Nukewatch Quarterly Fall 2016
Five more Air Force personnel have been charged with or convicted of drug “activity” at the FE Warren Air Force Base, near Cheyenne, Wyoming, the control center for 150 Minuteman III nuclear-armed missiles, the Associated Press (AP) reported. A total of 19 have now been investigated for illegal drug use, 16 of whom are members of the 90th Missile Wing “responsible for securing Minuteman 3 missile fields in Wyoming, Colorado and Nebraska as well as the vehicle convoys that move nuclear weapons,” the AP said. Ecstasy, amphetamines and cocaine are reportedly among the drugs that had been sold and/or used.
General Robin Rand, the four-star commander of all Air Force nuclear forces, told the AP the 14 ranged in rank from airman 1st class to senior airman.
In 2014, while then-Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel was visiting the base, officials disclosed that a number of missile launch officers, known as missileers, were under investigation for illegal drug use. That probe led to the discovery that dozens of missileers had been cheating on proficiency exams at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana, which also operates 150 Minuteman III missiles.
—Robert Burns, AP, June 15; and Andrew Tilghman, Air Force Times, March 18, 2016
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