17 Air Force officers stripped of authority to launch nuclear missiles

These people are in control of some of the most dangerous weapons in history its scary to think that they have become complacent

The 17 are being sent to undergo 60 to 90 days of intensive refresher training on how to do their jobs. The action comes after their unit performed poorly on an inspection and one officer was investigated for potential compromise of nuclear launch codes, according to Lt. Col. John Dorrian, an Air Force spokesman.

!

In an email sent by Lt. Col Folds he stated:

"We're discovering such rot in the crew force," while they are on alert status -- standing watch over the nuclear force -- that the unit is accepting of violations of weapons safety rules, and code compromises.

It makes you wonder how many others with their hands on the trigger are not paying attention. In this day in age we can not afford to be lazy when it comes to weapons such as these!

www.cnn.com...

reply to post by jrkelly77


How do some of these incompetant people have the ability to launch nuclear weapons?

i thought that call was made only by higher ups?? How are there more than 17 people with that authority?????

Sounds crazy dont it. Especially when you have one whos losing codes?! It shows that things are not ran as tight as tight as they would like us to think. Makes me nervous as hell!

reply to post by Chrisfishenstein


I agree, 17 people are way too many people to be responsible for a decision of this magnitude!!!

It's obvious that we can't handle the responsibility of managing world-ending weapons.

Time to dismantle and destroy them

I would rather have 17 people who can actually process information and think instead of 17 mindless zombies that decide to listen to some psycho military general....

reply to post by Zaanny


I agree but according to this their not being safe. Anyone whos lazy and stupid enough to not protect codes are not going to question the actions of the government!

If we ever get to the point to where we need to input those codes, I think some guy not complying is going to be the least of our problems.....

Isnt this exactly how War Games started?

Any brass or politician suggesting we replace these flawed men with a computer?

reply to post by thisguyrighthere
IBM is jumping for joy for they know it is time, for Sky net will be come fact. Man will be the fault code to be scanned and then filtered out of the matrix, waiting to be deleted.when Sky Net realizes man kind is the virus.

The thing that annoys me most about this whole incident is the fact that most of them are just going to get additional training. Additional training? Sorry, but the nuclear world can be a one mistake world. If you have already proven your incompetence once then I see no need for a second chance. Nowhere in the story does it talk about any disciplinary action. Oh wait, I keep forgetting rule #1-Accountability is a thing of the past and rule #2-Everyone is a winner. I hate that society has gotten to this point.

This is very scary, but like said in earlier post, would you rather have a computer that doesnt know Human emotion, or someone that thinks twice before entering the codes in. Damn what has this world become.

Don't they just have part of the code to launch while others like the President have another part? So essentially they wouldn't be able to launch a full on nuclear attach if they wanted to.

I've heard other branches of them military call the Air Force the "Chair Force".

I've met tons of people from all branches. The Air Force people remind me of civilians the most.

Could a truly competent person launch a nuclear weapon? I think its ok to have a bunch of monkeys do the nasty deed of destroying lives and ecosystems. I know I sure wouldn't want that on my shoulders.

reply to post by jrkelly77

As sensational as the headline sounds (thanks, Tabloid Journalistic CNN) it really just involves the minute man silo crews in one missile farm. You know the two man crews that take turns guarding missiles. They been doing that for over 50 years. What a lonely god forsaken outpost.

...whose officers run launch control centers for the Minuteman III nuclear missiles from Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota.

These aren't submarine or aircraft carrier commanders, but kids guarding ICBMs in the middle of nowhere.

Borrring...

No wonder they watch TV. So some commander got a hard on about etiquette and a few "officers" on missile guard duty.

Personally, I prefer them entertained than bored out of their mind and pumped up to destroy the world. Imagine the kind of person it takes to have that kind of power and responsibility in the first place? I want them happy...

reply to post by bekod


Skynet scan just registered your post & is currently processing it into AI compatibility matrix.

Results pending...

Results pending...

reply to post by Chrisfishenstein
reply to post by jrkelly77


Though I know nothing more about this incident then what the article says, I do however have experience participating in many Nuclear Readiness Assurance Inspections while assigned to a B-2 Bomber squadron.

First off, the codes where not lost or compromised! It says that the codes were "potentially handled improperly," by one officer, which only means that he stored the codes in a matter that was not defined by regulations. Most likely he wrote them down in his personal notebook or stored them in his phone or PDA. While, that is wrong and does have the potential to compromise the codes, this is still a far cry from being lost.

Second, just because it mentions 17 officers needing to be retrained, that doesn't mean that all 17 were found personally negligent. When a unit fails a major inspection most of the leadership directly involved, (which was probably 17 officers in this case) gets nailed. From there "Shzt rolls down hill" as we say! The retraining is more of a punishment than it is because of their actual incompetence.

I'm not trying to make excuses for these people, I'm just trying to make a point that the article can make it sound so much worse than it probably was. Again, from being apart of these type of inspections, I know how small incidents are blown out of proportion.

It's because the U.S. Military has very high standards and when they fall to "Satisfactory" or "Marginal" (which in this case was, though still a pass) it is looked at as a failure! It's like passing with a "D", and the military expects nothing less then "Exceptional". When it comes to nukes or our Nation's Defense, I totally agree, but that doesn't mean we actually have our guys asleep at the wheel. This is just meant to shake them up and put them back on the road to excellence!

I actually used to work as a missile launch officer at the 91st in Minot during the early 1980's. It's a tough gig.

Yes, i imagine waiting around for the order to destroy the world would effect some mental changes in the short term as well as the long run.......
I imagine these people have a shelf life, which the testing is designed to indicate when over due for some kind of change.
The military just looks at these people as units.
They test a unit and determine if its still up to max performance.....those who fall anywhere short get the gift from above.....incomming #z