On Friday, we identified the Commander of the 5th Operations Group at Minot as one of the Air Force officers who lost his job in connection with the "missing nukes" incident. Right job, wrong base. As we subsequently learned at a Pentagon press conference, the ops group commander who fired was part of the 2nd Bomb Wing, based at Barksdale. That's because the crew that ferried the nuclear-tipped cruise missiles from Minot to Barksdale was assigned to that wing, and fell under the control of the 2nd Operations Group.
The ops group commander at Minot, Colonel Parker Northrup III, remains on the job, and he'll be part of the leadership team tasked with fixing problems within the 5th Bomb Wing. He wish Colonel Parker continued success in his endeavors, and regret any confusion caused by our original report.
In the aftermath of the nuclear incident, Colonel Northrup's responsibilities at Minot may expand, at least temporarily. With the the former Vice-Commander (Colonel Greg Bell) now running the wing, Northrup will probably serve as both ops group commander and acting vice-commander until a replacement can be named.
No comments:
Post a Comment