I’ve known several SAC people over the years. The one common thing that ALL of them had was that they were totally ‘anal’ when it came to procedures and following the book.
So this particular set of circumstances really raises some questions in my mind.
Years ago, my AF years....I had to do a plans update for the unit, and went through the plans book (this was 1992). I came to a SAC regulation...from 1969, which was still current, valid, and intact, with only forty lines of text. Over twenty years had passed, and that forty lines of text had not changed one single bit. At the time, I was in ACC...where regulations were entirely rewritten every two to three years and no one could ever remember what the current procedure or process involved.
I agree on the extreme dedication to SAC regulations....but they were awful simple and short. In this case, I’d be wondering just how complicated they’ve turned these nuke officer regulations into, and if they were asking for trouble with highly complicated material.