Witness: Officer admitted taking missile device

AP, via the Evening Sun ^ | September 30, 2008 | JAMES MacPHERSON

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

MINOT, N.D.—An Air Force supervisor says a Minot Air Force Base officer admitted taking a missile launch control device as a souvenir because he thought it would be "a cool thing to have."

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

Idiot.

[Americanwolfsbrother]

Way to ruin your career for a “souvenir”.AWB

[ViLaLuz]

Wow... I’m speechless.

[Old Student]

“Idiot.”

That may possibly be the understatement of the year, in a very competitive year.

WRM, MSgt, USAF(Ret.)

[Hoffer Rand]

What's the line?  "He chose poorly..."   Yeah, that's the one.

[04-Bravo]

Sometimes I wish we still had SAC, and Curtis LeMay was still its commander.

[PeterFinn]

How, pray tell, could one small and obsolete device detonate a nuclear weapon? If such a thing is truly a threat then the USAF seriously needs to review their security protocols.

[Hegemony Cricket]

"How, pray tell, could one small and obsolete device detonate a nuclear weapon?"

Fortunately for all of us this device would only detonate small and obsolete nuclear weapons...

[lilycicero]

How, pray tell, could one small and obsolete device detonate a nuclear weapon

That's what I was thinking along with..."I gots to get me one of them"....

[pallis]

Next time get one on Ebay.

[TaMoDee]

The USAF just disciplined 6 General Officers during the past couple of days over the mess transporting 5 nuke missles over CONUS with out the pilots knowing about it.

More heads to roll in the future. Great advancement opportunities for 0-6’s!!

[OldMissileer]

How, pray tell, could one small and obsolete device detonate a nuclear weapon?

These "devices" were small seals, about the size of a band aid, that are placed on the edges of the launch and enable panels as well as over the launch key slots.

They used to be called Positive Enable Seals, PES Seals, and cannot be tampered with without being broken.

They cannot launch anything, they are there to detect tampering and allow one of the crew members to hit the bunk during the alert.

Before these seals were put to use both crew members in the capsule had to remain awake at all times so there were three-man crews to allow one to go topside to sleep during their 72 hour alert.

After the seals were put into use alerts were pared to 24 hours and the crews consisted of only two men, thus saving manpower and allowing the crews to spend only a day away from home.

[thinking]

well!!! that is his side of the story...I suspect a close review of his fiances, may shed some light on his motives...

[OldMissileer]

The USAF just disciplined 6 General Officers during the past couple of days over the mess transporting 5 nuke missiles over CONUS with out the pilots knowing about it.

These people were from Logistics and were disciplined for allowing certain ICBM nose cone components to be shipped to Taiwan.

It had nothing to do with the B-52 from Minot carrying six ACMs across country.

[Old Student]

“Sometimes I wish we still had SAC, and Curtis LeMay was still its commander.”

I wasn't old enough to meet him, but worked for a lot of people who had after I enlisted in the early 70’s. He was certainly one of a kind, and highly respected even by most of those who disliked him. We could use more officers of that caliber, and quite a few less of the sort this thread is about. In all branches of the service, not just the Air Force.

[norton]

"Sometimes I wish we still had SAC, and Curtis LeMay was still its commander."

I learned long ago that the best cure is a shot of scotch and climbing into bed with al the covers you can pile on top.

You'll sweat out that fever in less than a day.

[TankerKC]

This was related to the Taiwan incident, but not all were loggies.

15 officers disciplined over nuclear botches

[TSgt]

The first Air Force Core Value is Integrity for a reason. I wouldn’t be caught dead taking a government pen off the base. Responsibilities like this officer had require the highest level of integrity. If you want to lie, cheat or steal join the Army or Marines.

[jagusafr]

“How, pray tell, could one small and obsolete device detonate a nuclear weapon? If such a thing is truly a threat then the USAF seriously needs to review their security protocols.”

Obsolete, in this case, means it no longer has current codes once it’s removed from the place it fits (is that “talking around classified” enough for ya?). I provided some first response to this particular incident. It was, indeed, stupid.

Colonel, USAFR

[RichInOC]

Cool, yes.

Going-to-Leavenworth cool?

Mmno.