Warbird Information Exchange

I thought the fuss was about them being flown over the U.S. As for the checklists that were ignored, well there is no excuse for that.

_________________
Chris Henry
EAA Aviation Museum Director

No comment on the specific from me -

Just a real-life example to remember next time someone tries to tell you a procedure's 'foolproof' or 'failsafe'.

Remember, we are always building a better idiot.

_________________
James K

"Switch on the underwater landing lights"
Emilio Largo, Thunderball.

www.VintageAeroWriter.com

Yes, but realistically, can the Base Commander, really be in know?

Doesn't matter. I handled those weapons in the Nav, And we had postive control every second of it. If one was present, a dude with a gun was standing next to it. That lasted for years, yes years, no sh1t. All for a 10k bomb/rocket. Some idiot like me standing/sitting next to it with a gun.

The CO is responsible, period. The problems indicated by what happened means a sh1tty half a$$ed command. Thats their job. Probably their only job. The command was probably half a$$ed from the top down.

Screw the lot of them, The only thing I could say is "Watch your corn hole dude, cause your going to Leavenworth".

_________________
DEEP THOUGHTS BY KIDS:
"If we could just get everyone to close their eyes and visualize world peace for an hour, imagine how serene and quiet it would be until the looting started. Age 15 "


Deep Thoughts,
Jack Handy

Mustang: The fuss is that 6 live, but unarmed nukes were outside the accountability system and not under positice control for at least 48 hours. It's also that numerous people in the chain of custody failed to notice or even care, that these 6 ALCM's had warheads of any type, even more so nuke ones, installed. As civilians, we will probably never know how many procedures and checks were bypassed or not even done.

It's unfortunate that those personnel that do things by the book and play by the rules, are going to end up suffering due to these goofballs (and I'm being kind calling them that).

[/quote]Yes, but realistically, can the Base Commander, really be in know?[/quote]

YES.

The Wing Commander is top dawg and he has a group of Quality Control people who's sole mission is to conduct no-notice inspections and exercises to ensure people in PRP (nuclear) jobs are competent and performing their jobs IAW regulations.

I was a USAF nuke weapons convoy commander during the cold war.

My annual evaluation by QC lasted three days, covered over 1500 pages of rules/regs/etc., included 6 hrs of verbal questioning, and numerous terrorist exercises that I had to defeat using the forces at my command.

I cannot fathom how something like this could happen. In SAC, even the most minor transgressions incurred draconian punishment, so everyone made darn sure the job was done correctly. There were only two possible outcomes to any task, success or failure, and terrible things happened to those who failed, be they Airman Basic or full Colonel.

It was no-fooling, major-leagues, shoot-to-kill for many situations, including when one of your own troops attempts to perform an unauthorized act. My troops put quite a few pilots on the ground spread eagle, with loaded M-16s pointed at them. Hell, I even had my Sqdn Commander jacked up for failing to properly authenticate at an Entry Control Point (poor career move, but I had no choice).