Generals grilled on Minot nuclear mishap

[unhappycamper]

Lt. Gen. Daniel Darnell, deputy chief of staff for air, space and information operations, plans and requirements, testifies on Capitol Hill on Feb. 12 before the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Air Force nuclear weapons security.


Generals grilled on Minot nuclear mishap
By Michael Hoffman - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Feb 12, 2008 20:37:29 EST

Members of the Senate Armed Services Committee grilled Air Force leaders over how six nuclear warheads could mistakenly get loaded onto a B-52 Stratofortress bomber flown across the country.

At a Tuesday hearing, Committee Chair Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., called last August’s nuclear accident a “wake up call” saying that “no breach of nuclear procedures of this magnitude has ever occurred.”

Three Air Force generals and retired Gen. Larry Welch, Air Force chief of staff from 1986 to 1990, took questions from the senators who expressed concern over how far the service’s nuclear program may have eroded.

“The sloppiness and lack of discipline and lack of respect for the process didn’t just happen overnight and fixing the problems are going to take awhile,” said Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla.

Lt. Gen. Daniel Darnell, deputy chief of staff for air, space and information operations assured the committee the warheads never migrated off the wings of the B-52 and was always under Air Force control. However, Darnell did confirm that appropriate security was not present to protect the nukes while all six sat on the runway for close to 36 hours first at Minot Air Force Base, N.D., and then at Barksdale Air Force Base, La., before a 2nd Bomb Wing airman discovered the mistake at Barksdale.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/02/airforce_nuke_hearing_080212w/