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   From: drzack@abc.com   
      
   WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The head of the nuclear missile wing at a   
   base in Montana resigned on Thursday and nine officers were   
   removed from their jobs over a test-cheating scandal that   
   involved 91 missile launch officers, the Air Force said.   
      
   Lieutenant General Stephen Wilson, head of the Air Force's   
   Global Strike Command, said Colonel Robert Stanley, commander of   
   the 341st Missile Wing at Malmstrom Air Force Base, had resigned   
   on Thursday and would retire from the service.   
      
   The nine other officers, mainly colonels and lieutenant   
   colonels, were removed from their positions of command at the   
   Montana base that is home to a third of the nation's nearly 450   
   intercontinental ballistic missiles. They will be reassigned to   
   staff jobs and face discipline ranging from reprimands to courts   
   martial for failures of leadership.   
      
   Wilson said the root of the problem was the emphasis on   
   perfection in the nuclear mission at the Montana base and   
   throughout the missile force, which led to cheating on exams in   
   an effort to achieve the sort of perfect scores perceived to   
   required for advancement and promotion.   
      
   The exams were classroom tests to check staff knowledge of how   
   to carry out the nuclear mission and security procedures.   
      
   "Leadership's focus on perfection led commanders to micro-manage   
   their people. They sought to ensure that the zero defect   
   standard was met by personally monitoring and directing daily   
   operations, imposing unrelenting testing and inspections with   
   the goal of eliminating all human error," Wilson told a Pentagon   
   news conference.   
      
   He and Air Force Secretary Deborah James said the evaluation and   
   assessment of missile launch officers would be radically   
   overhauled in an effort to change the culture and behavior that   
   has developed in the missile wing.   
      
   LOW MORALE   
      
   Nuclear critics say the problem is deeply rooted and has been   
   going on for years, becoming increasingly acute since the end of   
   the Cold War as the nuclear mission has increasingly come to be   
   seen as a dead-end career that's relevance is in decline.   
      
   "Many of these issues come back to the fundamental fact that a   
   lot of these people who sit in the holes out there are in a way   
   demoralized. They are sitting ready for a scenario that is   
   unlikely to ever happen," said Jon Wolfstahl, a former   
   nonproliferation official with the White House's National   
   Security Council who is now with the Monterrey Institute.   
      
   "During the Cold War, the ICBM force on high alert was very ...   
   prominent in the nuclear posture," he told reporters this week.   
   "It seems far less relevant in the day we live in ... and in the   
   foreseeable future."   
      
   The cheating scandal was discovered earlier this year as   
   officials were investigating several officers for illegal drug   
   activity. Investigators looking at the officers' cell phones   
   found test material, including answers and a photograph of a   
   classified test answer, Wilson said.   
      
   The cheating investigation eventually involved 100 officers who   
   were believed to have received test material, sent test material   
   or who were aware the cheating was going on. Allegations against   
   nine were not substantiated and they will be retrained and   
   returned to duty, Wilson said.   
      
   Of the 91 remaining cases, nine are still being probed by the   
   Air Force Office of Special Investigations, including eight   
   suspected of mishandling classified information and three for   
   alleged illegal drug activity, Wilson said. The remainder have   
   been implicated in the cheating scandal.   
      
   James said the investigation following the cheating incident   
   found "systemic issues in our missile community," including   
   "spotty morale and micro-management issues at all of the bases."   
   She said the Air Force would implement a "holistic plan" to   
   address the problems.   
      
   The Air Force will spend $19 million this fiscal year to   
   refurbish the launch control center and repair infrastructure   
   across the missile wing, James said. Another $3 million will go   
   for "quality of life requirements" at the missile bases, which   
   are in remote areas of the country where weather is often harsh.   
      
   She said substantially more funding would be devoted to   
   improving the force in 2015 and beyond, but equally important   
   would be the emphasis on the importance of the missile launch   
   job and ensuring young officers in the specialized field have a   
   realistic career path.   
      
   James said it was "terribly important that people see a path to   
   rise through the ranks, so that it will be in fact and in   
   perception viewed as a good job."   
      
   http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-rt-us-usa-nuclear-   
   cheating-20140327,0,380613.story   
      
       
      
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