Air Force commanders fired in nuke missile cheating scandal

[unhappycamper]

http://gazette.com/air-force-commanders-fired-in-nuke-missile-cheating-scandal/article/1517205



This undated handout photo provided by the US Air Force shows Col. Robert Stanley II. The Air Force is firing nine mid-level commanders and disciplining dozens of junior officers at a nuclear missile base in response to an exam-cheating scandal that spanned a far longer period than originally reported. No Air Force general is being punished, but Stanley, the top commander at the Montana base, which is where the exam cheating was discovered in January, has resigned

Air Force commanders fired in nuke missile cheating scandal
Associated Press • Updated: March 27, 2014 at 5:57 pm • Published: March 27, 2014

WASHINGTON — The Air Force took the extraordinary step Thursday of firing nine midlevel nuclear commanders and announcing it will discipline dozens of junior officers at a nuclear missile base, responding firmly to an exam-cheating scandal that spanned a far longer period than originally reported.

A 10th commander, the senior officer at the base, resigned and will retire from the Air Force.

Air Force officials called the discipline unprecedented in the history of America's intercontinental ballistic missile force. The Associated Press last year revealed a series of security and other problems in the ICBM force, including a failed safety and security inspection at Malmstrom Air Force Base, Mont., where the cheating occurred.

In an emotion-charged resignation letter titled "A Lesson to Remember," Col. Robert Stanley, who commanded the 341st Missile Wing at Malmstrom, lamented that the reputation of the ICBM mission was now "tarnished because of the extraordinarily selfish actions of officers entrusted with the most powerful weapon system ever devised by man."