The US air force fired nine mid-level nuclear commanders Thursday
and will discipline dozens of junior officers at a nuclear missile base
in response to an exam-cheating scandal that spanned a far longer period
than originally reported.
Air force officials called the moves unprecedented in the history of the intercontinental ballistic missile force, which has been rocked by a string of security lapses over the past year, including a failed safety and security inspection last summer at Malmstrom Air Force Base, Montana, where the cheating happened.
In a bid to correct root causes of the missile corps' failings — including low morale and weak management — the air force also announced a series of new or expanded programs to improve leadership development, to modernize the three ICBM bases and to reinforce "core values" including integrity.
Air Force secretary Deborah Lee James, the service's top civilian official, had promised to hold officers at Malmstrom accountable once the cheating investigation was completed and the scope of the scandal was clear. None of the nine fired commanders was directly involved in the cheating, but each was determined to have failed in his or her leadership responsibilities.
Investigators determined that the cheating, which officials originally said happened in August or September last year, began as early as November 2011 and continued until November 2013, according to a defense official who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to reveal details before James' announcement. It involved unauthorized passing of answers to exams designed to test missile launch officers' proficiency in handling "emergency war orders," which are messages involving the targeting and launching of missiles.
When the cheating was first revealed, air force leaders condemned it as violating the most basic air force values. They also suggested that it reflected an unhealthy pressure from commanders to achieve perfect test scores. The tests are one part of a training and evaluation system that is supposed to ensure that every one of the more than 500 missile launch officers is fully proficient.
The most senior person touched directly by the cheating scandal was the commander of Malmstrom's 341st Missile Wing, Col Robert Stanley. He was permitted to resign, according to a defense official. The official described the air force actions on condition of anonymity before they were announced.
Nine key commanders below Stanley were fired, including the commanders of the 341st Wing's three missile squadrons, each of which is responsible for 50 Minuteman three nuclear missiles.
Also sacked were the commander and deputy commander of the 341st Operations Group, which oversees all three missile squadrons as well as a helicopter unit and a support squadron responsible for administering monthly proficiency tests to Malmstrom's launch crews and evaluating their performance.
Members of all three missile squadrons were implicated in the cheating, either by providing or receiving test answers or knowing about the cheating and not reporting it.
No generals are being punished. Major General Michael Carey, who was fired last October as commander of the 20th Air Force, which is responsible for all three 150-missile wings of the ICBM force, is still on duty as a staff officer at Air Force Space Command but has requested retirement; his request is being reviewed.
Carey was fired after a military investigation determined that he had engaged in inappropriate behavior while leading a US government delegation to a nuclear security exercise in Russia last summer. He was replaced by Major General Jack Weinstein.
The cheating at Malmstrom was discovered in early January during the course of an unrelated drug investigation that included two launch officers at Malmstrom and others at several other bases; the drug probe is continuing.
A total of 100 missile launch crew members at Malmstrom were identified as potentially involved in the cheating, but nine were cleared by investigators. Another nine of the 100 are being handled separately by the Air Force Office of Special Investigation; eight of those nine involve possible criminal charges stemming from the alleged mishandling of classified information.
Of the remaining 82 officers, an estimated 30 to 40 are eligible to be retrained and returned to duty on the missile force; the rest face unspecified disciplinary action that could include dismissal from the air force, officials said.
After the cheating was announced in January, defense secretary Chuck Hagel launched a pair of in-depth reviews of the nuclear forces to determine why the ICBM force has suffered so many setbacks over the past year.
Hagel said he his goal was to restore public confidence in the nuclear force.
From RT:
The United States Air Force says it has taken
unprecedented action by firing nine nuclear missile base commanders on
Thursday amid an ongoing and exhaustive investigation surrounding
allegations of cheating.
Dozens of additional employees described as junior officers at those bases will be disciplined as well, the Associated Press reported first on Thursday afternoon, and will join an ever-expanding list of Air Force personnel who have been reprimanded in recent months as part of an embarrassing scandal that has increasingly generated criticism directed at the Pentagon’s nuke program.
