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Air Force official rapped after nuclear flyover

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Cardinal

Cardinal

Of The Kremlin
Joined
Nov 25, 2001
Posts
2,308
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20427730/
Air Force official rapped after nuclear flyover

Official relieved of command after 5 warheads are flown across the U.S.

Five nukes mistakenly flown across U.S.
Sept. 5: Five nuclear weapons were mistakenly loaded aboard a B-52 and flown cross-country from North Dakota to Louisiana last week. NBC's Jim Miklaszewski reports.
MSNBC
NBC News and news services

Updated: 2 hours, 3 minutes ago
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BISMARCK, N.D. - An Air Force squadron commander has been relieved of his command after five nuclear weapons were mistakenly loaded aboard a B-52 bomber and flown cross-country last week.
Five 150-kiloton warheads were attached to cruise missiles that were flown Aug. 30 from Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana to be dismantled, but the warheads should have been removed.
Military officials insist the warheads remained “under control” at all times and did not pose a danger.


The squadron commander, however, was immediately relieved of duty and is expected to lose his nuclear certification because “the Air Force has lost all confidence in his ability to handle nuclear weapons.”
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Forgive me for my ignorance, but why is it such a disaster when a nuclear bomber based in the U.S. flies over the U.S. with nuclear weapons?
 
Cardinal said:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20427730/


Forgive me for my ignorance, but why is it such a disaster when a nuclear bomber based in the U.S. flies over the U.S. with nuclear weapons?
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I don't think it is common for the Air Force to fly nukes around on bombers any more.

And in any case, the Wing King just hates when someone says "Boss, I could have sworn we had five nukes in here just yesterday!".

It's worse than losing your cell phone.
 
It's worse than losing your cell phone.
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But not as bad as blowing off the Records Management CBT.
 
Is it possible the pilot of that airplane didn't know he had live nukes on his jet? I honestly don't know, maybe a BUFF guy can weigh in on how or why this may have happened. Cause I gotta tell ya, it don't look good.
 
Curtis LeMay is spinning in his grave.
 
Cardinal said:
but why is it such a disaster when a nuclear bomber based in the U.S. flies over the U.S. with nuclear weapons?
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One we signed a treaty saying we wouldn't which really isn't the issue.

The main issue as I understand it was that nobody knew they were nuclear weapons so control of 6 nuclear weapons was lost. I am not a military guy but I know they have some pretty strict guidelines on the handling of nuclear weapons. To have 6 weapons effectively fall through the cracks is a rather large boo boo.
 
When nukes get moved these days, it's only at the direction of the 4-star at Offut. I'm just guessing here, but it might be that the poobahs in Omaha didn't know about this. StratCom is little touchy about Special Weps.
 
Maybe some p.r. puke just wanted to break the story that Bush& Co. have a nice little surprise in store for Iran.
 
Kharma Police said:
Was he really rapped? I thought that only went on at the academy.
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What do you mean? I went to the Academy and I don't get what you're trying to say. Something funny? Ironic? What? Are you trying to say "raped?" That's the only thing I can think you're trying to say...but that would be stupid, since nothing like that really happened. Is that what you're getting at? Are we talking about nuclear weapons? Do you have an understanding of how the USAF goes about tracking munitions?

Your post went over my cranium....guess that's what I get for being a caveman fighter pilot.
 
bssthound said:
But not as bad as blowing off the Records Management CBT.
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Aaah but had they blown off Information Awareness they would NOT have been able to use their CAC PKI to log onto a computer and, therefore, NEVER had the chance to devise an ammo load for that aircraft that was in error, containing the 5 LIVE cruise missiles.

So...the morale of the story is..dont do your CBTs and you wont send 5 city-busters across the country.
 
WOW

As a former enlisted SAC nuke troop (463x0), I can tell you there were numerous checks and balances that would have prevented this from happening in the mid-80's. And with SAC, fear was the primary motivator. The troops responsible should go to jail, and it all starts with the sq/CC.

As I approach the end of my military career, I see more and more ridiculous stuff like this happen, stuff that wouldn't have ever happened when I first started out. Your job used to be #1, that's why you were there serving. Now your job seems to be more like an inconveinence that takes a back seat to PT, PME, OREs/ORIs, IGXs, ASEVS, UCIs, SAVs, spreadsheets, metrics, processes, additional duties and endless ancillary training. We (the USAF, at least) have become a force of square-fillers, people that survive their current duty assignment just long enough to get to their next one and leave a steaming pile of sh!t for the next guy to clean up.

