Air Force punishes 70 for nuclear mistake

[CGowen]

Source: AP,Seattle Times,The Washington Post

WASHINGTON — Four Air Force colonels were relieved of their commands and more than 65 lower-ranking officers and airmen were disciplined for the accidental, cross-country flight of a nuclear-armed B-52 bomber after an investigation found widespread disregard for the rules on handling such munitions.

"There has been an erosion of adherence to weapons-handling standards at Minot Air Force Base and Barksdale Air Force Base," said Maj. Gen. Richard Newton, the Air Force deputy chief of staff for operations.

Newton was announcing the results of a six-week investigation into the Aug. 29-30 incident in which the B-52 was inadvertently armed with six nuclear-tipped cruise missiles and flown from Minot in North Dakota to Barksdale in Louisiana without anyone noticing the mistake for more than a day.

The warheads were supposed to have been removed before the trip to Barksdale.

Read more: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003963418_nuke20.html

[woodsprite]

1. I don't buy it! They're just the fall guys. n/t

[Vincardog]

4. They only got caned because someone let the news slip. The RW plan was to have and use

the tactical nukes before they let us know they were in theater

[havocmom]

8. Yep. Hard to buy into Sycronized Screw-up of such a porportion.

CYA time for the top brass, once again using the guys following orders as whipping boys.

Just not believable that it wasn't ordered. The grunts are too good at what they do that enough of them just happened to slip up in the perfect chain to have allowed the nuke transport to have been a mistake.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

2. SUPPORT THE TROOPS. no matter what they do. & ask no questions

because the GOP will yell at our democratic leadership otherwise


we've had soldiers raping female soldiers, soldiers torturing innocents, and now airmen screwing up with live nuclear weapons. at some point in time, I think we can get rid of the "blind" support the troops mantra and treat them professionally, with respect and love, when deserved, (which is often), with support and love when they come back hurt, mangled brain damaged or without limbs, eyes, BUT when they break the law, or the Genevas, or the procedures for safeguarding nukes, they deserve to be treated exactly in the manner that they have earned.

[asjr]

3. Sounds like someone in high

office was able to CYA.

[bahrbearian]

7. Cheney and Chimpy have gotten good at CYA through the years.

[Torn_Scorned_Ignored]

5. BULLSHIT

[Andy Canuck]

6. Hopefully it was sane

Air Force brass purging themselves of supporters of the White House agenda.

[havocmom]

11. Oh, don't count on that being the case.

The AF brass is so full of fundy end-timers that a chaplain at the Academy, doing an investigation into complaints of harassment by evangelicals on those of other faiths, had to resign her commission in order to speak openly about all the shit she found.

More than likely, it was the non-believers who met with purge. There are some pretty fundy generals in the Air Force and they seem to be hell bent on letting religion be a player.

[Andy Canuck]

12. Oh... well that sucks for us then.

[havocmom]

13. Yeah, if a general or two are 'rapture ready', they can start a helluva war from 45,000 feet up

and be home in time for cocktails at the officers' club.

Too bad about those ground troops though...

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

9. This snippet has an unpalatable aroma:

The main reason for the error was that crews had decided not to follow a complex schedule under which the status of the missiles is tracked while they are disarmed, loaded, moved and so on, one official said on condition of anonymity.

The airmen replaced the schedule with their own "informal" system, he said, though he didn't say why they did that nor how long they had been doing it their own way.

"This was an unacceptable mistake and a clear deviation from our exacting standards," Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne said at a Pentagon news conference with Newton.

MKJ

[PoiBoy]

10. So where are those nukes now?

Lots of "blah blah" about the situation, the "erosion of adherence to weapons-handling standards at Minot Air Force Base and Barksdale Air Force Base...", but not a word about where those nukes are now... maybe I missed an article or two... and they've been competently and safely returned to Minot, but they could just as well be positioned in Barksdale..., and I can't see any advantage for Peace and Justice in that...

Does anyone here know what's happened to the nukes in question?

[havocmom]

14. Originally reported that FIVE were in LA.

Now, since SIX were loaded...

When questions about that math discrepancy first came up, the story was immediately changed to SIX weapons landed at the base in Louisiana.

And there was a big search for millionaire Fosset in the Nevada desert right then.

My central nervous system is still a bit concerned about the math and possibility of a broken arrow out there in the Great Basin area.

[TomClash]

15. I know where they might be found

Teheran.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

16. no way.

much more likely that the missing one is on the IRaq-Iran border, not the capitol.
much easier to use it as an excuse to attack Iran.

[Pavulon]

17. In a funny looking building

with a bunch of other nukes, under armed guard, surrounded by a perimeter fence with a sign that says "use of deadly force authorized"
...

Nuclear weapons information (location, movement) is not public information, never will be. Anyone who claims to know is full of shit.

[tom_paine]

18. You know who's not on that list, I guarantee you?

The Bushies from Cheney's office or wheverever who likely gave the orders.

I was in the USAF and I have experience working with nukes. Unless things have changed substantially since I was in and nuclear security has gone from deadly-serious to pathetically lax, such an 'accident' is impossible.

There are simply TOO MANY physical and bureaucratic barriers to cross, too many fail-safes in procedure to ignore, for a nuc to launch under a B-52 wing.

That is my opinion borne of direct experience.

[northofdenali]

19. If you're not scared shitless, you're not paying attention.

"unprecedented string of procedural errors," beginning with a failure by airmen to conduct a required inspection of the missiles before they were loaded aboard the B-52 bomber at Minot. The crew flying the plane was unaware nuclear warheads were on its wing. (bold is mine, source same as OP's).

THE CREW WAS UNAWARE? What the fucking hell are they doing flying?

C'mon DU boys and girls, spot the warheads!! Betcha can't find them (oh, no military service members on DU, current or retired, are allowed to play - because if you're on this board, you know DAMN WELL that the crew was "aware):



That's the biggest piece of bull I've ever heard. I work for an air cargo/air fuel/charter aircraft company here in Alaska, and I guarantee you EVERY crew member is aware of what is, or isn't, on the plane before they even begin taxiing. And these dudes knew.

"Relieved of command and disciplined"???????????

What happend to THREW THEIR COLLECTIVE FUCKING ASSES IN JAIL???????



Bad intel? Nope. Plenty of intel and plenty of intent.

[Pavulon]

20. I tend to believe the crew

they do fly weapons around, they do not have the fully functional warhead attached. But the weapon appears the same from the outside. I am not (was not) air force so that is just what I heard.

[northofdenali]

22. Pavulon, I agree they may not have known the warheads were armed

but that is NOT what was quoted in the article.

Again, "The crew flying the plane was unaware nuclear warheads were on its wing.

That is WAY more telling, to me, than if they'd just said the crew didn't know the nuclear warheads on its wing were unarmed!!

:hi:

[Earth_First]

21. Why load them AT ALL if they weren't meant to be flown ANYWHERE?

I still smell bullsh*t.

[hack89]

26. The Air Force is getting rid of those particular missle

and they were being flown to Barksdale for decommissioning. They skipped the "remove nuclear warhead" step.

[PoiBoy]

23. Read this thread...

for more comprehensive information... some of the posters seem to have been there and done that before...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x313002

some great information that answer a lot of the questions being asked here... except mine.. where are those nukes now?

[robinlynne]

24. From what I understand of the military, this is one person's fault. One person

gave the command. These 65 people are probably all of the people who know anything about it, or about any part of it.
i.e. discredit them and make them vulnerable before they can say something.

[tekisui]

25. They better all watch their backs.

All 70 of them should band together and issue a joint statement on what actually happened.