But although the Air Force has taken action already in recent months amid reports that missile base personnel cheated on critical military examinations, the AP says officials describe the latest round of terminations as being “unprecedented in the history of the intercontinental ballistic missile force.”
“None of the nine fired commanders was directly involved in the cheating, but each was determined to have failed in his or her leadership responsibilities,” Robert Burns wrote for the AP.
According to Burns, a defense official who spoke on condition of anonymity told the AP that Air Force investigators believe the cheating scandal started as early as November 2011 and continued for two years.
“It involved unauthorized passing of answers to exams designed to test missile launch officers' proficiency in handling ‘emergency war orders,’ which are messages involving the targeting and launching of missiles,” Burns learned from his confidential source.
This past January, the Air Force said that 34 missile launch officers were implicated in the cheating scandal and stripped of their security clearances, though they may not have necessarily faked their way through their own exams. According to the AP’s latest however, upwards of 100 missile launch crew members from a single facility — the Malmstrom Air Force Base in the state of Montana — were at one point or another linked to the scandal.
“Some officers did it. Others apparently knew about it, and it appears that they did nothing, or at least not enough, to stop it or to report it," Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James said at a news conference earlier this year.
Now two months later, on Thursday the Air Force reportedly took action against a number of officials linked to the scandal by investigators, including Col. Robert Stanley, the commander of the 341st Missile Wing at Malmstrom.
Stanley was allowed to resign, the AP reported, but nine key commanders below him were removed from the Air Force, including the commanders of the 341st Wing's three missile squadrons, according to Burns, “each of which is responsible for 50 Minuteman three nuclear missiles.”
“Also sacked were the commander and deputy commander of the 341st Operations Group, which oversees all three missile squadrons as well as a helicopter unit and a support squadron responsible for administering monthly proficiency tests to Malmstrom's launch crews and evaluating their performance,” Burns claimed. Members of all three missile squadrons were implicated, he added, although no generals were formally punished.
This week’s news is only the latest to stir up the Air Force’s nuke unit, which for months now has repeatedly come under fire due to a barrage of incidents. The Pentagon removed 17 of its officers from a base in North Dakota last year following a poor inspection rating, and last October it was reported that two US missile technicians assigned with launch keys were discovered repeatedly leaving a blast door open while sleeping on base.
Air force officials called the moves unprecedented in the history of the intercontinental ballistic missile force, which has been rocked by a string of security lapses over the past year, including a failed safety and security inspection last summer at Malmstrom Air Force Base, Montana, where the cheating happened.
In a bid to correct root causes of the missile corps' failings — including low morale and weak management — the air force also announced a series of new or expanded programs to improve leadership development, to modernize the three ICBM bases and to reinforce "core values" including integrity.
Air Force secretary Deborah Lee James, the service's top civilian official, had promised to hold officers at Malmstrom accountable once the cheating investigation was completed and the scope of the scandal was clear. None of the nine fired commanders was directly involved in the cheating, but each was determined to have failed in his or her leadership responsibilities.
Investigators determined that the cheating, which officials originally said happened in August or September last year, began as early as November 2011 and continued until November 2013, according to a defense official who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to reveal details before James' announcement. It involved unauthorized passing of answers to exams designed to test missile launch officers' proficiency in handling "emergency war orders," which are messages involving the targeting and launching of missiles.
When the cheating was first revealed, air force leaders condemned it as violating the most basic air force values. They also suggested that it reflected an unhealthy pressure from commanders to achieve perfect test scores. The tests are one part of a training and evaluation system that is supposed to ensure that every one of the more than 500 missile launch officers is fully proficient.
The most senior person touched directly by the cheating scandal was the commander of Malmstrom's 341st Missile Wing, Col Robert Stanley. He was permitted to resign, according to a defense official. The official described the air force actions on condition of anonymity before they were announced.
Nine key commanders below Stanley were fired, including the commanders of the 341st Wing's three missile squadrons, each of which is responsible for 50 Minuteman three nuclear missiles.
Also sacked were the commander and deputy commander of the 341st Operations Group, which oversees all three missile squadrons as well as a helicopter unit and a support squadron responsible for administering monthly proficiency tests to Malmstrom's launch crews and evaluating their performance.
