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Military.com Forums Hot Topics & Current Events In the News Lessons From the Accidental Nuke Flyby|
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Experienced Member |
Whole lotta truth in what the article states.
During my time in SAC, training weapons were stored separately from live weapons and those stored away from conventional. |
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Member |
There are a lot of holes in this story. I find this hard to believe having been around these weapons in my career and saw the operations.
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New Member |
The author make sit sound very dramatic, that these nukes flew over the heartland and major American cities. Ignoring the fact that 1. Nukes fly over the heartland for years during the cold war, that nukes sail on ships into major american cities all the time, and that at no time were the codes compromised etc.
Now certainly the AF crews screwed up in a major way and changes need to be made, but I hate journalists that pump up the drama when there is none. |
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New Member |
Actually this is not as scary as one might be prone to think. #1. The weapons were never out of military control (and individuals who fly B-52s are definitly qualified individuals). #2. They never left military control and landed in military control. #3. Most B-52s are or were under guard while parked. #4. They were discovered at landing. While I think this does require severe discipline, it could have been much worse.
I would think that procedures are NOW in place to preclude such an oversight in the future. Sorry it ruined a few careers over this but mistakes of this magnitude cannot be tollerated. God Bless the USA and all who defend her. |
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Member |
Most people don't understand how these weapons work either. I'm pretty damn sure they were not armed. People get a hold of these stories and blow them out of proportion. Then they wonder why the Government tries to keep it quiet. This news story is old news but yet it’s published in Popular Mechanics. Not quite sure how this story fits in their magazine. Usually there stories are about technology present/future. |
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New Member |
I'm sorry but you are all mistaken in your belief that this is no big deal. The only thing keeping us safe in the long run is faith and knowledge that the processes used to safeguard nukes cannot break down. Multiple redundancies and backups have kept the world safe for over 60 years. This has to work 100% of the time. If the processes are designed and executed properly, this event should have never be able to occur. Regardless of outcome of this event, the very fact that it happened at all should scare the hell out of people responsible for making sure nukes don't go on the loose. Curtis LeMay is spinning in his grave.
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New Member |
should never have gotten rid of SAC
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New Member |
In a word.....BS
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New Member |
What happened? The Defense Nuclear Agency which everyone used to be worried about inspecting them became the Defense Special Weapons Agency and that fell under the Defense Threat Reduction Agency as directorate that does something completely different now. We stopped inspecting, that is what happened.
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Experienced Member |
The story indicated the bombs were "live". Can't beleive that. Any fool can produce nuclear bomb, exploding them is another subject. About the only way these bombs would hurt is if they fell on someones head.
We've hashed this over before. The journalist missed the part of the number of officers and non-coms payed the price for this blunder. General LeMay turning in his grave (that's the truth)with a few choice words. |
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Member |
Career ending mistakes were made during that time period also. This isn't the first time, nor will it be the last, that someone gets lazy, and causes an embarrassment to the military. When the news of this broke, when it originally happened, I thought, "So What". |
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New Member |
Why did they get rid of SAC,MAC and TAC? Probably the same reason they are having campaigns to get a new USAF slogan and changing the uniforms, some general wants to put his mark on the USAF and wants to fix something that isn't broken. Oh sure some of you are going to spout off with the company line, exhorting the nebulous reasons why the USAF had to change its military command structure. But the bottom line is there was no problem the SAC,MAC and TAC command system. I was under Military Airlift Command(MAC)and I was damn happy that I was not in Strategic Air Command(SAC). Those guys in SAC seemed too uptight, they were known to be sticklers for the littlest detail. Constant inspections, alert exercises and drills, spit polished flight boots, always wearing their little dickies and scarfs with their flight suits and the list goes on. But back then(80s & 90s), I knew there was a good reason for their relatively disciplined regime, they were in charge of the USAF's nuclear arsenal and that was one responsibility to be taken seriously, where there was no room for error. Now how in the hell, can the command staff of whatever command this whole mess comes under, not be responsible for this boondoggle? Sure they are going to blame it on the airman for not following instructions, but in this case the **** should roll uphill! Who is responsible for the S.O.P. where nukes are stored adjacent to regular munitions, where they are only flagged by a 8.5 X 11 inch piece of paper? This is beyond incompetence, it is down right idiocy. Who in the ---- (expletive deleted) is in minding the store! Didn't somebody from the I.G. staff notice the deficiency in the manner how these nuclear missiles were stored right next to the conventional munitions? It doesn't take too much common sense to realize that this is an imprudent practice. This policy of storing nukes the way they did was a mistake waiting to happen and the bottom line is, the mistake happened. The discipline in matter should not fall on shoulders of the airmen, it should fall on the officers with eagles and stars on their shoulders. They set up the system that was flawed from the get go and it was only a matter of time before the system failed. In the past, I had a wing commander lose his command because he moved a couple pieces of personal furniture on an empty T-43 coming back from Texas. And there have been countless other instances where commanders were sacked for less consequential actions. If there are no generals held accountable for this and lose there command, then the military has no sense of justice. Now, knowing how lax and undisciplined the USAF of today is in handling the most destructive devices known to mankind, it is no surprise to hear that a couple of nuclear fusing devices were inadvertently shipped to Taiwan. A little advice to the command staff in the USAF, get your head out of your..., and stop trying to change things that aren't broken and start fixing the things that you screwed up. |
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New Member |
Although nothing happened, and as has been pointed out by many posting here, General Curtis LeMay must be spinning in his grave about how lax his Air Force has become with regards to nukes. During his watch, SAC was a monolith, and no one would even think of something like this happening.
