Kudos again are due to Gen. Norton Schwartz, the Air Force Chief of Staff for some adroit handling of a tenuous situation.

Not only has Schwartz--along with new AF Secretary Donley--called out a number of flag officers for their recent failures in properly handling our nuclear enterprise, but he named names.

From working to reinstill pride in the service to actually holding people accountable Schwartz deserves credit for his clear understanding of his mandate for change. Regarding the nuclear enterprise, Schwartz' actions were impressive on a number of levels:

Blame went where it belonged--to the top of the pyramid. Too often stories like this end up with blame laying with 18-year-old Airmen. That is ridiculous--THESE ARE NUCLEAR FREAKING WEAPONS! Blame belongs at the top. This is a zero-fail careerfield.

AF.mil covered the story as a top story, ensuring that the service would not try to hide the warts (well, most of the warts) behind this less than flattering story.

The Air Force Times had names and pictures. Nothing's better than seeing the mug shots of this lineup--it sends a clear message that accountability runs from top to bottom, and reinforces accountability throughout the chain of command.

For the record, here are the names and punishments of those officers (Gosh, I hope these megalomaniacs Google themselves and have to read this page. That would make my weekend):

The Air Force generals receiving administrative actions include:
* Lt. Gen. Kevin J. Sullivan, deputy chief of staff for logistics, installations and mission support, Air Force Headquarters;
* Lt. Gen. Michael A. Hamel, commander of the Space and Missile Systems Center;
* Maj. Gen. Roger W. Burg, commander, 20th Air Force, F.E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyo;
* Maj. Gen. Kathleen D. Close, commander, Ogden Logistics Center, Utah;
* Brig. Gen. Francis M. Bruno, director of logistics, Air Force Material Command, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio; and
* Brig. Gen. Arthur B. Cameron III, director of Resource Integration, Air Force Headquarters.

LTG Sullivan = PWND
On a related note, I really hope that FE Warren checks this page--Wyoming remains the lone state to not have visited www.morganobrien.com since we began tracking these things.

Again, this is a great direction, and this adept handling of a terrible situation is straight out of 12 O'Clock High.

Unfortunately, it looks like this vigilance must spread towards the area of protecting our women in uniform.

Two stories this week showed that there's a clear divide between where we're going and where we need to be:

Woman gets nearly $1 million in suit against Tyndall

A former civilian employee at Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla., won nearly $1 million in federal court, as a jury was convinced that her on-base superiors passed her over for promotions in retaliation for testifying about gender discrimination.

Here's hoping that this case sets a clear precedent. Whistle blowers and squeaky wheels are too often tamped down for fear of retribution. It's great to see the Air Force get its comeuppance here.

Lt. describes alleged assault in nuke bunker

Now I think that the ballistic nuclear missile mission is incredibly important to our national defense and international relations efforts. At the same time, the job freaking sucks.

It is bad enough when you have to worry about sexual predators not only in the O'Club, but while you're behind an 8-ton blast door, the Air Force really does have some issues that need serious attention.

A lieutenant stationed at Malmstrom Air Force Base, Mont., testified Wednesday that a higher-ranking officer sexually assaulted her as the two operated a nuclear launch facility bunkered 30 feet deep in Teton County.

The hearing, held at Malmstrom, was to determine whether there is enough evidence against [redacted] to justify a general court-martial. Pitman is charged with aggravated sexual contact and conduct unbecoming of an officer.

In the wake of the Duke lacrosse case, I'll be careful about naming names in this instance. I do believe in innocent until proven guilty. However, if true, it sounds like this (alleged) creep was really a creep:

During the 72-hour period the two were stationed at the launch facility, the woman had another 12-hour shift alone in the bunker with [the alleged assailant]. She testified that during that time, [the alleged assailant] asked her to “pinky-swear” she wouldn’t tell anybody what happened.

Finally, on a lighter note, the Air Force now has an official blog. Yet, the service is so terrified of the truth and individual thinking (lagging behind the Army it so cheerily derides) that it BLOCKS ITS OWN BLOG FROM .MIL SERVERS!!!

No Trust!

Talk about wanting your cake and eat it too! The service wants to be hip and promote it's venture into Web 2.0, yet it doesn't trust our Airmen enough to take off the training wheels.

That's all for this week.

As always,
With my Greatest Respect,

Morgan

Labels: Air Force