Will Spend Three Years In Federal Prison, Three Years On Supervised Release

A former helicopter pilot stationed at Fort Bragg, NC was sentenced to three years in federal prison last Friday for his part in the theft of $1.3 million of military equipment while deployed overseas.

The pilot was 41-year-old Kurt Allen Bennett. In a statement, U.S. Attorney Thomas G. Walker said that Bennett would spend three years in a federal prison and three years on supervised release for his part in the scheme. Bennett pleaded guilty in June to conspiracy to steal and convert government property and to two counts of theft and conversion of government property.

Bennett had been a chief warrant officer and an Apache helicopter pilot, according to the Fayetteville Observer.

According to court documents, Bennett stole equipment in 2008 and 2009 while deployed to Iraq. He hid the equipment in shipping containers for retrieval in the U.S. He had repeated the scheme while deployed in Afghanistan in 2010 and 2011. The type of equipment was not specified.

Another soldier, former Sgt. 1st Class Robert Alan Walker, was previously sentenced to an 18-month prison sentence for his participation in the scheme.

FMI: www.nced.uscourts.gov/default.aspx