KXMC : Air Force Relieves MAFB Wing and Maintenance Commander From Nuclear Mixup

Air Force Relieves MAFB Wing and Maintenance Commander From Nuclear Mixup

KXMC TV Minot | OCtober 19, 2007

Minot Air Force Base will have a new commander soon, as a result of the August incident involving the accidental transport of nuclear weapons on board a B-52 bomber from the Minot base to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana.

That's the word from the Pentagon today.

Major General Richard Newton, the Assistant Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations Plans and Requirements and former Minot 5th Bomb Wing Commander said today at a press conference that 5th Bomb Wing Commander Colonel Bruce Emig has been relieved of Command.

(Maj. Gen. Richard Newton, Assist. Dep. Chief of Staff) "Minot's Wing Commander and Maintenance Group Commander and Barksdale Operations Group Commander received administrative action and were relieved of command. The Commander of Air Combat also took four other specific actions to date at the group and squadron level."

Along with Commanders being relieved Newton said that airman, a number he said as less than a hundred, ranging from Lieutenant Colonels on down, have been reprimanded.

Newton did not go into specific details on the punishment for their roles in the nuclear mistake.

(Maj. Gen. Richard Newton, Assist. Dep. Chief of Staff) "The reason they didn't fallow these procedures that we've discovered again is due to their lack of attention to detail. It was due to the fact that for a variety of reasons they were passive in in terms of how they should have been following these checklists procedures. The fact that they did not apply the rigor the same standards we ask all our airmen to follow through with certain tech order procedures and checklists. It also goes back to not following a formal scheduling process particularly in the weapons storage area."

The improper nuclear transfer happened in late August when six nuclear warheads were unknowingly loaded under the wing of a B-52 bound from Minot to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana.

The plane sat unguarded in Minot and at Barksdale for a total of about 36 hours.

Retired Air Force officers have termed the mistake as the worst ever for the Air Force involving nuclear weapons.