Members of all three missile squadrons were implicated in the cheating, either by providing or receiving test answers or knowing about the cheating and not reporting it.
No generals are being punished. Major General Michael Carey, who was fired last October as commander of the 20th Air Force, which is responsible for all three 150-missile wings of the ICBM force, is still on duty as a staff officer at Air Force Space Command but has requested retirement; his request is being reviewed.
Carey was fired after a military investigation determined that he had engaged in inappropriate behavior while leading a US government delegation to a nuclear security exercise in Russia last summer. He was replaced by Major General Jack Weinstein.
The cheating at Malmstrom was discovered in early January during the course of an unrelated drug investigation that included two launch officers at Malmstrom and others at several other bases; the drug probe is continuing.
A total of 100 missile launch crew members at Malmstrom were identified as potentially involved in the cheating, but nine were cleared by investigators. Another nine of the 100 are being handled separately by the Air Force Office of Special Investigation; eight of those nine involve possible criminal charges stemming from the alleged mishandling of classified information.
Of the remaining 82 officers, an estimated 30 to 40 are eligible to be retrained and returned to duty on the missile force; the rest face unspecified disciplinary action that could include dismissal from the air force, officials said.
After the cheating was announced in January, defense secretary Chuck Hagel launched a pair of in-depth reviews of the nuclear forces to determine why the ICBM force has suffered so many setbacks over the past year.
Hagel said he his goal was to restore public confidence in the nuclear force.
From RT:
Nine nuclear base commanders fired from US Air Force over cheating scandal
Published time: March 27, 2014 19:40
Dozens of additional employees described as junior officers at those bases will be disciplined as well, the Associated Press reported first on Thursday afternoon, and will join an ever-expanding list of Air Force personnel who have been reprimanded in recent months as part of an embarrassing scandal that has increasingly generated criticism directed at the Pentagon’s nuke program.
But although the Air Force has taken action already in recent months amid reports that missile base personnel cheated on critical military examinations, the AP says officials describe the latest round of terminations as being “unprecedented in the history of the intercontinental ballistic missile force.”
“None of the nine fired commanders was directly involved in the cheating, but each was determined to have failed in his or her leadership responsibilities,” Robert Burns wrote for the AP.
According to Burns, a defense official who spoke on condition of anonymity told the AP that Air Force investigators believe the cheating scandal started as early as November 2011 and continued for two years.
“It involved unauthorized passing of answers to exams designed to test missile launch officers' proficiency in handling ‘emergency war orders,’ which are messages involving the targeting and launching of missiles,” Burns learned from his confidential source.
This past January, the Air Force said that 34 missile launch officers were implicated in the cheating scandal and stripped of their security clearances, though they may not have necessarily faked their way through their own exams. According to the AP’s latest however, upwards of 100 missile launch crew members from a single facility — the Malmstrom Air Force Base in the state of Montana — were at one point or another linked to the scandal.
“Some officers did it. Others apparently knew about it, and it appears that they did nothing, or at least not enough, to stop it or to report it," Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James said at a news conference earlier this year.
Now two months later, on Thursday the Air Force reportedly took action against a number of officials linked to the scandal by investigators, including Col. Robert Stanley, the commander of the 341st Missile Wing at Malmstrom.
Stanley was allowed to resign, the AP reported, but nine key commanders below him were removed from the Air Force, including the commanders of the 341st Wing's three missile squadrons, according to Burns, “each of which is responsible for 50 Minuteman three nuclear missiles.”
“Also sacked were the commander and deputy commander of the 341st Operations Group, which oversees all three missile squadrons as well as a helicopter unit and a support squadron responsible for administering monthly proficiency tests to Malmstrom's launch crews and evaluating their performance,” Burns claimed. Members of all three missile squadrons were implicated, he added, although no generals were formally punished.
This week’s news is only the latest to stir up the Air Force’s nuke unit, which for months now has repeatedly come under fire due to a barrage of incidents. The Pentagon removed 17 of its officers from a base in North Dakota last year following a poor inspection rating, and last October it was reported that two US missile technicians assigned with launch keys were discovered repeatedly leaving a blast door open while sleeping on base.
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