USAF Missile Scandals of 2014. Joe Pappalardo, Popular Mechanics

But just months later, Carey was disgraced. In October the Air Force fired him. Officials offered no details, saying only that the dismissal involved personal conduct. "The nuclear deterrence mission is one of great focus, discipline," Air Force spokesman Brig. Gen. Les Kodlick told the press. "Personal behavior is vital to that, especially from a commander."

Then, just before Christmas—a good time to bury this kind of unfortunate news—the Air Force released a detailed but redacted report detailing why Carey was fired. The report says he engaged in "inappropriate behavior" while on official business in Russia last summer, including heavy drinking and associating with "suspect women." And the details get much more sordid.

The report chronicles the binge day by day, and can be read in its entirety here. Members of a delegation reported that Carey was drunk virtually the entire trip, insulted the Russians with his comments and tardiness, tried to convince bar staff to allow him on stage to play guitar, and went out drinking with women he met in Moscow. No one testified that Carey was ever alone with the women. But the inference that he was drunk and talking about his work was enough to cast a deeper pall over the behavior. It's no secret that in #Russia, attractive women and men have long been the route to spy on or blackmail American officials.

The women knew Gen. Carey was a big shot in the national security world because he told them so, according to members of the delegation. That sort of indiscretion sends up red flags in the Air Force's Office of Special Investigations (OSI). Carey himself submitted to the OSI the card of one woman he met who was working in his hotel's cigar shop, commenting on her suspicious nature: "A tobacco store lady talking about physics in the wee hours of the morning doesn't make a whole lot of sense."


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“…There is a disconnect between the Air Force and its missile wings, according to the airmen polled in the Rand study. "There's a perception that the Air Force [leadership] doesn't understand necessarily what's going on with respect to the ICBM community and their needs," Hardison said.

To fix this, the trend in recent years, according to a Defense Sciences Report issued in 2013, has been to "reduce the number of higher headquarters inspections, thereby leaving wing and squadron commanders more 'white space' to focus on training and performing their mission." The idea is to change the inspection culture that aggravates some ICBM airmen and move from the standard from perfection, as judged by higher-ups and outsiders, to "mission excellence" as seen by the commanders on the ground. This would help commanders to lessen the feeling among airmen that the Air Force doesn't understand their mission.

But this effort will likely not survive the coming storm of upper-level attention. In a situation like this scandal, the impulse from the Pentagon is to rush its senior leadership to the missile fields to create at least the appearance of control.

You can imagine the reaction of the airmen in the ICBM fields when the Secretary of the Air Force promises on-site visits to conduct a "nuclear surety inspection focused on operation crew procedures in the near future." James said she will visit all missile bases next week "to ensure that airmen have no question about their expectations," according to an Air Force press release….”


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