USAF Strips 17 Officers of Nuclear Launch Authority

Freshly Exhumed writes "In an unprecedented action, a United States Air Force commander has stripped 17 of his officers of their authority to control and launch nuclear missiles. After a string of failings that the group's deputy commander said stemmed from 'rot' within the ranks, the suspensions followed a March inspection of the 91st Missile Wing at Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota, that resulted in a 'D' grade for the team tested on its mastery of the Minuteman III missile launch operations system. The 17 are being assigned to intensive retraining courses of 60 to 90 days, according to Lt. Col. John Dorrian, an Air Force spokesman."

Re:Not a new problem

[HaZardman27]

There were already a lot of people that were kicked out or forced into retirement after that. There were also some pretty significant structure reorganizations that followed.

Re:Not a new problem

[idontgno]

Barksdale AFB, Louisiana, [wikipedia.org] not Mississippi.

I don't think it was the same military units involved in both incidents. The 2007 incident was the 5th Bomb Wing, and this incident is the 91st Missile Wing. Technically, the 5th Bomb Wing is the host unit and the 91st is an independent tenant unit, since most of its weapons are off base.

But it's awkward and somewhat telling that both incidents, as well as some serious inspection failures in 2008 [wikipedia.org] are on the same base. Or maybe that's just the base that's had the most serious scrutiny so far because it's established a reputation of needing scrutiny.

Re:About Time.

[idontgno]

In the Air Force, bad readiness inspection results usually get action. What they don't usually get is publicity.

This was a leak. I don't want to be too cynical about my military alma mater, but expect a serious leak-hunt along with all of the anticipated corrective actions, remedial training, and legal action.

Re:Not a new problem

[Anonymous Coward]

Dunno.... but the AF used to give out 'Missile Commander' scholarships like water.

Sign up, get money for college, and then spend two years buried in a hole.

I met a few of these guys in grad school, and being a grunt in a silo sucked pond water or worse.
Always understaffed and had low morale, and the usual chain-of-command abuses
of the peons. And it's not like there's much to do in Minot, SD, so the officers figured
everyone should be available 80 hours a week. Good luck getting a degree with
the nearest university far (90 miles?) away and random, capricious time demands.
Good luck finding anything interesting to do, or getting or keeping a life.

Unsurprisingly, it affects/affected a lot of people very badly.

Re:Unprecenented?

[Otis B. Dilroy III]

During the cuban missle crisis my dad was a flight line mechanic at Fairchild AFB outside Spokane WA.
At that time Fairchild was a B52 base.
He said that every B52 they had was in the aIr loaded with nukes, wating for orders.
The nukes had to be armed in the air before dropping so that they wouldn't go off in case of a crash or accidental drop.
During post-flight inspections, it was discovered that one B52 went up with all of its nukes armed. If it had dropped a bomb due to mechanical failure or crashed, big boom
I can only imagine the size of the boom that occurred on base when it was discoevred.