Air Force explains nuclear weapons incident

Minot Daily News ^ | 20 October 2007 | Eloise Ogden

[Racehorse]

Airmen not following the proper procedures that they were trained in, along with a lack of leadership and supervision, caused the incident in late August where nuclear weapons were loaded on a B-52 bomber at Minot Air Force Base and were flown to Barksdale AFB in Louisiana, said Maj. Gen. Richard Newton, assistant deputy chief of staff for operations, plans and requirements.

“Their lack of attention in detail is where the failure occurred,” Newton said at a news conference at the Pentagon Friday.

. . .

He said the incident began with the failure of airmen to conduct a required examination before the weapons were loaded on the B-52.

. . .

He said Air Combat Command officials made the decision to relieve from duty three colonels – Minot AFB’s Bomb Wing commander and Maintenance Group commander, and the Operation Group commander at Barksdale. Barksdale’s Operation Group commander was Col. Todd Westhauser.

Newton declined to go into details about others involved in the incident and any actions against them, but he said it was fewer than 100 people.

. . .

“This was an unacceptable error,” Newton said. He said the B-52 involved was from Barksdale. He said a lack of attention to detail and personnel not following checklist procedures caused the incident.

[Wilum]

No, but I almost got my a$$ shot off one by Security Police because my crew chief called to secure the flight line before I got back from a QRC stand down at the end of the runway!

[Squantos]

I was 464X0....... Do you believe this could have happened as stated ?

I don’t for a minute.....too many units involved to screw the pooch accidently IMHO as described.

[zot]

B-52’s fully loaded with bombs were headed to the Soviet Union to drop them until they were told, “Never mind, come on back”

You have this backward. They had to return to their bases unless they got the go code. The radio call "Sky King, Ski King, this is Sky Bird Control with a Noah's Ark message..." had to be authenticated and decoded separately by three officers aboard the aircraft, and they all had to confirm that it was an authentic go code. That was part of the "Fail Safe" policy.

[NYFreeper]

Excuse me, TAC controlled and manned Victor alert pads all over the world

Ummm...wouldn't that be USAFE or PACAF, not TAC?

[Wilum]

Squantos

Thanks for your service.

I just can’t accept the possibility of getting through all the hubbub a nuke weapon load causes. You know what I’m trying to say?

[OldMissileer]

“My memory isn’t what it used to be, must have been the smell of MEK in the morning.”

When I was in the Safety Office I received a report about a missile mnx troop at Minot who was using MEK to melt the ice in the holes used for the guard rails at an LF.

It seems he splashed some of it on his parka and when he lit the another match he went up in flames. He didn’t get burned badly but the incident made site penetration at the northern tier bases take longer.

[Wilum]

Tactical Air Command when the 307th was in the states but doing TDY to Europe; USAFE when permanently attached to the 401st in Spain but still was identified as a tactical fighter squadron.

[Squantos]

Bad part is we can’t tell enough of what does occur without releasing EEFI data........

The General Court Martial will also be as secret and dis informational !

Back at ya troop on that thanks for you service !

You ever pass thru the Panhandle of Texas steak dinner at the Big Texan is on me !

Stay safe !

[NYFreeper]

OK, but I believe Victor Alert, for the most part, fell under the theater MAJCOM.

[NYFreeper]

I am not really all that surprised that this happened. Although, as some have claimed on this thread, that we should have never eliminated SAC, I think a major contributing factor is the fact that the troops don’t deal with these weapons often enough. It’s not like it used to be back in the days when we had 1/3 of our bombers loaded with nukes on ground alert. Then, ground and air crews dealt with nukes on a daily basis. Today, they are stored away in WSA’s for most of the time. I think the proper handling procedures for the weapons have eroded over time.

[HawaiianGecko]

  Yes, I was a 463... Nuclear Weapons Specialist, previously called a 331x0 and currently called a 2W2.  Trained at Lowry, spent my entire stretch  stationed at Malmstom AFB at Great Falls, MT with the exception of 4 TDYs to Vandenberg for Glory Trip OT FOT shots and one to Minot for Minuteman III training.

