Slashdot Mirror
Half of US Nuclear Missile Wing Implicated In Cheating
mdsolar writes "Just over half of the 183 nuclear missile launch officers at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana have been implicated in a widening exam cheating scandal, the Air Force said on Thursday, acknowledging it had 'systemic' problem within its ranks. The cheating was discovered during an investigation into illegal drug possession among airmen, when test answers were found in a text message on one missile launch officer's cell phone. The Air Force initially said 34 officers either knew about the cheating or cheated themselves. But Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James told a Pentagon news conference on Thursday that the total number of implicated officers had grown to 92, all of them at Malmstrom, one of three nuclear missile wings overseeing America's 450 inter-continental missiles, or ICBMs."
At least it wasn't launch codes on his cell phone. Let's all be glad about that.
What are the questions for this exam? Why do they need to cheat?
When there is something to be gained by high marks, relying on personal honor is folly.
Time to take humans out of the equation.
No surprise to me.
It is a terrible, mind numbingly boring job that is essentially a career killer in the Air Force. Not to mention the fact that the likelihood of them actually having to do what they train for is very low and if they do have to do what they trained for it basically means they are helping end life on this planet as we know it.
I completely understand why they would not be motivated to excel on the exams and/or might smoke a little grass.
I wonder what their Russian counterparts' moral is like.
Wax on, wax off baby!
But no one is going to pay attention to that nonsense. They are all cheating bastards who deserve to have their certification revoked.
Rather than maybe rethink your exam strategy. Also, don't blame soldiers for being loyals to their comrads. Unit solidarity is far more important than whatever exams you are running.
in our school systems.
"To those who are overly cautious, everything is impossible. "
It strikes me as odd that this many people would go bad. Maybe the tests were a joke they were so hard so everybody just winked and cheated; otherwise the place might have been empty with a bunch of people "failing" for no good reason.
A good example of this is apparently in China nearly everyone bribes to get a driver's license. The test is pretty much impossible. I read that some people try to take it as a challenge. For example some of the questions on the test have exactly opposite correct answers to what is essentially the same question.
The problem is that once you make it impossible to pass, forcing them to cheat, then people might not study the material at all; the result being that the people end up knowing even less than if they were just offered an easier test.
How does America convince others to give up their nuclear weapons yet keep their own?
that the world knows the sad state of American military readiness, the barbarians can invade.
SAC was famous for tight discipline and esprit de corps. When TAC ate SAC, many SAC folks we'd inherited predicted slack standards and the end of the highly disciplined SAC culture. Years of fuckups proved their point.
Some jobs require performance of a very high standard. Go old-school and crush the cheaters in an exemplary manner. Do what Curtis LeMay would do to shitbags and replace the lot.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
So the NSA, for all of it's intrusion into privacy to protect us all, could not find 93 co-conspirators who had access to nuclear weapons, how on earth can we expect them to find a small terrorist cell? What the hell are we trading our liberties, privacy, and freedom for if they can't even uncover something as large as this?
Yet another "Patriot Act". Perhaps they should run for congress or sell insurance or join the ATF or Border Patrol after they retire. Clearly they are qualified for corporate life, as well. This is the example our leadership has demonstrated, and rewarded, with perverse incentives in the 'stacked' meritocracy of politics in government. This is an indictment of our shabby ethics all over the place. Its not just these guys, its the entire culture -
With all of the organized cheating that happens in american schools too (and to move up the ranks in out businesses), I'm not surprised. Cheating is as american as apple pie.
Twinstiq, game news
Nothing to worry about. It's just a 50th Anniversary tribute to Dr. Strangelove.
http://www.newyorker.com/onlin...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt00...
~~~~~~~
"You are not remembered for doing what is expected of you." - Atul Chitnis
1) Issue a LOCK DOWN order on all facilities and personnel regardless of rank.
