The Washington Navy Yard bombing discussed in this file took place at the Officers’ Club on 20 April 1984. The FBI report described by the archive operator states that the building was unoccupied and nobody was injured.
Correction, 7 October 2026: A previous version of this article incorrectly reported 13 deaths and more than 30 injuries. Those figures do not describe this incident and have been removed, along with unsupported quotations and source links.
In this article
Read the FBI release
The primary collection is the released FBI investigation file. The Black Vault’s 14 April 2026 release page lists 190 pages and identifies the June 11, 1984 report describing an explosive device in Building 101’s reception area at approximately 1:55 a.m.
The release includes interview reports and investigative material. The archive’s overview describes calls and mailed communications claiming responsibility, witness leads and interagency coordination. It reports that the materials did not establish the perpetrators’ identity at the time of the reporting described.
Claims of responsibility are not findings of guilt
For each attribution, distinguish a caller’s or letter writer’s claim from an investigator’s assessment and from a court finding. An investigative lead is not a conviction. Redacted names and missing context limit conclusions about individuals.
A checklist for reading the file
- Record the report date separately from the incident date and the public-release date.
- Identify whether a passage is an interview, evidence description or investigative summary.
- Check the complete page and adjacent pages before quoting.
- Record PDF page numbers as well as any original pagination.
- Use explicit attribution when the file reports what a witness or caller said.
Keep separate incidents separate
A shared location does not make different events interchangeable. This article concerns the 1984 Officers’ Club bombing. Any comparison with another Navy Yard incident needs its own date, records and casualty figures.
Further research
The released file is the starting point for a documented reconstruction, not a basis for filling gaps with imagined dialogue. Readers can use our records-request guide to structure follow-up research, adjusting the agency and scope to the records actually sought.