An Air Force contractor who worked inside a secure intelligence room at Joint Base San Antonio has been charged with losing a classified defense document and with carrying a loaded handgun into that room, federal prosecutors in Texas said Monday.

Zachry Wade Carroll, 47, of San Antonio, was arrested Saturday in Comal County, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Texas said. He made his first appearance in federal court in San Antonio on Monday. The FBI and the Air Force Office of Special Investigations are handling the case.

What the indictment alleges

Three men in shirtsleeves on phones in a small curtained secure room with a desk and secure telephone
A temporary Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility set up in a Rio de Janeiro hotel room in March 2011, where President Barack Obama took a secure call with advisers. SCIFs like this are built to keep classified discussions and documents sealed off.Pete Souza, The White House / Wikimedia Commons / Public domain
A white F-106 Delta Dart on a pedestal under a double rainbow on a grassy field at Joint Base San Antonio-Kelly Field Annex
A static F-106 Delta Dart at Joint Base San Antonio-Kelly Field Annex in June 2015. The indictment places the November 2025 firearm allegations at the base's Kelly Annex.Tech. Sgt. Chad Chisholm, U.S. Air Force / Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

The charges cover two separate stretches of time. In April 2025, the indictment alleges, Carroll lost a classified document relating to the national defense and did not promptly report the loss to his superior officer.

Seven months later, in November 2025, he had a loaded .380-caliber pistol on him while working in a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility, or SCIF, at the base's Kelly Annex, the indictment says. SCIFs are the walled-off rooms where people with clearances handle the most tightly controlled classified material. Prosecutors allege his vehicle on the base held a loaded AR-15 rifle with 85 rounds and three magazines at the same time, along with a loaded 9mm handgun with 20 rounds and three magazines. Asked whether he was armed, he denied having the .380 on him, according to the indictment.

The charges and possible penalties

A hand pressed flat on the green-lit glass of a fingerprint scanner
An Air Force Office of Special Investigations special agent demonstrates fingerprint processing at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, North Carolina, in February 2026. AFOSI is investigating the Carroll case with the FBI.Airman 1st Class Holly Leonard, U.S. Air Force / DVIDS / Public domain

Carroll faces one count of losing national defense information, two counts of possessing a firearm in a federal facility and one count of making a false statement. If he is convicted on every count, he faces up to 17 years in prison, prosecutors said.

The 17 years add up from the statutes. The Espionage Act provision on defense information that is lost through gross negligence, or whose loss is not promptly reported, carries up to 10 years. Having a gun in a federal facility carries up to a year per count, and a false statement to federal authorities up to five years. A federal judge would decide any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines.

The release does not say what the lost document contained, how investigators learned it was missing or how the guns were found. It does not name a lawyer for Carroll. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Mark Roomberg and Kirk Mangels are prosecuting.

An indictment is an allegation. Carroll is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.