Open post for those with something to share, updated through the day. New, complete posts come in below this one. Note: If trackbacking, please acknowledge this post in your post. That's only polite.
You're advertising here, we should get an ad at your place...
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Okay, here's a Whatziss? for ya... CAPT H might even play in this one.
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As someone who has been in the nuke weapons business - the laxity in standards revealed in this story was literally stun-me-mute. Back in my day, mishandling a tool, as in passing it *over* a weapon vice *under* or around - was grounds for immediate decertification. There wasn't any rocket science, really - but there was *meticulous* attention to detail and procedure. I once drew and locked my weapon on a General Officer because he wasn't on my access roster, nor was he accompanied by someone who could vouch him into my exclusion area. And I did not get in trouble for it. To this day I don't know if it was a test or a simple mistake on the part of the General. (Word to the wise, if the Armorer says, "No, you can't enter here, sir, you're not on my roster nor are you accompanied by anyone who can vouch you in." he means it.)
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Air Force said Friday it has punished 70 airmen involved in the accidental, cross-country flight of a nuclear-armed B-52 bomber following an investigation that found widespread disregard for the rules on handling such munitions."There has been an erosion of adherence to weapons-handling standards at Minot Air Force Base and Barksdale Air Force Base," said Maj. Gen. Richard Newton, the Air Force deputy chief of staff for operations.
The thing that simply stunned the little Nuke Weapons Fraternity at the place I'm currently doing some work was this:
Newton was announcing the results of a six-week probe into the Aug. 29-30 incident in which the B-52 was inadvertently armed with six nuclear-tipped cruise missiles and flown from Minot in North Dakota to Barksdale in Louisiana without anyone noticing the mistake for more than a day.
Emphasis mine. To us, it was simply incomprehensible. But wait! There's more!
A main reason for the error was that crews had decided not to follow a complex schedule under which the status of the missiles is tracked while they are disarmed, loaded, moved and so on, one official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record.The airmen replaced the schedule with their own "informal" system, he said, though he didn't say why they did that nor how long they had been doing it their own way.
Again, emphasis mine. Now the initial reporting was histrionic. We spent *decades* with aircraft overhead carrying nukes. That wasn't the story - though that seemed how it got spun.
The story is that weapons were loaded that weren't supposed to be - and that no one noticed (or at least reported that they noticed) for over a day.
That is simply mind-boggling if you grew up in the nuke business when I did. There is a *serious* service culture problem represented in this story. One I'm sure the Air Force is working feverishly to fix. Keep you eyes on the ball, gents. Or in this case - the bombs.
Simply amazing. -the Armorer
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Madame Speaker spanks Stark. Heh. How sad that passions have so over-ridden judgement in the people who are sent to govern. One wishes they could find their adult pants. "Inappropriate" Madame Speaker? Surely a stronger word would fit. Of course, we wouldn't want you dipping into Representative Stark's vocabulary and oratorical style... -the Armorer
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*A term of art from the artillery. Harassment and Interdiction Fires.
Back in the day, when you could just kill people and break things without a note from a lawyer, they were pre-planned, but to the enemy, random, fires at known gathering points, road junctions, Main Supply Routes, assembly areas, etc - to keep the bad guy nervous that the world around him might start exploding at any minute.
*Not really relevant to today's operating environment, right? But, it *is*
The UAVs (oops, can't call 'em UAVs anymore - they're now Unmanned Aerial Systems... some Colonel got his Legion of Merit for that change...), er, um UAS's we fly over Afghanistan and Pakistan looking for targets of opportunity are a form of H&I fires, if you really want to parse it finely. We just have better sensors and fire control now.
I call the post that because it's random things posted by me and people I've given posting privileges to. It's also an open trackback, so if someone has a post they're proud of, but it really isn't either Castle kind of stuff, or topical to a particular post, I've basically given blanket permission to use that post for that purpose. Another term of art that might be appropriate is "Free Fire Zone"
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