Late on Saturday, May 11, 2002, an astute deputy sheriff in Jacksonville, Florida, stopped a speeding late-model pickup truck. The deputy was amazed to find the truck?s driver dressed all in black, wearing a pistol in a shoulder holster and plastic pads on his elbows and knees. In the truck also were large knives, a 12-gauge shotgun, shotgun and pistol ammunition, four ammo magazines, a six-volt battery, duct tape, speaker wire and place from an explosive device. He was further amazed to find the suspect was a soldier from Fort Stewart, Georgia.
Arrested was army specialist Derek Lawrence Peterson. The arresting officer recognized Peterson?s truck as one seen earlier parked near the main gate of a nearby Florida Power and Light station. Tracking footprints from where the truck had been parked, investigating officers discovered an explosive device beneath power lines.
The twenty-seven-year-old soldier explained he was practicing night reconnaissance tactics.
A spokesman for Fort Stewart confirmed that Peterson had been stationed there for about a month with B Company, 1st Battalion, 64th Armored Division. If Peterson was simply an idiot who somehow made it into the army, one would expect widespread news coverage to demonstrate how seriously authorities were taking attempted bombing attempts. On the other hand, if Peterson was carrying out some undisclosed covert military orders, one would expect the incident to be hushed up. The soldier was held in a Jacksonville jail without visitors in lieu of $5 million bail. Somebody was taking this case quite seriously, yet there was no national news coverage of this incident at a time of heightened fear and excitement over terrorist incidents, and the initial court hearing for Peterson was postponed.

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http://www.savannahnow.com/stories/051602/LOCsoldierarrest.shtml