The finding by researchers for RAND Corp. adds to indications
that trouble inside the nuclear missile force runs deeper and
wider than officials have acknowledged.
The study, provided to
the AP in draft form, also cites heightened levels of misconduct
like spousal abuse and says court-martial rates in the nuclear
missile force in 2011 and 2012 were more than twice as high as
in the overall Air Force.
These indicators add a new dimension to an emerging picture
of malaise and worse inside the intercontinental ballistic
missile force, an arm of the Air Force with a proud heritage but
an uncertain future.
Late last year the Air Force directed RAND, a federally
funded research house, to conduct a three-month study of
attitudes among the men and women inside the ICBM force. It
found a toxic mix of frustration and aggravation, heightened by
a sense of being unappreciated, overworked, micromanaged and at
constant risk of failure.
Remote and rarely seen, the ICBM force gets little public
attention. The AP, however, this year has documented a string of
missteps that call into question the management of a force that
demands strict obedience to procedures.
Gen. Mark Welsh, the Air Force chief of staff, said in an
interview Wednesday that he sees no evidence of fundamental
problems in the ICBM force.
"There are issues like there are in every other mission area
we have in the United States military, and we deal with the
issues as they come up, and we deal with them pretty
aggressively. But as far as getting the job done, they're
getting the job done — they do a great job of that every single
day," Welsh said.
The AP was advised in May of the confidential RAND study,
shortly after it was completed, by a person who said it should
be made public to improve understanding of discontent within the
ICBM force. After repeated inquiries, and shortly after the AP
filed a Freedom of Information Act request for a PowerPoint
outline, the Air Force provided it last Friday and arranged for
RAND officials and two senior Air Force generals to explain it.
Based on confidential small-group discussions last winter
with about 100 launch control officers, security forces, missile
maintenance workers and others who work in the missile fields —
plus responses to confidential questionnaires — RAND found low
job satisfaction and workers distressed by staff shortages,
equipment flaws and what they felt were stifling management
tactics.
It also found what it termed "burnout." In this context,
"burnout" means feeling exhausted, cynical and ineffective on
the job, according to Chaitra Hardison, RAND's senior behavioral
scientist and lead author of the study. She used a system of
measure that asks people to rate on a scale of 1 to 7 — from
"never" to "always" — how often in their work they experience
certain feelings, including tiredness, hopelessness and a sense
of being trapped. An average score of 4 or above is judged to
put the person in the "burnout" range.
One service member said: "We don't care if things go
properly. We just don't want to get in trouble." That person and
all others who participated in the study were granted
confidentiality by RAND in order to speak freely.
The 13 launch officers who volunteered for the study scored
an average of 4.4 on the burnout scale, tied for highest in the
group. A group of 20 junior enlisted airmen assigned to missile
security forces also scored 4.4.
This has always been considered hard duty, in part due to the
enormous responsibility of safely operating nuclear missiles,
the most destructive weapons ever invented.
In its Cold War heyday, an ICBM force twice as big as today's
was designed to deter the nuclear Armageddon that at times
seemed all too possible amid a standoff with the Soviet Union
and a relentless race to build more bombs.
Today the nuclear threat is no longer prominent among
America's security challenges. The arsenal has shrunk — in size
and stature. The Air Force struggles to demonstrate the
relevance of its aging ICBMs in a world worried more about
terrorism and cyberwar and accustomed to 21st century weapons
such as drones.
This new reality is not lost on the young men and women who
in most cases were "volunteered" for ICBM jobs.
Andrew Neal, 28, who completed a four-year tour in September
with F.E. Warren's 90th Missile Wing in Wyoming, where he served
as a Minuteman 3 launch officer, said he saw marked swings in
morale.
"Morale was low at times — very low," Neal said in an
interview, though he added that his comrades worked hard.
Neal says his generation has a different view of nuclear
weapons.
"We all acknowledge their importance, but at the same time we
really don't think the mission is that critical," Neal said,
adding that his peers see the threat of full-scale nuclear war
as "simply nonexistent." So "we practice for all-out nuclear
war, but we know that isn't going to happen."
Every hour of every day, 90 launch officers are on duty in
underground command posts that control Minuteman 3 missiles.
Inside each buried capsule are two officers responsible for 10
missiles, each in a separate silo, armed with one or more
nuclear warheads and ready for launch within minutes.
They await a presidential launch order that has never arrived
in the more than 50-year history of American ICBMs. The duty can
be tiresome, with long hours, limited opportunities for career
advancement and the constraints of life in remote areas of the
north-central U.S., like Minot Air Force Base, N.D.
In his doctoral dissertation, published in 2010 after he
finished a four-year tour with the 91st Missile Wing at Minot,
Christopher J. Ewing said 71 of the 99 launch officers he
surveyed there had not chosen that assignment.
