Air Force official rapped after nuclear flyover

[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.

 

[Andy]

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.

Lighten up, Francis. The reference was to a video that a zoomie secretly made of his roommate (who thought that he was all alone in his room) doing a rap dance. I did a quick search and couldn't find the link.
Anyway, it was pretty funny.

 

[Andy]

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".

Here's his bio:
http://www.ngb.army.mil/ngbgomo/library/bio/shepperd_dw.html

He's definitely NOT the best source for nuclear weapons handling or treaties. I know which part he is referring to, but that does not apply to nuclear weapons movements.

Let's keep this at the unclassified level. The US routinely moves nuclear weapons by a variety of methods, including via air. You'll have to take my word for this, because I'm not going to go any further than that - it's part of my job to know stuff like that. Perhaps a decent google search would have given you more insight in this matter. http://www.dtic.mil/whs/directives/corres/rtf/454005x.rtf Paragraph 4.6.


This entire incident (loss of control of multiple nuclear weapons) is shocking, but doesn't surprise me. Since SAC went away and ACC took over control of nukes, they have been extremely poor stewards of this responsibility. This incident is the result of the lax attitude displayed by ACC's chain of command. There should be a LOT of people fired over this incident, including a good number at Langley.