$247,000 and Navy Officer Are Missing

A Navy officer and $247,500 in ship funds have disappeared from the San Diego-based Tuscaloosa, a tank landing ship, officials said Tuesday.

Lt. Bradley Scott Parr, 31, a North Carolina resident, failed to report for duty when he was reassigned to an Italian naval air station Aug. 23. After a routine audit, officials realized last week that ship funds were also missing. As the Tuscaloosa’s disbursing officer, Parr handled payroll, purchasing, and had access to up to $1.2 million.

“It’s highly unusual circumstances when a dispersing officer is missing with some of the funds he’s responsible for,” said Dennis Usrey, Southwest regional director of the Naval Investigative Service.

Thirty days after Parr failed to arrive for duty in Sicily last summer, the Navy declared him a deserter. But officials did not realize the possible financial repercussions of his disappearance until last week when they discovered money missing from the ship, whose motto states that its men give that “Extra Three Percent.”

A Crew of 340

Most ships pay their sailors in cash, since they spend days at sea and rarely frequent a port long enough for any servicemen to establish bank accounts. And, as naval officers point out, the ships’s store, laundry and post office all require cash. So Parr and other financial officers frequently have access to fairly large sums of money.

The Tuscaloosa, which has a 340-member crew, can house and transport 349 Marines. Parr held the purse strings. He was able to cash and write checks for those aboard the tank landing ship, nicknamed the “Big T.”

“There’s no guarantee that he took the money,” said Cmdr. David Dillon, a Navy spokesman. “But this officer could handle millions of dollars, and he never showed up. That doesn’t happen very often.”

Officials believe the apparent embezzlement may have occurred during a single theft and not over the course of Parr’s three-year stint with the Navy.

Like other ships, the Tuscaloosa is subject to audits. Officials discovered the missing money during the last one and say there was no attempt to conceal the loss. “It certainly wasn’t hidden,” said one officer who declined to be named.

Navy spokesman Dillon was unable to name previous episodes involving missing funds and an alleged desertion. “Embezzlement is not an everyday occurrence, but it has happened,” he said.

Officers aboard the Tuscaloosa were unavailable for comment. The Tuscaloosa, which participated in the evacuation of South Vietnam, has been in service since 1970.