Yes, General LeMay is rolling in his grave and so is every former SAC Warrior pilot, EWO, gunner, nuker, bomb loader/handler and maintainer that ever served with the deadliest military force the world has ever seen.

Hag
 
MAGNUM!! said:
What do you mean? I went to the Academy and I don't get what you're trying to say. Something funny? Ironic? What? Are you trying to say "raped?" That's the only thing I can think you're trying to say...but that would be stupid, since nothing like that really happened. Is that what you're getting at? Are we talking about nuclear weapons? Do you have an understanding of how the USAF goes about tracking munitions?

Your post went over my cranium....guess that's what I get for being a caveman fighter pilot.
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Little sensitive dude?? It's called a joke...I didn't know SNAPs were allowed in the raptor...
 
Vandal said:
Little sensitive dude?? It's called a joke...I didn't know SNAPs were allowed in the raptor...
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I didn't get the Academy reference, either. Thought it might be some kind of "inside joke" for non-zoomies. I'm glad you came to the rescue, though.
 
Jim said:
No we haven't. Pure BS comment.
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Your issue then is with Don Shepperd, a retired Air Force major general and military analyst for CNN who made the statement "U.S. had agreed in a Cold War-era treaty not to fly nuclear weapons".
 
AC560 said:
Your issue then is with Don Shepperd, a retired Air Force major general and military analyst for CNN who made the statement "U.S. had agreed in a Cold War-era treaty not to fly nuclear weapons".
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No, my issue is with people putting out wrong info, especially info where they only have vague second hand. I also I don't care what CNN or one of their talking heads says, even if that talking head is a retired USAF Maj Gen.

This is BS. I know from experience. I was a Nuclear Weapons Officer for the Navy as well as being part of a nuclear delivery qualified aircrew for 7 years.

The U.S. publicly changed it's policy on the routine operations and deployments of nuclear capable units and nuclear weapons after the end of the cold war around the 1993 time frame. But we specifically and publicly stated we reserved the right to deploy them when and how we saw fit whenever we saw fit.

We did not give up any rights to fly nuclear weapons over our own or international airspace. We never will either.

Believing everything you hear on the TV news is not a good way to learn facts.
 
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Have you not seen Broken Arrow. If John Travolta was piloting this aircraft, it could have been a real issure.
"Can you please not shoot at the thermonuclear warhead"
 
I heard the crew was non-current for their annual SARC briefing, Homosexual Awareness Training, and a few other ancillary events. Had the crew been current, they obviously would have no time to fly and therefore, the mistake would not have happened. When are we going to park the planes and get some serious Power-Point on?
 
Jim said:
Believing everything you hear on the TV news is not a good way to learn facts.
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Or believing an anonymous poster on the Internet who may or may have not been a nuclear officer. It was a credible source of information which I relayed to a person who asked the question.
 
Slacker asks
When are we going to park the planes and get some serious Power-Point on?
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NOOOOOW I see why you're where you are!!
 
AC560 said:
Or believing an anonymous poster on the Internet who may or may have not been a nuclear officer. It was a credible source of information which I relayed to a person who asked the question.
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You relayed third hand information as fact. That is not credible. You didn't even site a source.

If you really believe that the U.S. would sign a treaty prohibiting it to fly any of its nuclear weapons on it's military aircraft in its own airspace, then you are obviously naive.

You want to buy a bridge? It's located in downtown New York and I'll sell it to you cheap. Just think of your income potential from all the tolls you can collect.
 
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Jim said:
You relayed third hand information as fact. That is not credible. You didn't even site a source.
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I gave you the source which is more then you have to any of your claims nor do you offer anything except your anonymous opinion to counter what is in fact a statement of an Air Force General.

Clearly you have some sort of issue and I will leave it at that. Have a good weekend.
 
Hagar17 said:
As I approach the end of my military career, I see more and more ridiculous stuff like this happen, stuff that wouldn't have ever happened when I first started out.
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You’ve actually seen things more ridiculous than nuclear weapons being unknowingly transported across the U.S.???
 
Aviation Week had a short article on this in this week's error. I don't have it in front of me, but it implied that some amount of time elasped before anyone realized that the nukes were missing.

I had only a little contact with nukes during my time in the USAF, but from the little I can recall from when I was a SOF at an F-111 base I just can't imagine how this sort of breach was even possible. The mind boggles.
 

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