Captain Alleges Coverup At Whiteman Air Force Base
This series of reports investigates charges of frequent mishandling of nuclear weapons at Whiteman Air Force Base. It is based on interviews conducted by The Daily Star-Journal during the past three months in collaboration with WDAF-TV, Channel 4, in Kansas City. The television station's series, "Failsafe," is being broadcast this week during its 10 p.m. newscast.
By Kenneth Amos
Star-Journal News Editor
(Second of a serles)
Name: Essex, Eugene R.
Rank: Captain
Serial Number: 554-52-XXXX
Assignment: 351st Missile Security Squadron (SAC)
Base: Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri
Age: 40 years old
Past duties: Vietnam veteran, career intelligence officer, missile-launch officer, and executive-support officer.
Present: Working for the deputy commander of the WAFB Combat Support Group.
Future: ??????????
The past two years have been "a living hell" for Capt. Essex and his family: albeit a self-made hell.
The 16-year veteran of the United States Air Force contends he has experienced a number of violations "of A-l sorts since I was 17 years old and came on active duty." Capt. Essex, who spent three years early in his career at Strategic Air Command headquarters in Omaha, Neb. as an intelligence officer specializing in Soviet electronic warfare and Soviet radar, has been stationed at Whiteman Air Force Base for the past four years. He and his wife, Laurel, and four children live at 314 Grover St.
The captain claims the violations he has witnessed range from persons simply ripping off a pen that belongs to the government, to stealing "tens of thousands of dollars of material airplanes, or whatever."
Although the latter contention seems far from trivial, there are problems much more serious in nature which, he maintains, occur with regularity at WAFB. This has prompted Capt. Essex to speak out. Those problems deal with nuclear safety and the possible compromise of national security. His allegations, brought to light in re cent months, triggered an investigation by Missouri Fourth District Congressman Ike Skelton, who yesterday received a report from the Air Force Inspector General Howard Leaf acknowledging problems related to weapons handling exist at WAFB.
Violations Reported
Adhering to Air Force regulations, Capt. Essex reported what he believed to be serious nuclear-safety violations to his commanding officers. Instead of receiving a commendation, or even something as simple as a pat on the back, Capt. Essex contends he was locked up in a "hard-core" mental institution threatened with injections of drugs, and has been the subject of continual harassment at the hands of his superiors at Whiteman.
The Air Force was asked for its response as to whether or not Capt. Essex is or has been a trusted officer, and to assess his character and career. The response it gave was a general description of duties and positions he has held throughout his career. Going by the book has changed the course of the unassuming life Capt. Essex once led. Instead of looking forward to retirement in a little more than three years, possibly as a major, and then working as the civilian counterpart of an intelligence officer thereafter, Essex now faces the unknown.
By his quest for the truth, he candidly admits his career has been jeopardized and he has been left to wonder about his future every day. "They've essentially ruined me as a professional in anything."
He contends the Air Force is now trying to force him out the door, and estimates it has cost them more than $100,000 to perpetrate a coverup regarding the seriousness of his charges.
His plight began approximately two years ago as a member of a two-man team that goes underground into a missile-launch facility. In the facility are the controls responsible for launching nuclear weapons.
Each of five capsules in a strategic missile squadron is in charge of 10 missiles that are connected with 40 others, for a total of 50 missiles. The five capsules are "tied together" to control the 50 missiles. There are three strategic missile squadrons — the 508th, 509th and 510th—controlling a total of 150 missiles.
In this complex network, two officers are "in the hole" at all times, for a total of 30 officers online.
Problems Begin
On occasion, Capt. Essex, the commander, was crewed with a then-27-year-old lieutenant—who he claims was a self admitted heavy drinker and drug user with a history of passing out while on duty.
Capt. Essex said the lieutenant, to him, admitted hallucinating, seeing such things as a woman who appears up out of a bush, and being worried about hearing voices. Capt. Essex dutifully reported to his super visor the lieutenant was "incompetent and unable to do his job." His reports contained allegations that while crewed together underground the lieutenant went berserk, not once, but several times.
