By Tom Bowman | The Patriot-News

A Washington D.C., man has agreed to plead guilty in Harrisburg Middle District Court to charges he obtained 12,000 rounds of ammunition at Fort Indiantown Gap by impersonating a U.S. Air Force Major.

Jeffrey A. Klotz, 35, [Pennsylvania Wing] is accused of using the ammunition, along with rifles obtained at Fort Meade, MD, to train Civil Air Patrol cadets to fire M-16 rifles on the Gap’s main range in July.

U.S. Attorney David M. Barasch said yesterday that Klotz could be sentenced to a maximum of 5 years in prison if convicted. Barasch said it appears Klotz only used the weapons to train the cadets.

“We have seen no evidence of any nefarious purpose,” Barasch said. “He did misrepresent himself at Fort Meade to gain access to the arsenal, and he did misrepresent himself at Fort Indiantown Gap to gain access to the ammunition.”

Klotz was in charge of the rifle range at the post during two days of training for 109 CAP cadets ages 12-18 at the Gap from July 22-29. Court papers state Klotz asked for and received 30 M-16 rifles, 10 M-9 pistols and two Chevrolet Blazers from Fort Meade. He then took them to the Lebanon County post.

At the Gap, authorities said, Klotz ordered a civilian employee at the ammo supply point to give him 10,080 rounds of M-16 rifle ammunition and another 2,000 rounds of pistol ammunition.

It was the eighth year Klotz was at the Gap in an Air Force officer’s uniform, a co-worker said in an August interview. Klotz was in the CAP from 1988 until May, when his membership lapsed. So Klotz was “not a new face” around the Gap, officials there said. However, air patrol officials sent a copy of Klotz’s orders to post officials, asking them to check their authenticity.

Four days later, on July 27, Air Force investigators arrived at the Gap to interview Klotz about what they said were his false military orders.

“He was telling everyone he was going to make Lieutenant Colonel in September,” a Klotz co-worker said in August.

Klotz’s father, Jerry Klotz of Somerset, said in August that his son was discharged from Air Force basic training with a bad knee. Court papers indicate he was discharged in 1986. Jerry Klotz said his son served in the Civil Air Patrol as a Cadet. Much of that time, Klotz spent at Greater Pittsburgh Airport.

In August, officials at Andrews AFB said they were investigating Klotz, who frequently showed up at the Maryland base dressed as an Air Force Major and rode around in fire trucks assigned to protect Air Force One, the President’s airplane.

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