Actually our lift trucks were simple fork lifts and very sophisticated cranes.  It was infrequent that a 463 had to travel to a launch facility.  The guys you see in that photo would have been MMT or EMT, not NWS and the photo is at least 30 years newer than if I shot it as I see a Giant brand ladder in the foreground and the guys are wearing camouflage. 

MMT would deliver the entire reentry system to us via an RV transporter which was essentially an expensive moving van with a shop and interior crane. They would pull into our car wash in the AS&I building.  The van was robo-washed and then the interior doors would be opened and they would drive over a false floor.  We'd open the floor up under the truck.  They would lower the weapon into the pit and then drive right on out.

We would then hook it to one of the traveler cranes, move it into one of maintenance bays and mount it atop the maintenance stand. We only had a couple of 462s as our flight line didn't support any aircraft with weapons.  Their only job was to supervise three teams of 463s racing three fork lifts up to and across the flight line to off-load our weapons when they came in on C-141s.  I have to admit, the 462s had it easy in our shop.  No more than nine warheads (W-62) per week were coming in, and they came in 3 at a time on planes.  So they would spend a total of about 3 hours per week actually doing something.  The rest of the time they were playing pinochle. I never really understood why we had 462s at all, as the loadmaster of the cargo plane was in charge.  Seemed the 462's only job was to tell us not to run into those expensive aircraft. Anyway we didn't have any lifts like the jammer.  I looked one up and can see where the name came from.  I have to admit we had a 462 named Ballard that was the best scrounge in the Air Force.  The guy could get anything we needed whenever we needed it.

We did have a couple of 461 crews and a couple of 464s as Vietnam was starting to wind down. A great deal of ammo was being shipped to us because we had a huge WSA.  EOD kept us entertained destroying a good deal of this ordinance.

[HawaiianGecko]

  I don’t for a minute.....too many units involved to screw the pooch accidently IMHO as described.

I agree.  The most people I've ever seen screw the pooch at the same time was 40, and they were called the Kansas City Chiefs.

[Squantos]

LOL.....or the Cowboys !

[txhurl]

I laid down for a nap earlier pondering this, and what popped into my mind as I drifted off was somebody hacked an inventory site and placed an order for the transfer.

[HawaiianGecko]

  ...who was using MEK to melt the ice in the holes used for the guard rails at an LF.
LOL, sounds like a typical MMT team.  I'd have used a benzene torch instead of an extremely flammable solvent that would have sent it's heat directly into the air instead of down the tubes.  Most of us stationed in northern tier bases learned how to deal with snow and ice quite quickly.

We captured a half dozen snow white rabbits one day in the middle of winter with a foot of snow on the ground.  Lightly painted three of them florescent orange and the others florescent red and then let them go in the WSA.  The next day a whole MMT team came into our break room all excited about the exotic colored bunnies they saw running around the guard shack. These guys thought Montana was the strangest place on Earth. I was sitting with my CMSgt who was clueless to what we had done, yet being an intelligent man not inclined to gullibility he simply looked at me, grinned and under his breath asked me if I had been performing LLCs on the local indigenous 'wabbits', and then proceeded to call me Elmer Fudd for the next two years.

[Squantos]

It don’t work like that..........and sad part is that how it does work can’t be discussed nor will it be released after this investigation. In this case a pisser but none the less beneficial to the security of (whats left if this was a goof) special weapons............!!

I’m just gonna go to sleep........:o)

Stay safe !!

[txhurl]

You too... this whole episode has me confused and alarmed.

Especially in light of shield's contention that we turned back a raid on Iran on 9/6.

[1COUNTER-MORTER-68]

Interesting point Tx...mmmmmmmmm...

[txhurl]

It’s shield’s point, I’m an innocent bystander.

[txhurl]

Report: Israeli mole provided photos of Syrian nuclear facility

ABC, citing a senior U.S. official, said the person had provided several pictures of the complex from the ground, and Israel showed the images to the CIA. The U.S. spy agency helped pinpoint "drop points" to assist in potential targeting, ABC said.

Israel urged the United States to destroy the complex, but Washington hesitated because no fissionable material was found that would prove the site was nuclear, ABC said.

from Haaretz