2) Issue a TOP SECRET REFF broadcast to all units in CONTERMINOUS US, EUROPE AND ASIA force structures, and communication to the President, "Mr. President. The Chain of Command Has Been Compromised. I am on ny AUTHORITY issuing order to KILL on sight any senior commissioned officer at once. WE WILL PRUGE all higher commanders and staffs at once. WE HAVE SECURED LAUNCH CODES to an UNDISCLOSED LOCATION. However, UPON PROVOCATION we WILL LAUNCH to counter Washington (I.E. YOU) AND ANNIHILATE Compromised President. Actions In Progress. GOD SPEED.
Here we go. }:-)
OK, if the children can't take care of their toys it's time to put them away. I say (not that I have any say in the matter) we have a chat with the Russians and agree to get rid of an additional 450 deployed launchers each, and reducing the warhead count. Call it New START II. We can then turn the 450 boosters over to Orbital Sciences to use for space launch missions.
I thought you were going to go with:
If the misconduct (cheating on periodic qualification exams and smoking pot) did not in any way affect the ability of the military to maintain or operate the missiles, why are the exams given and why is smoking pot an offense?
So you like the girls with anal leakage then?
That's a lot of pissed off wives. ;-)
I can do this:
Marijuana - check
Cocaine - check
LSD - check
Peyote - check
Mushrooms - check
Strawberry Daqarita - check
Ayn Rand Looney time - check
Do I pass?
Everything in the Universe sucks: It's the law!
How can part of a missile cheat at anything? And what does "half a wing" mean? Aren't the fins on the missiles one-piece?
...the future crusty old bastards are already drinking the Kool-Aid.
FTFA:
But she also said all 92 implicated officers had been decertified and pulled from their missile duties.
Why the hell aren't they all being dishonourably discharged and even court-martialed?
Given that they have a systematic problem wrt a non-professional culture, it seems to me they should make an example of these cheaters.
Their job may be boring but the consequences of mistakes could not be higher. They absolutely must do it exactly right, all of the time. If willfully subverting the checks that are supposed to ensure competence only gets them re-assigned, then there is little hope they will maintain the appropriate professionalism in their day-to-day tasks.
They, like, can't be trusted. That was an answer in my test I had to cheat on.
will keep control at the top where it belongs
The military recruits worthless trash drug users because no one else will volunteer. If you kick the trash out of the military, you're just begging to be drafted.
I now understand why you are girlintraining.
Ah the internet.
So connected.
So rich.
So depth fulled and as close as a iPad.
Seems we found docs with the name of the "new to be" NSA Director in the "cheating" tables of major docs.
Whimper whimper.
New NSA Director is Still Born and not even twitching a toe.
Poor poor pitiful him. So much he wanted to see. But so blind as can be. Poor poor pitiful him.
Ha ah
'Career Killer' in the sense that they aren't retiring as an O-5, they're retiring as an O-4 if they're lucky, probably 'let go' after 10 years as an O-3.
To be a USAF officer you have to have your Bachelour's. That translates to most officers being at least 22. 42 is their earliest retirement age, 'Late 30's' would be for an enlisted member. An officer retiring that way would have to be an 'OE', or an enlisted member who went officer. They tend not to get stuck in capsules.
I don't read AC A human right
is it Tuesday again? On the ball as always there /.
Here is one of the messages containing a test answer:
"When they ask ' How about Global Thermonuclear War?', answer NO!"
You would think that would be obvious, but.
Monstar L
Per-unit nuclear weapon yield is *lower* now than before. Delivery accuracy has gone way up, which means there's no need at all for the massive numbers of weapons the US and USSR held in the bad old days. That, plus the ongoing maintenance and security expenses of nukes, were mainly responsible for reduction in weapons numbers.
And FFS, "are now orders of magnitude more powerful"? Ignoramus.
Half past a monkeys ass....
Why bother what the questions are if half of the people taking them are cheating? Why did they get the job in the first place? What tests did they have to pass to get the job? How is it possible that half of the people that are supposed to be 100% honest and dependable get implicated in cheating? We can't afford to have this happen with the people that are supposed to handle such a responsible job. Until this is absolutely clear, new test methods have been devised and retesting has been done, world peace is in trouble.