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New Member |
Live bombs! Camel hockey. Our nukes have so many safety features built in, we were amazed when they did go off. Any one step out of order in the arming sequence prevents detonation. Remember the headlines when "ALL THE SAFETY FEATURES FAILED BUT ONE!" when a B-47 dropped one. Run your Escalade into the ground at 800 mph and see how many safety features fail.
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New Member |
Its bad when six nuclear war heads are flown over our own country but what realy worrys me is the shipment of the nuclear war head fuses that were shipped to the far east last year and not missed for close on to a year. only the people that inventory secret and sensitive items with in the service had a inkling that things were not right.but could not pin point it.so again some one is dropping the ball.I remember when I went in. we were put on alert at any moment.and had to&e inventorys, weapons checks,vehicle readiness checks,senitive item inventories,proper identifacation of personnel,both military and civilian,some times we did not relax until the alert was over. our corp commander always pulled these on the week end because he figured that if we were going to be attack again that sunday was always the best time to attack.and when we came in from the field if we had a vehicle that was down we did not get off of duty until that vehicle or vehicles were up and combat ready.
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New Member |
Yep!
This is just one more outstanding example of what gutting and down sizing our military establishment has done to our country's security and readiness. We can all thank the former Clinton administration for that, amongst other things. But, people go along with stuff like that. Yeah, lets down size the armed forces of the U.S., make our country a weak tempting target and then get involved in a lengthy legitimate war, and then next lets all ***** about when our troops get killed in combat because they don't have enough people to do the job, or not enough weapons and equipment, not enough support both in country or at home in the U.S.. Before..... We had a deterrent military force that was powerful enough to actually do the job and other countries knew it! The U.S. was seriously respected worldwide. Now, all these other countries like China, Iran, N. Korea and Russia don't miss an opportunity to stir the stew. We're going to have to fight these countries. Sooner or later we're going to get attacked, thousands or maybe even millions of Americans will be killed and our country shattered. All because our military has been down graded so severely. Ever stop to think, that a nuclear attack on the United States could be carried off with one of our own nuclear weapons. I mean, if this one single incident doesn't light a 5 alarm fire under the *** of the American people, then what else will it take? Honestly though, and this is tragic...... I don't even think that the vast majority of Americans even care about any of this business. They're to busy watching celebrity TV and what's Brittney going to do next "news". NEWS???? Just my opinion of course…….. |
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New Member |
forgive them general LaMay for they know not what they do, and thank you mr bush (sr.) for dis-banding SAC so we can all be fail-safer with your broken-arrow son now in charge, another fine mess you got into ollie!
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New Member |
Save some time.
Probably the biggest cause for problems in this world. Unfortunately I see it almost every day...  & then gotta fix it. |
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New Member |
Amen Brother, As a former member of SAC, I remember how by the book it was. At the time as a young Airman some of it was a PITA. But looking at how things have changed under new commands, and folks wanting to do more with less so they can look good on thier OPR/EPR, I can see how this has happened!! Careerism is gutting the military and turning it into a "Corporation mindset". This is dangerous beyond belief. It has led to the erosion of integrity, discipline, to make the numbers look better. I had one supervisor who actually said "So how much money are we going to make today?" I answered that we do not make money, that is the Treasury Dept!! Needless to say he got five kind of ways bent out of shape. Our job is not to "make money", it is to protect our resources, do the job by the #&$^ book, and if the book is wrong, implement the proper changes!! AF needs to turn over nuclear resources to STRATCOM, and let them inspect and monitor as required. |
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Military.com Forums Hot Topics & Current Events In the News Lessons From the Accidental Nuke Flyby
