CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. — Following the passage of a new law in Tennessee criminalizing homeless camps on public land, authorities on Wednesday raided and arrested an infantry platoon inhabiting a patrol base in the woods of Fort Campbell, which overlaps the border between Tennessee and Kentucky.

"We received numerous reports of a gathering of 40 to 50 foul-smelling individuals, trying to conceal their presence in a thickly-wooded, sparsely traversed portion of the base’s training area," said Tennessee State Trooper Tom McClintock.

Authorities were warned that the group was armed but encountered little resistance when entering what they believed was a gathering of vagrants.

"Someone yelled 'claymore' and we heard a dirty M240B bolt malfunction, but most of the group was sound asleep," McClintock said. “There was one individual relieving himself in a hole. He saw us and yelled to another man, 'go wake up the LT.'  I’m not sure they ever found whoever ‘LT’ is."

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