Air force stand down?

[intheozone]

Is the air force really standing down today? Anyone know for a fact?

[TwilightGardener]

1. The entire Air Force is NOT standing down--just Air Combat Command.

That is the fighter/bomber command. They are supposed to be doing a command-wide review of training, regs and procedures.

[Dr.Phool]

4. Just the fighter-bomber command?

All that leaves are their boats.

[TwilightGardener]

5. It's a big Air Force. I'm pretty sure they'll have us covered.

[ChazII]

7. Thank you, for clearing this up.

[havocmom]

2. No con-trails over my little house on the prairie so far

Live in an area between two of the major northern-tier defense bases and generally see jets doing a grid.

Was half afraid to get up this morning. Still haven't turned on any TV news. Would LOVE to be wrong about the day going badly.

[Avalux]

3. Here's the original article on AF Times website - has since been removed.

The link no longer works....

ACC orders commandwide standdown Friday

By Bruce Rolfsen - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Sep 10, 2007 17:38:42 EDT

On Sept. 14, flight lines will be very quiet at Air Combat Command bases.

The entire command — about 100,000 active-duty airmen — is standing down training flights and many other operations as part of a command-wide safety day.

Command boss Gen. Ronald Keys ordered the Sept. 14 safety standdown in the wake of the Aug. 30 nuclear incident at Minot Air Force Base, N.D., in which six cruise missiles armed with nuclear warheads were loaded onto a B-52H and then flown to Barksdale Air Force Base, La., without anyone on the ground or bomber realizing the nuclear weapons were on the plane. It was not until the B-52H was parked at Barksdale that ground crews discovered the cruise missiles were carrying real warheads.

Command spokesman Maj. Tom Crosson said wing commanders would determine how their units review operations and safety procedures and checklists.

Just how serious Keys takes the lapse of regulations at Minot is reflected in the fact that the safety stand-down is the first command wide 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 department wide safety review day.
http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2007/09/airforce_airc ... /

[murray hill farm]

6. Doesn't it seem odd

that we are so concerned about national security these days, yet this "stand down" is openly announced weeks in advance to the world?