Air Force official rapped after nuclear flyover

[AC560]

No we haven't. Pure BS comment.

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".

 

[Jim]

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".

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.

 

[jetpig32]

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"

 

[slacker]

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?

 

[AC560]

Believing everything you hear on the TV news is not a good way to learn facts.

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.

 

[bssthound]

Slacker asks

When are we going to park the planes and get some serious Power-Point on?

NOOOOOW I see why you're where you are!!

 

[Jim]

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.

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.

 

[AC560]

You relayed third hand information as fact. That is not credible. You didn't even site a source.

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.

 

[HarryShadow]

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.

You’ve actually seen things more ridiculous than nuclear weapons being unknowingly transported across the U.S.???

 

[JimNtexas]

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.

 

[Oh-ryan]

Whoa. Are those 5 nuclear warheads in your BUFF or are you just happy to see me?

 

[Tgaug6300]

Man, I always thought that was what B-52s were supposed to do. Ya know, fly nuclear weapons?

 

[talondriver]

When I flew BUFFs, weapon movements were a huge deal...meaning everyone in the maintanence and SF leadership chain knew about it before the "stealheader" moved. Granted, there are checks in place all the way down to the weapons preflight by the navs and pilots. And yes, it sucks being the Sq/CC and the crew, but I would also expect AMMO (or whoever's responsible for loading) to help me catch something like this. That's what they do...that's their frickin' job.
Now...how many of you mud movers are going to take the extra ten minutes to double (and triple) check to make sure your BDU-XX is really filled with concrete?

 

[BLUE BAYOU]

All this fuss and no one rings in about all the nuclear waste that is transported over our "safe" rail systems across the country. I don't think the actual "flight" of the nukes was the problem-- the problem was the accountability of nukes that weren't suppose to be where they were...

 

[ASA DX]

Yeah that was a really big deal..I use to work in weapons load at the 116th Georgia Air National Guard down at Robins, AFB when we flew the B-1B...I just got back from drill down there last weekend and thats all ppl were talking about..

 

[ASA DX]

i really dont even see how there can be a mistake in the loading process myself, live munitions are marked with a yellow band and BDU 50' (dummies ) are usually marked with a blue band..this of course in on convientional weapons..i have no experience with nukes...loaded a B61 silver bullet nuke I think in tech school for certification, but that was it..they had to think that it was okay or signed off by a higher up..there is no mistaking nukes for anything in my opinion.

 

[YeOldeProp]

Real Nukes were painted with the famous picture of Slim Pickens going "Rodeo" during his final scene in Dr Strangelove....just to differentiate them from the training types.

 

[Andy Neill]

According to an MSNBC article I read, the cruise missiles mounted were presumed to be dearmed. Had someone looked into a small plexiglass window, he would have seen a silver warhead instead of whatever color is used for the dummy warhead. They evidently didn't. Further, the crew member that checked the weapons evidently only checked the right wing (loaded with dummies) but not the left wing (loaded with nukes). [Another right-wing conspiracy???]

 

[milplt]

So, no one has any issues with:

The plane was carrying Advanced Cruise Missiles from Minot Air Force Base, N.D, to Barksdale Air Force Base, La., on Aug. 30, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of a Defense Department policy not to confirm information on nuclear weapons., or

No public acknowledgement was made until service members leaked the story to the Military Times, which published a brief account Sept. 5. (from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20926465/page/3/)

Why did they go public, this incident wasn't being covered up, KBAD officials alerted the appropriate authorities as soon as they realized what had happened. Now we have military personnel associated with nuclear materials who have decided that they can discern which classification and OPSEC/COMSEC rules apply to them. But I am sure we can count on them to hold the really important information close. We need 2 investigations taking place here - why it happened, and who went to the press.

 

[DaveGriffin]

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.

MAGNUM!!

You need to ask the two fat chicks in Co Springs you bragged about nailing.