has been identified.

Fort Jackson, near Columbia, puts more than 50,000 soldiers annually through basic and advanced instruction, serving about 40,000 hot meals daily at 13 dining halls. Jones said no one was poisoned and he noted that “no credible information” has come to light so far to substantiate an alleged threat.

“An allegation was made,” Jones said in a telephone interview. “It was investigated. At no time was anyone in danger.”

The translator training program relocated to Fort Huachuca in Arizona in December and Jones said that transfer had nothing to do with the investigation.

He also said he didn’t know where the soldier under investigation is located. A soldier does not have to be in military detention for such an investigation to continue, he added.

Chris Grey, a spokesman for the Criminal Investigative Service, told The Associated Press by telephone that he was unable to comment.

“Because the investigation is still ongoing, and we want to completely get to the bottom of it, I am unable to comment,” Grey said.

On Dec. 2, Fort Jackson officials announced their training course for translators and interpreters was moving from South Carolina to its main program for intelligence training activities at the Army’s Intelligence Center at Fort Huachuca.

The program at Fort Jackson primarily involved speakers of Arabic, used in the Mideast, and Pashtu, used in Afghanistan.

At the time, the Army said the move was made to allow soldiers to receive technical training alongside others in similar occupational specialties.