Air Force orders September 14 Stand Down!

[timtom]

I find this most curious:

http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2007/09/airforce_aircombatcommand_standdown_070807/

[TechBear_Seattle]

1. That page has apparently gone AWOL.

Rather cute custom 404 message.

[demnan]

2. The page has gone awol!

hmmmmm!

[timtom]

3. Fortunately I saved it as 2 screenshots

and a pdf file.

I'm not sure how to upload 2 .gif files.

Any help?

[CoffeeCat]

4. Here is a link to the story...

http://www.dailypress.com/news/local/hampton/dp-18333sy0sep07,0,3949434.story

LANGLEY AIR FORCE BASE - Planes at Langley Air Force Base will be grounded Sept. 14 in response to an incident last week when a B-52 bomber was mistakenly armed with six nuclear warheads and flown for three hours across several states.

The stand-down was ordered by Air Combat Command and includes all jet fighters and bombers in the Air Force. The command, headquartered at Langley, oversees all of the service's fighters and bombers.

Planes in Iraq and Afghanistan and planes participating in air shows this weekend are not affected by the stand-down.



While airmen haven't been given specific instructions for the stand-down, they've been ordered to take the non-flying time to review safety procedures and protocol, an Air Combat Command spokesman said.

[CoffeeCat]

5. I have to say that this does not make sense...

So, we know that nuclear bombs were loaded onto a b-52 bomber and flown across America.

So....in response to this, Air Combat Command has grounded all jet fighters and bombers in the Air Force
so the pilots can read their safety manuals???????????????

In other words...we're clearing the skies and leaving ourselves vulnerable.

I always get a little nervous when this administration does outrageous things and expects us to
believe that bizarre, counter-intuitive actions make perfect sense.

What in the hell is going on?

edited to add: Why on Earth would we announce to the world that our air space will be temporarily vulnerable?
Aren't we worried about Osama? Didn't he just release a scary videotape? Why would the military widely
disseminate to the universe that "all 100,000 active-duty airmen" who would normally be flying "training flights and
other operations" will be "grounded".

Hello world...no one will be flying in our skies at all on Friday!

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

16. In the military, sometimes you will have a stand down after a catastrophe or near catastrophe, in

order to review safety. Like if a man fell overboard on a ship, to halt ship activities for a morning or whatever to review procedures to prevent this.

If the incident involved the possibility of multiple nuclear weapons going missing, yeah, I could see a USAF wide stand down. Basic security functions would have to continue, but I could see it.

[CoffeeCat]

21. Did you see that someone says a nuke is missing?

I don't know how credible this source is...but my husband just
sent me this article, which suggests that "six nuclear weapons disappeared from Minot...and
five nuclear weapons were discovered at Barksdale".

Link to full article: http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread302187/pg1

(exerpt) snip...

Even here the focus is on time. The number of missiles and warheads issue was overlooked.

Early news reports spoke of five nuclear warheads loaded onto the bomber. Apparently, this information was provided from Barksdale.

That number was later updated to six weapons missing from Minot, apparently based on anonymous tips provided to Military Times by people at Minot. This information has also been forgotten.

Six nuclear weapons disappeared from Minot AFB in North Dakota.

Five nuclear weapons were discovered at Barksdale AFB in Louisiana.

Which leads to my chilling conclusion:

Someone, operating under a special chain of command within the United States Air Force, just stole a nuclear weapon.

[lonestarnot]

6. airmen haven't been given specific instructions for the stand-down

This is what is fucking waste is about or is it? :shrug: What the fuck is the story with this? Unfuckingbelievable.

[Hobarticus]

19. Am I alone in thinking that this is REALLY all there is to it?

No evil conspiracies, no impending nuclear strikes....just a simple "recess" to review safety and procedures?

[jojo54]

7. Aw man, my tin foil hat is itching to jump on my head......

:hide:

[Atman]

8. If we suggest a timeline to withdraw from Iraq, we're helping the enemy

But if we advertise in advance that our Air Force is standing down on a particular day, it doesn't help the evil doers? Am I missing something? Seems like a perfect day for Mr. Evil Doer to do so some evil.

:wtf:

.

[CoffeeCat]

10. ...and why is the page AWOL now? (nt)

[CoffeeCat]

9. Link to a very astute comment about this situation...

http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/showthread.php?t=119961

---comment in full---
Are they kidding?! All the redundant safety protocols and they just happened to load live nukes by mistake? They were just accidentally drawn out of the storage bunkers and bolted to the pylons of a B52? They're trying to say that the ground crews and pilots had no idea? Bull sh*t.
Those boys know their job, they're the best in the world. They know damned well the difference between a live nuke, dummies and conventional ordinance and they would not have loaded them without orders.

The US Airforce orders Northcom to stand down on September 14th. Northcom is the command that is responsible for guarding the United States. They decide to do it now with all the increased chatter about terrorist threats and the OBL tape? And TWO WEEKS AFTER the incident?

WTF is happening here? This seems very, very, very wrong.

----

[japple]

11. See this thread from last week, same topic

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1757405

[zbdent]

12. don't forget ... Alberto Gonzales was saying he would resign 9/15 ...

[Danieljay]

13. Don't forget about TOPOFF Portland Oct. 16th and NORTHCOM martial law exercises starting Oct. 16th

This crap is creeping me out.

[onenote]

14. I love the smell of hysteria in the morning

First, I'm not sure what is so curious about aircommand ordering a stand down in response to the nukes screw up. Its not the first stand down ever ordered. There was one in 1997, for example, after several fighters crashed.

Second, "Vigilant shield" exercises have been held annually for several years.

[timtom]

15. ummm....the timing?

Not that there's anything to synchronicity, of course.

[Cheap_Trick]

17. we're a LONG way from 1997

it's the timing of the event with all that's going on. doesn't seem the least bit suspicious to you? if this was truly about the nukes incident, the stand down would have been ordered immediately. don't forget, there was a stand down AND multiple exercises on 9/11. how convenient for the terrorists.

[timtom]

20. Werre you responding to me

or the poster to whom I responded?

[Cheap_Trick]

22. sorry, was replying to onenote

[timtom]

23. That's what I thought

Thanks.

[Spazito]

18. It seems the only way to get this article is via the google cache

I think this link still works:

http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&ct=us/0-0&fp=46e3c26203d21c29&ei=jPXjRuuZDJuYafvPkIoJ&url=http%3A//www.airforcetimes.com/news/2007/09/airforce_aircombatcommand_standdown_070807/&cid=1120386395

From the article:

"Just how serious Keys takes the lapse of regulations at Minot is reflected in the fact that the safety stand-down is the first commandwide safety day in recent memory. In the past, the command has singled out specific types of aircraft for safety days and in 1997 the Department of Defense held a departmentwide safety review day."

[TwilightGardener]

24. I would have expected a stand-down for that level of screw-up--

it's been done before, it'll be done again. Don't read too much into it.

[orleans]

26. apparently it hasn't been done "in recent memory" with 100,000 airmen

on all the air combat command bases, with the suspension of "many other operations" as well as the training.

or were you referring to the screw-up that has been done before and will be done again?

[Quixote1818]

25. Isn't this letting the terrorists know we are vulnerable?

Guess they want us to be hit again.