Standdown Stupidity

Of all the moronic reactions. Think about it. Bin Laden is releasing calls to convert or die, terror states are all nuked up, jihad cells are getting busted worldwide ...... is this time for a stand down,? Oh and make sure to alert the jihad.

ACC orders commandwide standdown Friday By Bruce Rolfsen , Air Force Times hat tip Michael

On Sept. 14, flight lines will be very quiet at Air Combat Command bases.

The entire command — about 100,000 active-duty airmen — is standing down training flights and many other operations as part of a command-wide safety day.

Command boss Gen. Ronald Keys ordered the Sept. 14 safety standdown in the wake of the Aug. 30 nuclear incident at Minot Air Force Base, N.D., in which six cruise missiles armed with nuclear warheads were loaded onto a B-52H and then flown to Barksdale Air Force Base, La., without anyone on the ground or bomber realizing the nuclear weapons were on the plane. It was not until the B-52H was parked at Barksdale that ground crews discovered the cruise missiles were carrying real warheads.

Command spokesman Maj. Tom Crosson said wing commanders would determine how their units review operations and safety procedures and checklists.

Just how serious Keys takes the lapse of regulations at Minot is reflected in the fact that the safety stand-down is the first commandwide safety day in recent memory. In the past, the command has singled out specific types of aircraft for safety days and in 1997 the Department of Defense held a departmentwide safety review day.

Why compound one mistake with a bigger one?

Comments

[Thomas Carney]

Air Combat Command (ACC) was formed by combining Strategic Air Command (SAC) with Tactical Air Command (TAC) while General Merrill A. "Tony" McPeak was Chief of Staff of the Air Force. I thought it stunning to combine those two commands because the cultures that had grown in SAC and TAC were totally alien to each other and to combine them was no easy feat. (McPeak liked to oversimplify things... he was the big guy behind the Air Force's much hated "Delta Air Lines" uniform, among other things).

SAC was always the "by the book" group. They maintained the missile silos, the strategic bombers, the security systems around sensitive areas and such. TAC, being tactical, was more of a "wing it" outfit, having more a quick reaction need rather than a long-range need.

In the late 1950s or early 1960s then-CinC of SAC, General Curtiss LeMay, along with his staff, were standing at the edge of a crater where a B-52 went down... hard. He was chomping on his cigar and said, "This sh_t must never happen again. This was the beginning of Master Standards, Evaluation and Training (MSETs). When LeMay became Air Force Chief of Staff, he imposed MSETs on the whole Air Force. The way it was set up when I was in ('78-'83), it was a great yardstick to see who was fully up to speed or not.

What really blew me away was during McPeak's tenure as Chief of Staff of the Air Force, he decided to do away with MSETs. What a f_ckin' stupid decision that was.

In SAC, if something like this happened, everyone in the responsible unit, from the guys in the field up to the Wing Commander would have been summarily FIRED.

When SAC had that missile explode in the silo at McConnell AFB in 1986 because a trainee was not being DIRECTLY supervised while the trainee was working on the missile, heads rolled.

The fact that five nukes were loaded on a plane without the aircrew nor the loading group at Minot AFB not knowing they inadvertantly loaded nukes.... un-bloody-believable.

The fact that the media got ahold of this is actually a good thing... the AF needs to held accountable, not follow its typical Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to cover it up.

[Thomas Carney]

Pamela,

This stand down has to be done. There will be NO ONE that works on flightlines, weapons storage areas or hangars sitting with their thumbs in their butts.

MANDATORY reviews and training classes will be held. There will be LOTS of overtime being put in on ACC bases because of this, also, strategic resources will be on stand-by so that, if needed, the whole ACC base in question will be on Full Alert ... if needed, launches can take place in minutes or less, believe me. I've seen it done.

[Pamela Geller]

Thomas, was a complete stand down really necessary? Look, this is my opinion and you are clearly more knowledgeable so I defer - but it seems wildly stupid.
Thanks for all that info
:)

[McBob]

Pamela,

Tom Carney is correct--they need to do this to make sure everybody is thinking about what they're doing. ACC units deployed in the Middle East and on alert for Homeland Defense missions are not affected--they will be on duty as usual.

Keep up the great work! God bless you!

Wade

[Thomas Carney]

Pamela,

A stand down is NOT a complete cessation of operations. All STANDBY and ALERT capacities are still online. All non-standby and all non-alert (at that time) will have their asses in classrooms, in the Chief of Maintenance's office getting grilled, lots of overtime will be put in.

In the Air Force, stand-downs are HELL. Everyone is put through a QC training check, simulations run, and when the ALERT and STANDBY people finish their 8, 10, or 12 hour shifts, they have to do the same (on their off-shift time). There will be no "swingin' willies" during a standdown.

If the poop hits the fan, all necessary aircraft will be in the air. On top of that, a lot of people will be grilled by old salt NCOs to see if they have their shit together.

Now, if this is procedural issue, whereas in the WRITTEN PROCEDURE that is to be adhered to is at fault, somebody higher up will find his or her @$$ in a sling. The ACC IG and probably the AF IG will be involved.

This is not a critical mission knock-off as it sounds. All non-critical missions are offline until re-training is done.