F.E. Warren Air Force Base. Photo via Wikimedia Commons
Doing drugs at work can make you love your job, make you better at your job, or at least get you through the day. But if you work for the US Air Force—let's say, defending the security of a massive stockpile of nuclear missiles—doing drugs is only fun until one of your fellow airmen narcs on you. Fourteen airmen at a nuclear missile base in Wyoming are learning that the hard way, as they're now under investigation for allegedly using illegal drugs like cocaine, according to an Associated Press report.
The investigation centers on the 90th Missile Wing at F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, one of four strategic missile bases in the United States. The airmen who may-or-may-not have been coked up on the job were part of the security force responsible for patrolling the base, missile fields, and convoys that carry nukes. They weren't controlling the actual missiles, but they were entrusted with the "enormous responsibility" of securing the place, as AP put it.
This is just the latest scandal hanging over America's nuke troops, who in the past have come under fire for turning a blind eye to cheating on proficiency exams and allegedly using drugs like ecstasy. The Air Force Times reports that, in light of those incidents, the Air Force's Intercontinental Ballistic Missile community has been coping with "low morale, disciplinary problems, lack of resources, training lapses, and leadership failures."
So far in this latest investigation, 14 people have been suspended from their job duties, and if the accusations of drug use are true, it could lead to a force-wide crack down. General Robin Rand, the four-star commander of Air Force Global Strike Command who announced the allegations, said Friday that he will "wait for the investigation to give me more facts surrounding this circumstance before I go down the road of doing a command-wide urinalysis."
from VICE http://ift.tt/1R3JxX5
via cheap web hosting
No comments:
Post a Comment