Does The U.S. Air Force's Nuclear Forces have A Drinking And Cheating Problem?

Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James talks to members of the 341st Missile Wing during a visit to Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana January 22, 2014. John Turner/US Air Force/Reuters

US Nuclear Forces: Drinking And Cheating? What The Pentagon Wants To Fix. -- Anna Mulrine, Christian Science Monitor

Deborah Lee James, the new secretary of the Air Force, vows senior persistent oversight of the scandal-stricken nuclear forces and an attempt to boost missileers' self-esteem.

Nuclear weapons are, of course, the most dangerous in the US military’s arsenal. That’s why a series of scandals surrounding alleged mismanagement, cheating, drunken carousing in Moscow bars, and drug abuse in the Air Force’s nuclear command has Pentagon officials vowing to make big changes in the way the nuclear forces operate.

Here’s what’s been happening:

Drunken cavorting in Moscow bars, you say?

Yes. While on a trip to Moscow last year, Air Force Maj. Gen. Michael Carey – who was at the time in charge of US intercontinental ballistic missile facilities and operations – allegedly got drunk and, according to an internal Air Force report, “talked loudly about the importance of his position as commander of the only operational nuclear force in the world and that he saves the world from war every day.”

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My Comment: I suspect that this is a huge problem that involves far more people that what the Air Force is revealing.