Return to Article: Air Force disciplines 15 officers in nuclear mishap
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60057
Yes, contractors. Vance has been using them overwhelmingly for the last 10 years that I know of, and quite possibly a lot longer than that. The only CS I knew of were in Personnel, as Commanders' Secretaries and Transportation (household goods movement, inbound and outbound). Otherwise, contractors did aircraft maintenance and fuels, were about to take over life support. At such a base, where flight training is the primary focus, this is an overwhelming ratio of contractor to CS.
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59944
Contractors?? Last time I was at Hill it was still fully staffed by our vaulted CS. The only contractors I saw there ran the canteens and cut the grass. All the rest were the typical feather merchants
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59893
Who's being held accountable on Wall Street, the Banking Institutions, SEC, and in Congress?
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59853
Dan: Perhaps CS *were* in the mix, but news breeds excitement. "Generals" sounds a lot better of a focus than "CS" does. Besides, it's the generals who make policy and are charged with overseeing that policy is followed to the absolute letter. Inspections are ordered. Spot checks are conducted. So if it is not ensured on continual, timely basis', those procedures are worthless. And the people who are held responsible for overseeing those procedures to ensure they ARE followed who aren't doing their jobs get in the mix. Besides, if AF is right, CS wasn't in the mix anyway. From my own experience serving four years at Vance AFB (1999-2002), there were contractors running all over the place, so this would seem to be true.
Jedi: Laws are in place for a reason, as are security protocols. Taiwan isn't supposed to have nukes. B-52s aren't supposed to fly over the continental U.S. with nukes strapped to their bellies. We don't want radioactive fallout going on in Asia and we don't accidentally want a nuke dropping in the middle of a major city with the very real possibility of it either going off, or breaking the casing open to expose radiation to thousands of civilians. A first strike option with bombers doesn't make sense, seeing as how B-52s take about sixteen times longer to reach its target than an ICBM.
This is the service that demands, year after year, the lions share of the defense budget, so with seeing shoddy security results like this, I should go easy on the boys in blue? I don't think so. Being lax in conversation is one thing. Being lax where NUKES are involved is entirely different. This would never happen, and has never happened, with Navy protocols. Why should we cut the Air Force slack on something this sensitive?
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59827
I agree that the house should have been cleaned from top to bottom. Unless you get all parties involved out of the system, you will continue to set up situations designed to torpedo the careers of high-ranking officers. Should the generals and colonels have been reprimanded?, "you betcha!," but there should also have been punitive (or at the very least, administative) charges brought against some of the lower level supervisors (loadmasters) who would have had closer if not direct monitoring (supervision) of loading the bombs. They, like their up line supervisors, are also responsible for knowing what should be shipped when and to where. I know that it's usually the case in our culture that the "little guy" primarily receives most the fallout when something like this occurs, but I think that in this case the job was also half done, but in reverse.
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59621
What ever happened to the B-52 incident where the Air Force flew nukes by mistake? Cant believe the aircrew didn't know they had nukes on their wings. Don't try to pull the wool over my eyes. The truth is what? The U.S.A. can have nukes flying around at any time so our enemies have to second guess about a first strike. Same with shipping the nukes to Taiwan. At any time U.S.A. may have accidentally shipped nukes to our allies so don't mess with them or they may be better equipped then thought to be. Think about it. Mistake? Or could this be a way to tell our enemies out there in the dark we have still got the power to hurt them real bad. Give the guys in blue a break. They deserve our thanks for the sacrifices they make. Not some lopsided response for a mistake that could occur when people are tired and overworked. Back off
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59567
From my experience, most of the time it is Contractors who drive the forklifts and load items on planes anymore for the AF and NOT CS. But that doesn't fit into the contract everything out Bash the CS blinders you have on.
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59552
While I agree that it is regretable, but necessary, I find it highly ironic that a member of Congress is stating that the basis is for "leadership failures." My oh my!
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59538
A letter of reprimand was the most serious punishment? A LETTER OF REPRIMAND? The lowest ranking airman can earn a letter of reprimand for repeatedly being late for work or falling asleep at your desk. Good thing some junior NCO didn't "loose control" of the nukes.
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59532
Not a single CS was involved amazing, I didn't know the Generals drove the forklift and loaded the triggers on the planes. Just goes to show that when accountability is demanded CS are never in the mix
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59509
What happened to the contractor whose people screwed up and mailed the parts.
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59497
There is a disconnect here. The higher upps did not ship the stuff. Civillians and contractors surely share in the blame. T
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59481
Firings and disciinary action is the right thing to do, as well as ensuring the proper protocols for tracking this highly-sensitive material.
But, more importantly... Did the DoD ever get these nukes back?!?!?!
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59478
Kudos to Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Finally someone who has decided that acountability is necessary. This is what I have been saying is necessary for the last 4 years. We can only hope that this will catch on with other political leaders.
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59477
SecDef Gates deserves some real credit for holding folks accountable for their poor performance. Very refreshing to see the various administrative actions weren't passed on to the lower tiered employees, and that those at the top of the foodchain were reprimanded. The new administration should consider leaving the current SecDef in his position; this guy is getting stuff done the right way.
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59474
Though the commander and responsible, the Air Force has lost one of their best officers in Gen Sullivan.
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59456
Now lets's see how mayn of these staff get so-called 'conversions' into high-paying Dept of AF civil service positions at ehse very saem bases after they retire or were forced to retire from active duty. The Dept of AF is essentially 100% inbed with only and merely current or prior Dept of AF staffers, GS or mil or contractor. This rampant rate of inbreeding fosters debacles such as these.
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