What's up with the Air Force?

A couple of recent news items brings to the surface some issues with the Air Force.

The Air Force stripped an unprecedented 17 officers of their authority to control — and, if necessary, launch — nuclear missiles after a string of unpublicized failings, including a remarkably dim review of their unit's launch skills. The group's deputy commander said it is suffering "rot" within its ranks.

"We are, in fact, in a crisis right now," the commander, Lt. Col. Jay Folds, wrote in an internal email obtained by The Associated Press and confirmed by the Air Force.

The tip-off to trouble was a March inspection of the 91st Missile Wing at Minot Air Force Base, N.D., which earned the equivalent of a "D'' grade when tested on its mastery of Minuteman III missile launch operations. In other areas, the officers tested much better, but the group's overall fitness was deemed so tenuous that senior officers at Minot decided, after probing further, that an immediate crackdown was called for.

The Air Force publicly called the inspection a "success."

But in April it quietly removed 17 officers at Minot from the highly sensitive duty of standing 24-hour watch over the Air Force's most powerful nuclear missiles, the intercontinental ballistic missiles that can strike targets across the globe. Inside each underground launch control capsule, two officers stand "alert" at all times, ready to launch an ICBM upon presidential order.

Not the first time the Air Force has crapped the bed when it comes to Nuclear issues. Remember that in 2008, then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates sacked the top civilian and military leaders of the Air Force after a series of blunders, including a bomber's mistaken flight across the country armed with nuclear-tipped missiles. Since then the Air Force has taken numerous steps designed to improve its nuclear performance.

And then we have Lt Col leading the US Air Force anti-sexual discrimination and harassament program who was arrested a few days ago form sexuakl asault or otherwise groping a woman's front and back 3nd in a parking lot. From the looks of Lt Col's booking photo the women didn;t like it one bit and whooped up on him some.

Lt. Col Jeffrey Krusinski was arrested after a woman said he had grabbed her breasts and buttocks in a parking lot in Arlington, VA, in the early morning hours of May 5. She said she was able to fight him off.

Krusinski has been removed from his position as the head of the prevention program, according to a report from Stars and Stripes. He is to be arraigned on Thursday. A judge in Arlington will determine if Krusinski will be tried in a civilian court or by the military. The Air Force has requested that it be allowed to handle the trial.