US air force fires two more nuclear commanders amid leadership crisis

[bananas]

Source: Associated Press

The US air force has fired two more nuclear commanders and disciplined a third, fresh evidence of leadership lapses in a nuclear missile corps that has suffered several recent setbacks including the removal of its top commander.

The most senior officer to be relieved of command was Colonel Carl Jones, second in command of the 90th Missile Wing at FE Warren air force base, Wyoming, in charge of 150 of the air force’s 450 Minuteman 3 nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles. He was dismissed on Monday “for a loss of trust and confidence in his leadership abilities” and reassigned as a special assistant to the wing commander.

At the 91st Missile Wing at Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota, which also is responsible for 150 Minuteman 3 missiles, Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy “Keith” Brown was relieved of command “because of a loss of confidence in Brown’s ability to lead his squadron”, the air force said.

Lieutenant Colonel John Sheets – a spokesman for Global Strike Command, which is in charge of the Air Force Minuteman 3 force as well as its nuclear bomber fleet – said an investigation “substantiated that Brown engaged in unlawful discrimination or harassment”. He added that the probe found that Brown “made statements to subordinates that created a perception within his squadron that pregnancy would negatively affect a woman’s career”.

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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/04/us-air-force-fires-two-more-nuclear-commanders-amid-leadership-crisis

[bananas]

1. Air Force Fires Two Nuclear Missile Commanders

http://abc7.com/news/air-force-fires-two-nuclear-missile-commanders/379578/

Air Force Fires Two Nuclear Missile Commanders
ABC News
LUIS MARTINEZ
Monday, November 03, 2014 08:47PM

WASHINGTON -- Two commanders with the Air Force's nuclear missile fleet have been relieved of command and a third has received administrative disciplinary action as a result of a loss of confidence in their leadership.

The moves are the latest in a string of negative events for the elite officers known as "missileers" who supervise the Air Force's fleet of 450 intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Over the past 18 months, the Air Force has retrained missileers who failed operations inspections and suspended more than 90 officers involved in a cheating scandal at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana.

<snip>

[Baitball Blogger]

2. Couldn't happen to a better branch of the Armed Forces.

Go Army!

(Sorry, had to put in a plug for dear old dad.)

[LiberalArkie]

3. When I was a young pup working as a civilian contractor to the DOD

I mainly worked at SAC bases. I always thought that airman were the most "stuck up" guys around. That is discounting SEALS though, I would always rank SEALS the worst. I ran into a few good airman, but most were just guys who thought they were someone.

NOTE: I did not deal with the normal john doe airman though, they seemed alright. Just the ones with all that crap hanging all over their uniform.

[Baitball Blogger]

7. I can handle stuck up.

It's the God complex I find dangerous.

My dad was a marine for the very short time he served at the end of WWII. He dropped out of school to enlist. He was very young, but would later use the G.I. Bill to earn a Master's in Math. As a civil engineer he spent his career working for the U.S. Army as a civilian. What I had, that few military brats had, was a father that saw the balance between Liberalism (i.e. freedom) and the military's role in protecting those freedoms. That separation is gone today.

Instead, what we have are ex-military people that can't shut-off that conquering valve in their heads, nor will they step down from that lofty position they had when they were at the top of the chain of command. They fully expect to have the same omnipotent power in their civilian lives that they had in military service. Which isn't bad in concept, if they bothered to re-educate themselves. But they don't. They take over community leadership positions and do away with democratic protocols. Concepts such as fiduciary responsibility are the first casualties.

Combine a few ex-military officers with crooked city attorneys and you end up with a Florida environment.

[nil desperandum]

17. SEALs

When I served with a civilian PMC after serving in the infantry we had a little joke....

Q: How do you stop a SEAL dead in his tracks?


A: With a mirror.....

[LiberalArkie]

21. Great

[TwilightGardener]

8. Pfft. Air Force's worst is still better than Army.

[Baitball Blogger]

9. Not if you measure bravery based on distance to the enemy.

[TwilightGardener]

10. But certainly if you measure intelligence.

What you need to get into the Army: Be a vertebrate, have thumbs/fingers.

[Baitball Blogger]

11. Boom-Boom.

And there's the air of superiority that we have come to associate with the Air Force.

Didn't take long to push that out of you, did it?

[TwilightGardener]

12. LOL, I wasn't in the Air Force, just married to it for 20 years.

My husband's last big deployment was to a joint command, where he worked with a number of Army and Navy officers. The Navy officers were generally quality guys, on a par with AF officers. The Army officers he worked with were the most incompetent, mentally/emotionally unstable, unprofessional crew he'd ever encountered in his career, and he'd been both enlisted and an officer. Sexual harassment, screaming fits, just lots of good stories.

[Baitball Blogger]

13. Face reality.

All of the branches of the Armed Forces have had their share of scandal.

i.e. Tail Hook.

My father, being a technical engineer, followed a strict regiment in his work ethic. Everyone he worked with had the same discipline.

But, if we're talking about leadership positions that tend to attract people who think they're superior than others, based on their own words, that would be the Air Force. It's not necessarily a good quality, where teamwork is a necessity.

[TwilightGardener]

14. Teamwork is absolutely a necessity, in any branch, but certainly

in one that relies on all members of aircrew and maintainers and air controllers and weather forecasters and loadmasters to do their jobs properly or giant expensive machines fall out of the sky.

[Baitball Blogger]

15. And that's the big difference. Maintainance of giant expensive machines

versus the cost of protecting the lives of soldiers who are in eminent danger during war time.

Don't get me wrong. I respect what every branch has to offer. But the air of superiority is creating problems of its own--especially in the civilian world.

[TwilightGardener]

16. Nah, most AF people are humble about their awesomeness.

(I will point out that YOU started the intra-service dissing contest... )

[Baitball Blogger]

19. They are not humble.

They skirt the rules because they feel they are serving a higher purpose. You must have missed the Bush years.

[nil desperandum]

18. That's what all the POGs say...

[Baitball Blogger]

20. I had to go to the Urban dictionary for that one.

[nil desperandum]

23. Sorry

I was just joking a bit...P(erson) O(ther than) G(runts)


Former 11Bravo (Infantryman) US Army...

My daughter was an Intel Analyst in the Air Force for 8 years...we tease each other back and forth a bit.

[gerogie2]

4. Maybe we could replace the nuclear missle launch personnel with computers?

[heaven05]

5. yep

[Lurks Often]

6. A byproduct of the Air Force's class system

you aren't a fighter pilot, you're a second class citizen, if you aren't a pilot at all, you're a third class citizen, if you aren't part of an aircrew, you're a fourth class citizen.

Combine that with a job that gets you assigned to rural duty stations and stuck in a concrete room deep underground for 24 hours hoping you never have to do the job you were trained to do. A stressful, un-rewarding job with enormous responsibilities.

[santamargarita]

22. Could this have anything to do with Bush and the crazies that tried to invade the Academy?

The crazy evangelicals...

[kiranon]

24. Absolutely. n/t

[santamargarita]

25. I thought so...those right-wing evangelicals would love to use Nukes!