Todd Jacobson
NS&D Monitor
1/24/2014
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has ordered a pair of reviews of the Air Force nuclear mission following the latest misstep involving the beleaguered service. Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby said nuclear commanders were being summoned to the Pentagon for a high-level meeting to analyze the “underlying leadership and management principles governing the strategic deterrence enterprise and the health of the culture” of the nuclear force, and an action plan is due within 60 days.
Separately, an independent group of experts is being tasked with conducting its own separate review of strategic deterrence enterprise as it relates to personnel, Kirby said. That review is expected to start in several weeks, Kirby said, and be completed in 90 days. “To the degree there are systemic problems in the training and professional standards of the nuclear career field, the secretary wants them solved,” Kirby said. “And to the degree leaders have failed in their duties, he wants them held to account.”
Air Force Secretary ‘Picked Up on Morale Issues’
Hagel’s decision comes amid reports that cheating among the Air Force’s nuclear ranks has been rampant for years and revelations from new Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James that she has “picked up on morale issues” during a tour this week of Air Force ICBM bases. James and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh visited with airmen and officers this week at the Air Force’s three ICBM bases: Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana, Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota and F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming. She told reporters at Malmstrom that she had “full confidence in the nuclear mission,” according to the Associated Press, and was attempting to get a handle on the extent of the cheating. “I certainly wish that this would not have happened, but it did happen and it’s a problem,” James said.
James and Welsh revealed last week that 34 airmen tasked with watching over the nation’s ICBM fleet had been accused of cheating on a proficiency exam and had been stripped over their security clearances and decertified to work with nuclear weapons pending an investigation. The cheating occurred in August and September, but it was uncovered only through a separate investigation into illegal drug use among airmen, including a pair of officers at Minot Air Force Base and one at F.E. Warren Air Force Base. The cheating was discovered through text messages, and was isolated to Malmstrom Air Force Base, James and Welsh said last week. Seventeen of the officers actively cheated on the test, which assesses the knowledge to perform standard operational duties, and 17 others knew about it but did not report it, they said. The Air Force has not elaborated on how the cheating took place.
The incident represents the latest black eye for the Air Force’s nuclear mission. Several ICBM units failed examinations last year, and in December it was revealed that Maj. Gen. Michael Carey, the commander of the ICBM force, had been removed from his position after a drunken escapade in Russia. Like James, Kirby said Hagel believes the nuclear mission has not been compromised, but he acknowledged there were problems. “We’re confident in the security of the nuclear arsenal of this country,” Kirby said. “That said, clearly we’ve got some issues here.”
Has Cheating Been Rampant?
Since the cheating scandal was revealed last week, several former missileers have suggested that cheating has been rampant for decades. Bruce Blair, a former Air Force officer and the co-founder of the nuclear abolition group Global Zero, said cheating was commonplace during his time as a missileer in the late 1970s. “The sticks are so severe, the punishment for imperfection so great, that it encourages crew members to work together to ensure no one fails,” he told the New York Times.
Brian Weeden, who was stationed at Malmstrom from 2001 to 2004, told the Los Angeles Times that officials overseeing tests would often provide subtle guidance to help airmen with difficult questions. “I know a couple of commanders—and I did this a couple of times—who said before their deputy’s test was turned in, ‘Let me see it,’ and told them go back and look at a question” Weeden said. He said outright cheating was “much more rare.”
However, 20th Air Force Commander Maj. Gen. Jack Weinstein, who oversees the Air Force’s entire ICBM fleet, told the Los Angeles Times that he never noticed cheating during his time as a missileer. “I’m not saying that people did not complete a test and then tell others, be careful of this question or that question,” Weinstein said. “But to the extent of full answer sheets being passed around, I’ve never seen that before.”
