Matt Gurney: America’s bored nuclear triggermen [View all]

http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2013/05/18/matt-gurney-americas-bored-nuclear-triggermen/



Matt Gurney: America’s bored nuclear triggermen
Matt Gurney
13/05/18 | Last Updated: 13/05/17 5:17 PM ET

It’s difficult to imagine a more alarming thought than bored, unruly nuclear-missile-launch crews. But a recent report by the Associated Press shows that this is indeed a problem.

As the AP reported earlier this month, 17 officers at an Air Force base in North Dakota were yanked from their jobs as control officers in Minuteman nuclear missile launch centres. Each centre contains two officers, sitting in a small capsule buried deep under the ground, whose job it would be — if so ordered by the president or his successor — to simultaneously turn their launch keys. That would send intercontinental ballistic missiles roaring off to deliver nuclear warheads to distant targets. This is, to say the least, a weighty responsibility.

The problems were first noted in March, when the base underwent a performance review. The control officers’ launch proficiency was assessed as “marginal” — barely a passing grade. There were also a series of disciplinary problems, as well as issues with morale and behaviour, that led a senior officer at the base to declare that there was “rot” within the launch officers.

The Air Force, desperate to put a better face on the sad affair, assured Congress that in most areas of assessment, the base performed well.