AP Exclusive: Air Force sidelines 17 nuke officers
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WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Air Force stripped an unprecedented 17
officers of their authority to control - and, if necessary, launch -
nuclear missiles after a string of unpublicized failings, including a
remarkably dim review of their unit's launch skills. The group's deputy
commander said it is suffering "rot" within its ranks.
"We
are, in fact, in a crisis right now," the commander, Lt. Col. Jay
Folds, wrote in an internal email obtained by The Associated Press and
confirmed by the Air Force.
Asked about this
at a Senate hearing Wednesday, Air Force Secretary Michael Donley, the
service's top official, explained the problem by stressing that launch
control officers are relatively junior in rank - lieutenants and
captains - and need to be reminded continually of the importance of
"this awesome responsibility" for which they have been trained.
Donley
said commanders must "ride herd" on the launch crews, and he said the
Minot revelation shows that the Air Force has strengthened its
inspection system. He said he is confident that the nuclear missile
force is secure.
Sen. Richard Durbin, chairman
of the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee, expressed outrage,
saying the AP report revealed a problem that "could not be more
troubling."
At the Pentagon, Defense Secretary
Chuck Hagel was briefed on the Minot matter by his senior staff and
asked for additional information, according to his spokesman, George
Little.
The tip-off to trouble was a March
inspection of the 91st Missile Wing at Minot Air Force Base, N.D., which
earned the equivalent of a "D" grade when tested on its mastery of
Minuteman III missile launch operations. In other areas, the officers
tested much better, but the group's overall fitness was deemed so
tenuous that senior officers at Minot decided, after probing further,
that an immediate crackdown was called for.
The Air Force publicly called the inspection a "success."
But
in April it quietly removed 17 officers at Minot from the highly
sensitive duty of standing 24-hour watch over the Air Force's most
powerful nuclear missiles, the intercontinental ballistic missiles that
can strike targets across the globe. Inside each underground launch
control capsule, two officers stand "alert" at all times, ready to
launch an ICBM upon presidential order.
"You will be a bench warmer for at least 60 days," Folds wrote.
The
17 cases mark the Air Force's most extensive sidelining ever of launch
crew members, according to Lt. Col. Angie Blair, a spokeswoman for Air
Force Global Strike Command, which oversees the missile units as well as
nuclear-capable bombers. The wing has 150 officers assigned to missile
launch control duty.
Appearing with Donley at
Wednesday's Senate hearing, the Air Force chief of staff, Gen. Mark
Welsh, said Folds and other senior commanders at Minot removed the 17
launch crew members after determining that they had "more of an attitude
problem than a proficiency problem." He said he endorsed their handling
of the problem.
The trouble at Minot is the
latest in a series of setbacks for the Air Force's nuclear mission,
highlighted by a 2008 Pentagon advisory group report that found a
"dramatic and unacceptable decline" in the Air Force's commitment to the
mission, which has its origins in a Cold War standoff with the former
Soviet Union.
In 2008, then-Defense Secretary
Robert Gates sacked the top civilian and military leaders of the Air
Force after a series of blunders, including a bomber's mistaken flight
across the country armed with nuclear-tipped missiles. Since then the
Air Force has taken numerous steps designed to improve its nuclear
performance.
The email obtained by the AP
describes a culture of indifference, with at least one intentional
violation of missile safety rules and an apparent unwillingness among
some to challenge or report those who violate rules.
In
response to AP inquiries, the Air Force said the lapses never put the
security of the nuclear force at risk. It said the officers who lost
their certification to operate ICBMs are now getting more training with
the expectation that they will return to normal duty within about two
months. The missiles remain on their normal war footing, officials said.
Although
sidelining 17 launch officers at once is unprecedented, the Air Force
said stripping officers of their authority to control nuclear missiles
happens to "a small number" of officers every year for a variety of
reasons.
In addition to the 17, possible
disciplinary action is pending against one other officer at Minot who
investigators found had purposefully broken a missile safety rule in an
unspecified act that could have compromised the secret codes that enable
the launching of missiles, which stand on high alert in underground
silos in the nation's midsection. Officials said there was no compromise
of missile safety or security.
Folds is
deputy commander of the 91st Operations Group, whose three squadrons are
responsible for manning the wing's 15 Minuteman III launch control
centers.
Advising his troops on April 12 that
they had "fallen," Folds wrote that drastic corrective action was
required because "we didn't wake up" after an underwhelming inspection
in March that he said amounted to a failure, even though the unit's
overall performance technically was rated "satisfactory." That is two
notches below the highest rating.
"And now
we're discovering such rot in the crew force that your behavior while on
alert is accepting of" weapons safety rule violations, possible code
compromises and other failings, "all in the name of not inconveniencing
yourselves," Folds wrote.
Folds also
complained about unwarranted questioning of orders from superior
officers by launch crews and failure to address superiors with the
proper respect.
"We are breaking you down, and
we will build from the ground up," Folds added. He later wrote, "It
takes real leaders to lead through a crisis and we are, in fact, in a
crisis right now."
He told his subordinates, "You must continue to turn over the rocks and find the rot."
When
the AP inquired about the Folds email, the Air Force arranged a
telephone interview with one of Folds' superiors, Col. Robert Vercher,
commander of the 91st Missile Wing. The wing is one of three that
operate the nation's fleet of 450 Minuteman III missiles; the two others
are at Malmstrom Air Force Base, Mont., and F.E. Warren Air Force Base,
Wyo.
"We are frustrated anytime we're
performing less than we expect of ourselves," Vercher said, adding that
he and other senior officers are implementing an aggressive and
innovative plan to restore a record of high performance among launch
control officers.
"There was a problem," Vercher said. "And we will fix it."
Vercher said Folds was expressing frustration.
"That
is a very passionate leader embarrassed by a performance below our
expectation," Vercher said, adding that Folds was disappointed by the
inspection, which was by the inspector general of the Air Force Global
Strike Command.
Vercher said Folds was telling
his officers, in effect, "Quite frankly, you guys should all be
embarrassed that in an area that's important, you passed but you were
rated as very close to not passing, and that's not acceptable."
The
inspection area to which Vercher referred was proficiency at operating
the missile launch simulator and responses to written questions about
procedures. Their performance was rated "marginal," which Vercher said
is the equivalent of a "D" grade. The inspector's office told the AP
that "marginal" is a passing rating, "but attention is needed from
leadership to address issues before they become unsatisfactory."
"Nobody is comfortable with that," Vercher said.
The
launch simulator is used in testing for inspection because, for obvious
reasons, they can't perform an actual missile launch.
Exposure
of shortcomings within Vercher's unit recalls an earlier series of
stunning mistakes by other elements of the nuclear force, including the
August 2007 incident in which an Air Force B-52 bomber flew from Minot
to Barksdale Air Force Base, La., without the crew realizing it was
armed with six nuclear-tipped cruise missiles. One outcome of the
incident was the creation of Global Strike Command in January 2009 as a
way of improving management of the nuclear enterprise.
Bruce
Blair, who served as an Air Force ICBM launch control officer in the
1970s and is now a research scholar at Princeton University, said the
Folds email points to a broader problem within the nuclear weapons
force.
"The nuclear air force is suffering
from a deep malaise caused by the declining relevance of their mission
since the Cold War's end over 20 years ago," Blair said in an interview.
"Minuteman launch crews have long been marginalized and demoralized by
the fact that the Air Force's culture and fast-track careers revolve
around flying planes, not sitting in underground bunkers baby-sitting
nuclear-armed missiles."
Blair is co-founder of Global Zero, an international group that advocates the eventual elimination of nuclear weapons.
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