A Halloween costume choice may haunt a Fort Bragg soldier long after the candy's gone.
In a story that's made the national, local and blogosphere rounds, a soldier attempted to enter the North Carolina base on Friday night dressed as a suicide bomber, complete with faux explosive vest. That decision prompted "an emergency response, EOD clearing the entire scene and an extended closure of a gate," Fort Bragg's official Facebook page reported.
"People have to remember in this day and age ... they've got to use common sense," he said.
Costumes that appear threatening "may trigger security responses," McCollum added, as recent incidents have raised awareness of the potential for on-base violence.
In another area where common sense might help, Bragg officials took down the initial Facebook post regarding the incident when they could no longer keep up with the profanity and other inappropriate material included in some of the comments.
"That started overtaking the message," McCollum said.
The deleted post stated that such get-ups weren't permitted on the installation. It also included a directive from the base's senior commander that no soldiers "wear costumes of this sort off post" and asked family members and Army civilians to do the same out of respect for the base's neighbors.
A follow-up post explaining the deletion read, in part: "Please take note that this is a family-friendly website meant to inform and keep our families safe, many of whom have directly felt the effects of real — not costumed — suicide bombers."
Kevin Lilley is the features editor of Military Times.
