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. They also suggested that it reflected an unhealthy pressure from commanders to achieve perfect test scores. When the cheating was first revealed, Air Force leaders condemned it as violating the most basic Air Force values. The cheating 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. Wilson is responsible not only for the ICBM force but also the B-52 and B-2 bombers that are capable of launching nuclear attacks. Stephen Wilson, commander of Air Force Globe Strike Command, said 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. 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. James had promised to hold officers at Malmstrom accountable once the cheating investigation was completed and the scope of the scandal was clear. "We will be changing rather dramatically how we conduct testing and training going forward," while ensuring that performance standards are kept high, James said.
#Nathaniel iven missile commander series
In a bid to correct root causes of the missile corps' failings - including low morale and weak management - the Air Force also announced Thursday a series of new or expanded programs to improve leadership development, to modernize the three ICBM bases and to reinforce "core values" including integrity.Īir Force Secretary Deborah Lee James, the service's top civilian official, told a Pentagon news conference that a thorough review of how testing and training are conducted in the ICBM force has produced numerous avenues for improvements. The force of 450 Minuteman 3 missiles is primed to unleash nuclear devastation on a moment's notice, capable of obliterating people and places halfway around the globe.
Together, the moves reflect turmoil in a force that remains central to American defense strategy but in some ways has been neglected. The 90th Missile Wing offered no further explanation for Holloway's removal and said it "has nothing to do" with the firings announced by the Air Force in Washington. Donald Holloway, the operations group commander, was sacked "because of a loss of confidence in his ability to lead." announced that it had fired the officer overseeing its missile squadrons. Separately, another of the Air Force's nuclear missile units - the 90th Missile Wing at F.E. Instead he is retiring, convinced, as he wrote in his farewell letter Thursday, that "we let the American people down on my watch." Stanley, seen as a rising star in the Air Force, had been nominated for promotion to brigadier general just days before the cheating scandal came to light in January. Robert Stanley, who commanded the 341st Missile Wing at Malmstrom, lamented that the reputation of the ICBM mission was now "tarnished because of the extraordinarily selfish actions of officers entrusted with the most powerful weapon system ever devised by man." In an emotion-charged resignation letter titled "A Lesson to Remember," Col. The Associated Press last year revealed a series of security and other problems in the ICBM force, including a failed safety and security inspection at Malmstrom Air Force Base, Mont., where the cheating occurred.
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Air Force took the extraordinary step Thursday of firing nine midlevel nuclear commanders and announcing it will discipline dozens of junior officers at a nuclear missile base, responding firmly to an exam-cheating scandal that spanned a far longer period than originally reported.Ī 10th commander, the senior officer at the base, resigned and will retire from the Air Force.Īir Force officials called the discipline unprecedented in the history of America's intercontinental ballistic missile force.
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