I was promised a flying car. Where is my flying car?
Time to hand it all over to Colossus.
Tens of thousands of dollars paid in taxes through the never-ending war that started before I was born and continues to this day, and the people that were supposed to be protecting us have been cribbing the answers to the tests that theoretically ensured they knew how to do their jobs? Really puts all those stories, both confirmed and unconfirmed, about "accidental" nuclear cargo and near misses with Armageddon into perspective. It isn't just that this shows these people have the morals of a styreofoam cup, it underscores their utter incompetence starting at the top of the chain of command on down. The whole lot of them should be fired, starting with the Joint Chiefs, and we should end this ridiculously wasteful perrmanent state of war. Let the executives running Lockheed, General Dynamics and Northrop find something else to build -- like commuter buses! Oh sorry, someone already tried that and bankrupted their company -- seems those guys never did learn how to make a profit when they can't get a cost plus contract...
The best of the BEST of THE BEST, SIR!
bickerdyke
The opening sequence has a missile operator discussing the quality of the sensemilia his girlfriend was growing with the other. And the bonus easter egg for those of you that do is the sign in the corridor :-)
In the polls there used to be Cowboy neal options. I think they have gone missing.
And a hefty jail charge. This suckers are in charge of nukes for crying out loud. There is ZERO margin for such acts.
You NEED smart ppl. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/26/stanislav-petrov_n_3997962.html
It's not like they're going to be doing anything important, right?
Sometimes the proven quality and reliability of a recruit is more important than any particular skills they might already have.
Yes, American corporations are very willing to hire people proven capable of learning so they can invest corporate dollars into training them with the specific skills needed for the company's jobs.
How many discussions of the calls for more H1B visas have you slept through?
Please remind me: why does the government think that whistleblowers are the greatest threat to national security?
I think across the board the moral fabric of America is dying. Even our military has become far less respected over the last decade. This is not just confined to our military though and its spreading throughout the private sector too. People find it easier to find ways to cheat then to actually do the work anymore.
are getting screwed at every turn (treatment for injuries and psychiatric problems, etc.) and the BS soldiers are subject to when they are on active duty (drugs tests, radiation tests, inadequate pay to support their families, etc.), I'm amazed that anyone voluntarily goes into the military.
Is killing people and getting shot at or blown up really so much fun that it makes up for all that?
If you ain't cheatin', you ain't tryin'. If you get caught, you ain't tryin' hard enough.
But scare stories making those damn commies incompetent boobs will sell to some people no matter how tenuous the evidence.
How dare snowden release this information! This is a breach of trust and puts the national security at risk!
These people are not reporters or whistleblowers, but traitors, and should be tried in a military court!
erm... oh.. right.
Isn't it obvious? When the human's have proven to be unable to manage the missiles. The job will be handed over to computers. Thereby removing the last barrier to complete control by the AI computer overlords.
I said it to sound crazy, but when I think about it. It may not be far from the truth....
Someone get Stephen Falken on the line.
The could be civil protest aka Occupy Wall Street...!
This is the by product of the Zero Defect mentality in the military. The same issue arose when the Army had small Tactical Nukes a while ago. They had the same mindset and it caused lots of issues like lying to their commanders about violations or illegal activities. Those who work closely with nuclear material in the military know that they have to have HIGH standards. They can't mess up, If they do then they are deemed a risk to everyone. Now, if they do stuff behind everybody's back. No one would know what is going on. No human is perfect and we cant always get a 100% on every test. We are bound to mess up and make mistakes. Things need to change to avoid stuff like this from happening sometime in the future again.
What if they had the knowledge to build a tunnel, for their "children"?
Even knowing they are going to die? That their children will rule? That their way of life, and society will now "rule"?
How about for stealth. To keep internal pumps moving the water in radiators, instead of exhausting to the sea, or river, creating hot spots that are capable of being picked up by satellite. But then, i thought kh satellites were able to see thru water, so you could tell if a sub was there by something suspended from the bottom of the ocean, and the bright reflectivity of the metal coat,
LOL !