yea, i live maybe a mile from Barksdale AFB and i remember when this story first came out everyone around here was scared, i dont know why cause everyone here lived under nuke threat in cold war and the b52 is a nuke delivery, not to mention we would never know about it if one went off here... but its good to know crap like this doesnt come often.
i see your point there mmp, but it sure does sound like them flyboys screwed the pooch on this one. ya have to hope that this is just one incident, and that there havn't been more and it just went unreported or unnoticed. ya just don't get too many 2nd chances with ordinance anyway, and even less with nukes
I thought that was what they were for. If we were attacked by Nukes we could deliver them back immediately. So what is there purpose flying a cross America every day.
These flyboys were just trying to make thier "Tee" time at Barksdale and didn't have the time to follow procedure, what with loading thier clubs and all.
4 officer's and 65 enlisted, figure's. The real story probably is along these lines. The officer's wanted the work done in 1/2 the time that is necessary to do the job right so they could go play golf and drink. They probably allotted 1/2 the man power and gave them 1/2 the time needed, now they want to blame the enlisted men. Of course I'm sure the NCO's complained but the Officer's refused to listen and so it goes! Same "O". No one listen's and no one cares what the actual men that have to do the real work have to say about anything! This entire incident is a classic example of the blind leading the blind. All of the Officer's starting from the base commander to those flying the plane should be courts marshalled and kicked out with a dishonorable discharge for putting at risk our civilian population! Not one excuse is acceptable for this gross violation of acceptable military conducd. I hope the Officer's will take responsibility for what they've done and not throw the lives of the enlisted to the wolves as they usually do to cover up their own lousey behavior, but that probably won't happen!
It's good to see that the Wing Commander was relieved - for that many Airmen to have violated regs so badly indicates a complete breakdown in the unit. But relieving him of command and letting him retire is obviously not good enough. While lower-level officers and enlisted obviously failed too, this rot was so widespread that COL Emig should face court-martial for gross dereliction of duty, among other serious charges. Any officer in charge of inspecting procedures and records needs a thorough grilling, too.
Yes; MY AIR FORCE, screwed up and they did so greatly.
It seems that they are working hard for effective correction and no "cover-ups" of anything.
- In this effort; I'm confident they will succeed.
- I suspect it will take "years" to repair the "Reputation Damage" of this single incident -- and, it damm well ought to be remembered for years to come!
Originally posted by WesLemmon: Yes; MY AIR FORCE, screwed up and they did so greatly. It seems that they are working hard for effective correction and no "cover-ups" of anything.
Well said - I could wish my Army had done this well in our last half-dozen screw-ups.
Col Emig was and is still a fine officer. To be fair he barely took command of the Wing in June, so the rot argument has no merit. Assuming command certainly means taking the reins, but there is a process where the commander goes through in assessing his subordinates and implementing short and long term strategies. In this instance, Col Emig is simply being held accountable for the bonehead mistakes made by the dips*** subordinates--the nav only checked one side of the airplane! What a lazy Nav SOB thankfully he will never fly again and I'm certain the other Navs feel bad that one of their own screwed up so badly, because they are a professional bunch. As for Emig he more than anyone understands where the buck stops, so he will salute smartly and retire, but for anyone to say Emig fostered an evironment of slackers never flew or worked with him, I'm just surprised he had such sorry pool of subordinates.
Originally posted by rockriver04: Col Emig was and is still a fine officer. To be fair he barely took command of the Wing in June, so the rot argument has no merit...
That might get him off at the court-martial. It also cries out for his predecessor to also face charges. The rot was there - who was responsible for it is a question for the court. But for the good of us all, it MUST be answered.
Emig will not be courmartialed unless they can show he was aware or should have been aware of the "rot" and did nothing, in this case, who knows if the main weapons officer was a newbie, so again the "rot" may be a stretch, but agree it needs to be answered the public needs to have faith in the USAF's oversight of these weapons---there is no room for error.
It is typical of what I have been seeing recently in complacent behavior in active duty AF members who are handling responsibilities that are way beyond their position description knowledge, skills and abilities. Sad part is; they truly believe they are the only ones capable and disciplined in the skillcraft knowledge they possess. Active AF members at large do want to contribute, however don't have the root training and self-motivation necissary to actually get the job done, including the warrior mission. A significant respect should be given to those active AF members who have lost their lives in service to our country. Given better training; could numbers be reduced there too? This is demonstrated by Active AF leaders reducing the involvement of specialized civilian personnel. There are civilians (retired military) who consult and work for the AF and are highly trained, but held back, because active duty force believe they can do the job better.
I lived a mile from McCoy AFB in 1972. On 03/31/72, I watched as a "Buff" crashed on approach to MAFB and crashed into the housing area near the end of the runway killing several. When it went down, we thought it was carrying weapons; force of the crash and heatwave created whipped across in a large area (orange flame and black plum) made it look like a nuke. How would the Af explain such a crash taking out a large portion of our nation; sorry and it won't happen again?
Yes, I believe the people involved should be held responsible. It should though start at the NCOIC from the Muns Unit at Minot and go up from there where the firings should start. I hope all the people involved get fired. Yes, I do mean all the way up from the lowest airman to the highest ranking officer at the bases. This is just an example of why we should always follow our OI's and if you fail to follow them you should be held responsible. We do exercises all the time and this should be no different. After all I was recently stationed at Barksdale and I know we recently had an NORE and a CORE.
I'm just trying to imagine the "OH HOLY S+++!" feeling that went through the whole body of the first guy at Barksdale AFB when he/she first realized the missiles slung under the wings of that BUFF were really tipped with nuclear warheads, instead of dumbie tips the mission called for - !!
to get small things that go bang you fill out a request turn it in to supply who looks up the nsnand fills out the approte form that gos to his oic who dobble checks it. then to the co toget signed .then to s4 who looks it up and checks nsns cost, alotments and so on then the bn xo signs off on it. bde looks at it then it goes to the asp . once recived they check it. you pick it up .lot numbers are checked ser numbers taken quanity taken. at a secured asp its anuther world dont step out of center of walkway or you could be shot. so tell me how the asp let the missels out ?
I know the AF will make the punishment fit the crime. My question is...what are we doing to prevent this bent sword from ever happening again and has it happen before undetected?? The violation of all IO's procedures concerning "Special Weapons" is unbelivable! But again what is the root cause, for every action requires a reaction. Is the command to blame?..OPs tempo?? world commintment? The War??I think we should all be concern that we can send 6 special weapons across our country undetected and then sit on the ramp overnight without proper security. Thank God the aircrew did'nt conduct a simulated nuclear launch. Again I say what is the root cause of our Air Forces nuclear surety degradetion.
