70 punished in accidental B-52 flight

[FourScore]

70 punished in accidental B-52 flight

WASHINGTON - The Air Force said Friday it would punish 70 airmen involved in the accidental, cross-country flight of a nuclear-armed B-52 bomber following an investigation that 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 probe 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 missiles were supposed to be taken to Louisiana, but the warheads were supposed to have been removed beforehand.

A 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 because he was not authorized to speak on the record.

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...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071019/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/nuclear_mistake

[wain]

1. 70 usaf careers are over n/t

[Swamp Rat]

2. Are any of those 70 generals or colonels?

I wonder if Dickhead Cheney had something to do with this as well?

[usaftmo]

14. Yes, the Wing Commander at Minot AFB

The Wing Commander is the person in charge of the base, and he's a Colonel (O-6).



from active-duty Technical Sergeant (E-6)

[Rick Myers]

3. The word 'airmen' is a term for enlisted personnel.

[DrDan]

8. depends on the context

within the Air Force, that is correct.

But externally, it can mean those that are members of the USAF - either officers or enlisted.

Dan
ex-Major, USAF

[DrDan]

16. 4 officers punished including

the wing commander and the base commander - probably both full colonels . . .

they should be court martialed for putting millions of people at risk . . .

[Trillo]

4. This sounds worse and worse.

Last I read, I think yesterday, was that 5 officers were to get fired. (why fired, aren't demotions typical?)

Now, it's 70 enlisted (airmen).

Tomorrow, the base's wild cats? "The mice made me do it," they'll say.

[hootinholler]

12. Not for an F troop operation like this.

This is some scary shit.

-Hoot

[Trillo]

13. Sure, but the order originated somewhere.

Are we to believe that some mid-level career officers decided to start WWIII? The highest rank punished, according to this, was a Col. The official story seems ludicrous.

Perhaps with the evangelical infiltration that has been reported as an issue in the AF, it makes a little more 'extreme' sense, that some fundies usurped newkular weapons protocols and were going to single handedly initiate nuclear annihilation and apocalypse, but it still seems a stretch.

I am skeptical that orders did not originate at the 'highest' levels. It 'feels' like little people are getting scapegoated.

[jmowreader]

18. "Fired" is civilianese

The correct military term is "relieved for cause." And...when civilian media talk about the military, they generally call Army people of whatever rank soldiers, Air Force people airmen, Navy people sailors and Marine Corps people marines.

I kinda expected the wing commander to be relieved for cause, reduced in rank and somehow removed from the Air Force--either by kicking his ass out or by busting him to major, after which he'd be sent home because no one wants a major who used to be a bird colonel on his or her staff.

[Octafish]

5. ''Informal'' system means off-the-books.

That's the Bush Crime Family M.O.

The airmen are just patsies.

[Auntie Bush]

15. Bush* doesn't go by the books so why should anyone else?

Fine example he sets!

[HowHasItComeToThis]

6. THE INFORMAL SYSTEM WOULD NOT BE THOUGHT UP BY

AIRMEN.

THIS IS A SYSTEM CREATED BY THE HIGHER UP.

HOW HIGH?

JUST START GUESSING.

[enlightenment]

9. Enlisted personnel aren't idiots, you know.

They are perfectly capable of thinking up short-cuts. I'm not suggesting that the enlisted airmen are entirely culpable, just saying that they aren't mindless drones, dutifully doing the bidding of their masters.

[jmowreader]

19. I'll have some of what you're smoking, please

Enlisted people invent "informal systems" all the time. Most of them work fine.

The handling of weapons of mass destruction, however, is a place where no "informal system" should have ever been invented.

[Individualist]

7. 70 scapegoats

This has Cheney-stink all over it.

[UTUSN]

10. Enny of them been the Commander in Chief?!1 n/t

[Catherine Vincent]

11. 70?!

Holy shit!

[MrScorpio]

17. The cover up persists

CYA, baby! It's the Air Force way

[TheFriendlyAnarchist]

20. But WHY did they need to be moved if the warheads were already removed?