B-52 carried nuclear missiles over US by mistake

[That Guy]

Originally Posted by BleedBurgundy

Everyone has mental lapses. It's just that when you're job is to deal with NUCLEAR (or NUKULER) missiles on a daily basis, even the smallest lapse is a big deal. The only thing I don't like about the system is that it's generalized as "The US Gov't dicked this up." It should be General Smith, Colonel Johnson and Sgt Jackson dicked this up and they have all been reduced in rank... I don't understand why private citizens are responsible for their own actions but service members get to hide behind the red, white and blue shield. A little personal accountability would go a long way to fixing some of our problems.

apparently you've never been in the air force... there is nothing but accountability. it's preached along with attention to detail every single day. i'm pretty sure the people who goofed up and the people that let them goof up, and the people who saw the mistake and didn't report it will all get to fill out paperwork and have personal "meetings" with their commanders.

[BleedBurgundy]

Originally Posted by That Guy

apparently you've never been in the air force... there is nothing but accountability. it's preached along with attention to detail every single day. i'm pretty sure the people who goofed up and the people that let them goof up, and the people who saw the mistake and didn't report it will all get to fill out paperwork and have personal "meetings" with their commanders.

No, I've never been in the air force, but I was in the Navy for 6 years, 3 of which I served at a joint command in Iceland with the Air Force. I know how it is. My post was regarding the fact that you will hear that "someone" in the A.F. or US Gov f'd up. You will not hear specifically "Jim Bob" screwed up. The accountability I am referring to is public scrutiny of the individual, not the internal repercussions (which are admittedly severe).

If you look at the post previous to mine, you'll see what I'm talking about. While there are a large number of things wrong with our country, the federal government is no more screwed up then the constituents they serve, IMO. When you say the AF or the Fed Gov are a bunch of idiots you lose sight of the fact that it is the few individuals involved in this lapse that are to blame, not the system nor the infrastructure. All of the necessary rules and safeguards were in place, the individuals simply didn't follow the guidelines. To me, it brings unneccessary discredit on the organization which encompasses a large amount of people (perhaps yourself?) that are doing their duty much more than competently. Maybe this is all semantics anyway, but I feel there is an important distinction to be made.

[724Skinsfan]

Originally Posted by That Guy

apparently you've never been in the air force... there is nothing but accountability. it's preached along with attention to detail every single day. i'm pretty sure the people who goofed up and the people that let them goof up, and the people who saw the mistake and didn't report it will all get to fill out paperwork and have personal "meetings" with their commanders.

I would guess the base commander and everyone in the CoC down will all be reprimanded and the entire base will be running extra excercises for the next month or so. The base commander might even be sent packing to a new crap assignment.

[That Guy]

i think the personal protection from public scrutiny is an important thing, honestly. it avoids the media circus and saves a LOT of man hours and possible op-sec violations from having those involved say too much.

but, i mean, if you lose a screw while working on an airplane, no one is allowed to leave until it's found, and there's plenty of yelling for that too, so i kinda trust the military to punish those in the wrong without much outside involvement.