I was under the impression that the security around nuclear weapons was second to none. In fact, there was a time when I would travel through a part of Camp Pendleton where you were stopped and tagged, then timed on the trip. If you took too long to make the trip, you were in trouble, and if you went too fast, you were in trouble.CNN wrote: - Defense Secretary Robert Gates has formally ordered the Air Force, Navy and Defense Logistics Agency to conduct an inventory of all U.S. nuclear weapons and nuclear weapon-related materials to make sure all items are accounted for, according to a Pentagon memo released Thursday.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates orders an inventory of all U.S. nuclear weapons and related materials.
The order comes in the wake of the discovery last week that four nuclear warhead fuses were accidentally shipped to Taiwan in 2006.
The inventory review, which will involve thousands of items, is due to Gates in 60 days. Pentagon officials said the request was ordered, in part, because this latest incident comes after the August 2007 accidental flight of six nuclear-tipped cruise missiles on a B-52 b0mber across the country.
Four officers --- including three colonels -- were relieved of duty last year after a B-52 b0mber mistakenly carried six nuclear warheads from North Dakota to Louisiana, the Air Force said.
A six-week investigation uncovered a "lackadaisical" attention to detail in day-to-day operations at the bases involved in the incident, an Air Force report said.
I found out later from a guy who went through the sniper school at Camp P, and was occasionally assigned to a post overlooking that area, that he had orders to shoot to kill anyone in certain areas there. Apparently they stor(ed?) nuclear weapons there. If one of those bad boys gets lost, I’d hate to be the last officer to have seen it.
