There have been various stories in the news lately about problems with morale and behavior of the men in our nuclear deterrence force. Some units that man the missiles in the Midwest have failed in drills. Some have been slacking during duty. Several high ranking officers have been relieved of their duties. One of the stories has to do with Major General Michael Carey who was head of the Air Force's arsenal of nuclear ballistic missile. He was relieved of his post last October for "personal misbehavior." The Air Force stated that he was fired because of "a loss of trust and confidence in his leadership and judgment." The Inspector General of the Air Force has just issued a report on the firing that provides some details of Carey's misbehavior.
The United States and Russia have a Bilateral Presidential Commission, Military Cooperation Working Group that has functioned for years a forum for the discussion of nuclear disarmament among other issues. A meeting for the Working Group was held in Moscow in the July of 2013. General Casey attended the meeting. It was his behavior at the conference that resulted in his being fired.
Apparently Carey began drinking on the plane to Moscow and continued to drink through the whole conference. He was late to morning meetings and drank into the night in the company of ladies of questionable reputation. He insulted the hosts, the translator, tour guides and, in general, acted like the prototypical "Ugly American." He bragged about his power and authority and said that he "saved the world every day." He talked about being in command of the only working nuclear missile force in the world. (This probably came as news to the other nuclear nations with missile arsenals.)
My favorite part of the report had to do with Carey's last night in Moscow. He drank into the wee hours in the Marriot Hotel lobby with a "mysterious Cigar Lady." He later remarked that he thought it weird that the cigar lady was asking questions about physics and optics. Are you kidding me? He did not consider that she was Russian intelligence pumping him for information about our nuclear missiles? This sounds like bad satire but is unfortunately real. He should have been fired for naiveté if nothing else.
I have to say that I do have sympathy for the people in our nuclear defense force. They are charged with responsibility for the most horrendous weapons ever created by the human race. But the years go by and nothing happens. Many of them are stuck out in the Midwest in the missile silos, hardly an exciting posting. These people are in a very difficult situation where they are supposed to be hyper-alert in a very boring environment. It is impossible for human beings to maintain a state of high alertness for any length of time. That having been said, we still have over a thousand warheads pointed at Russian targets that can be launched in minutes. They have missiles pointed at us. It makes me nervous to understand that these people not able to provide the competence demanded of such a dangerous situation.
Major General Michael Casey:
