Monday, February 17, 2014

Is Cheating In The U.S. Air Force's Exam To Be A Nuclear Launch Officer The Norm?

A pair of Air Force missile launch control officers, having passed their monthly proficiency tests, pull alert at a Minuteman III missile site. Air Force / SrA Javier Cruz Jr.

Are You Smarter Than a Nuclear Launch Officer? -- Mark Thompson, Time

Here’s the type of questions Air Force missileers are cheating on…and why

Remember when you took your driver’s test and had to answer all those questions about who had the right-of-way at an intersection? If you’ve been paying attention in recent weeks, you know that the Air Force is investigating nearly half of the 200-airman force that commands the 150 nuclear-tipped Minuteman III missiles at Montana’s Malmstrom Air Force Base for allegedly cheating, or tolerating those who did, on their monthly proficiency tests.

These tests, no surprise, are tougher than driver’s ed.

A launch officer and instructor who left the Air Force in 2011 has provided questions representative of those he says he asked his airmen about the missiles they were monitoring. To help you understand their language, you need to know that each launch-control crew is in a numbered Launch Control Center. So Foxtrot LCC is F-01. And all of the missiles the Foxtrot crew controls are numbered, 2 through 11 (F-02, F-03, etc).

Enough test prep.

Number 2 pencil at the ready? Start!

Read more ....

My Comment:  It looks like they need to re-evaluate what it takes to be a nuclear launch officer .... starting with better pay and better promotion prospects .... and maybe a better exam.

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