Air Force
How did a bomb go undetected for 6 days at MacDill AFB, home of US Central Command?
By
Tampa Bay Times April 3, 2026
Katelyn Ferral and Christopher O’Donnell
Tampa Bay Times April 3, 2026
A bomb was placed last month outside the visitors center just outside the Dale Mabry Gate at MacDill Air Force Base, Fla. Here, the visitors center is seen at the right of the gate, behind a sign greeting guests. (Luis Santana/Tampa Bay Times via TNS)
(Tribune News Service) — For six days, a bomb sat at the doorstep of MacDill Air Force Base, the Florida home of U.S. Central Command.
It lay beside the visitor center, where a steady stream of guests and families passed by, picking up IDs and badges to get on base.
Though a 911 call tipped authorities to an explosive on March 10, prosecutors said, a search failed to turn up the potentially deadly bomb until an airman discovered it March 16.
The delay has raised serious questions about security at one of the nation’s most prominent military installations, key to planning the U.S. war in Iran.
“Discovery of a device six days after the initial field grid search suggests the initial search was not thorough enough,” said Chris Hunter, a bomb disposal specialist and retired British Army officer.
Tampa City Council members contacted by the Tampa Bay Times said they were not briefed on the discovery of the explosive, though it sat blocks from residential neighborhoods near MacDill.
“Considering the situation in the Middle East and with Central Command being the headquarters of those operations, I would hope they would be extra vigilant,” said council member Guido Maniscalco. “If it was unnoticed for six days, that’s troubling.”
MacDill’s Michael Moffitt Visitor Control Center is the base’s most public-facing entry point, about 70 yards from the main security gate on Dale Mabry Highway. MacDill leaders, the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation declined to answer questions about whether investigators searched the visitors center or the perimeter of the base after the 911 call.
Bomb disposal and counterterrorism experts say checking public access points should be a first step.
Investigators’ failure to find the device points to potential issues “around perimeter vulnerability, search and reporting procedures, threat recognition (and) response timelines,” Hunter said.
Last week, federal prosecutors charged 20-year-old Alen Zheng, from Land O’ Lakes, with planting the bomb. He called 911 minutes after placing it at MacDill, without providing an exact location, they said. Zheng has no apparent criminal record in Florida and is believed to have fled to China.
Officials did not elevate the base’s security status after the call. MacDill heightened its alert level a week later, on March 17, the day after the airman found the bomb.
“The MacDill personnel searched the base, the entire base, and did not find the device,” U.S. Attorney Gregory Kehoe said at a news conference last week. He said the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, a law enforcement agency within the military branch, helped with the investigation.
An Office of Special Investigations spokesperson on Wednesday declined to answer questions but said MacDill leaders are responsible for securing the base.
The visitors center sits on a 5,000-acre parcel owned by the federal government, according to Hillsborough County property records. Officials at first prioritized searching sensitive areas associated with U.S. Central Command and U.S. Special Operations Forces, Kehoe said.
“I don’t want to say the visitors center isn’t an important building. It is, but there were important assets that we have out there. Our time and attention was placed on those facilities,” he said. “You have something that’s in a secluded location and hidden in the visitors center, and it just took a little bit more time to get there.”
The visitors center at the MacDill Air Force Base is where guests and contractors pick up passes to get inside the site, and where they are screened using a biometric identification system, including a fingerprint, face or eye scan. (Luis Santana/Tampa Bay Times via TNS)
Kehoe declined to describe the bomb but said it had the “potential to be very deadly.”
“That certainly could have caused significant damage to people who were in the range,” he said.
Investigators flew the bomb to a lab in Alabama for testing, according to Matthew Fodor, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Tampa field office.
The FBI and Department of Justice did not answer questions about whether officials reviewed surveillance footage or used bomb-sniffing dogs along the perimeter of MacDill during the search.
MacDill officials also declined to respond to those questions. They turned down an interview request with base commander Col. Edward V. Szczepanik.
“As a matter of policy to protect operations security, we do not share specific force protection measures or security implementations for our facilities,” a MacDill spokesperson said in a statement.
Visitor centers nationwide were introduced for military base security after the 9/11 attacks. MacDill’s was dedicated in 2002. It is the primary location for contractors and guests to enter the base, where they are screened using a biometric identification system, including a fingerprint, face or eye scan. A spokesperson said the center is staffed by Air Force personnel.
Hunter, the bomb disposal specialist, said the military has to balance security with reasonable access for visitors.
Given what is known about the timeline of the case, law enforcement’s initial search for the bomb was likely inadequate, said Pete Yachmetz, a retired FBI agent based near Orlando with three decades of experience in intelligence, terrorism and large-event security.
Standard practice, he said, would include using bomb-sniffing dogs to survey the base and its perimeter, reviewing surveillance footage from buildings on and around the base, as well as using drones to survey the area.
Base security should be extra diligent in investigating wartime threats, said Hugh O’Rourke, chief consultant for military contractor Allied Universal and a former U.S. Air Force colonel.
He declined to comment on specifics of the MacDill bomb but said bases are typically equipped with surveillance networks that include motion detectors, facial recognition technology and high-resolution cameras.
Military police who patrol the base are often young enlisted service members, O’Rourke said. When a bomb threat comes in, base operations need to continue, and it can be challenging to pinpoint a threat without a specific location.
“It’s tough, depending on how that 911 call came in,” he said.
Tampa City Council member Bill Carlson, whose district includes MacDill, said he has full confidence that the military and Tampa police will investigate the incident. He and his children have friends on the base, he said.
“Whatever happened in the past, I’m sure they’ve stepped everything up,” he said. “I pray that they have quickly closed any gaps.”
Tampa Mayor Jane Castor, the city’s former police chief, declined to comment on the investigation.
The day after officials unveiled charges in the case against Alen Zheng and his sister, Ann Mary Zheng, who is accused of helping him flee, two South Tampa residents stopped by the base. Argie and Mandy Miller obtained a pass from the visitors center to take advantage of the tax-free shopping offered to veterans at the commissary, a short way inside the installation. Argie Miller served in the U.S. Army.
The couple had heard about the arrests but said they didn’t feel at risk.
“As a whole, MacDill is extremely safe,” said Mandy Miller. “There was a time you could drive on base. Now, it’s more restricted.”
But they were unaware the bomb sat for days undetected outside the center while visitors, including families with children, picked up guest passes. Steps away, a slow-moving line of cars passed through the security gate.
“That would be somewhat alarming,” Mandy Miller said. “You’d expect them to be hypervigilant.”
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