Supervisor: Capt. admitted taking launch device

[unhappycamper]

Supervisor: Capt. admitted taking launch device
By James MacPherson - The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Oct 2, 2008 5:53:13 EDT

MINOT, N.D. — A Minot Air Force Base officer admitted taking a missile launch control device as a souvenir because he thought it would be “a cool thing to have,” one of his supervisors testified Tuesday at a hearing to determine whether the officer will face a military trial.

Four witnesses testified at the one-day hearing in the case of Capt. Paul Borowiecki, a missile combat crew member assigned to the base’s 91st Missile Wing. Borowiecki, 27, was given a chance to speak on his own behalf, but declined. His attorneys declined comment after the hearing.

Borowiecki is accused of taking the launch control device in July 2005, rather than destroying it as required when it was no longer in use. Officials say he admitted the theft in May and returned the device.

The domino-sized device is obsolete but Borowiecki’s supervisor, Capt. David Walbeck, testified that had the technology been compromised, it could have led to “unintended detonation” of a nuclear missile.

An Air Force spokeswoman, Maj. Laurie A. Arellano, said later that the launch device is one of many safeguards that must work together to ensure 100 percent security and that Walbeck was referring to the “absolute farthest end of the spectrum.”


Rest of article at: http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2008/09/ap_borowiecki_article32_093008/%2e