One winter day Capt. Essex and the lieutenant were snowed in "November capsule," located approximately 45 minutes from WAFB, beyond regular-duty hours. They faced the possibility of being underground for two days instead of the normal 24 hours. Capt. Essex said he observed the lieutenant in an agitated state, worsening with each passing hour beyond the normal changeover time. At the 30-hour mark a ringing telephone, according to Capt. Essex, set the lieutenant off.
"I answered the phone. This individual ... screamed, yelled an obscenity and leaped toward me with the phone in his hand," so as to do bodily harm.
When the incident was reported, Capt. Essex said his supervisor said, "Yeah, Gene, we know this guy. We know he gets upset. We know he gets a little bit crazy. But all you have to do is tell him to shut up and sit down and you can control him."
According to Air Force regulations, if a person demonstrates emotional in stability (about anything from marriage problems to financial troubles) ... he must be removed from control of nuclear weapons until the particular problem is resolved.
Removal from duty is done in accordance with the Personnel Reliability Program (PRP). The program establishes the requirements and responsibilities for screening, selecting and continuously evaluating all personnel who control, handle, have access to, control the launch of, or control entry to Minuteman weapons on weapons systems. It also provides for the selection and retention of personnel who are emotionally stable and have demonstrated good judgement and pro fessional competence. It provides guidance for the removal of all individuals of questionable reliability.
The process of removing persons from this type of duty is known as "pulling their PRP." Assignment of a person to and removal from a personnel reliability position, according to the Air Force, is purely an administrative action and not a form of reward or punishment. Removal of a person from such a position requires reassignment to other duties, either temporarily or permanently.
Capt. Essex requested to never again be crewed with the individual and said he was told he would not be.
What happened?
A few months later "they crewed me with him permanently," Capt. Essex said laughing in disbelief.
But it was not a laughing matter to Capt. Essex at the time, as he again asked his immediate supervisor and his commander not to be crewed with the lieutenant. He said, "If you think he's competent, then I'm telling you that together as a crew we're not competent. And you're putting two people down there in the hole, an incompetent crew controlling nuclear weapons." The captain was told if he could not control the individual, he was not a fit commander.
"I couldn't believe it." Capt. Essex said. The veteran officer pondered the situation and concluded he may have possibly been wrong about the lieutenant. The two-man team had eight more alerts together, each further confirming Capt. Essex's earlier evaluation of the man. "What I felt was that the person needed professional counseling, which I couldn't give him."
It Happened Again
The next major incident involving the pair occurred during Global Shield exercises in 1979.
Global Shield is an annual large-scale, no-notice, 20-day training exercise designed to test the command's capability to carry out Emergency War Orders which support the U.S. policy if deterrence fails, and to realistically measure SAC's response to a set of pre-planned events leading up to a simulated attack on the U.S.
Again, the lieutenant exhibited behavior considered by his commander undesirable for a missile-launch officer.
According to Capt. Essex, the crew's operations officer threatened them with a bad rating for changing over (turning control of the missile-launch facility over to another crew) too early during a learning exercise, even though records indicate they were not instructed when to do so.
At this indictment, the lieutenant "became very agitated" and argued with the major about the point for about one-half hour on the telephone, according to Capt. Essex, during a self explanatory sequence known as "communications minimize." The captain claims for the next 12 hours the lieutenant was walking around, "smashing his fists together. He was angry. He would leap up and start cussing." The crew that eventually succeeded Capt. Essex and the lieutenant later testified he was still in this state "when we were changed over."
"This is especially unacceptable because we were controlilng live Minutemen weapons," Capt. Essex said.
Once again, the captain reported the unusual behavior to his major, who proceeded, in front of a witness to threaten Capt. Essex with the establishment of an Unfavorable Information File (UIF), which according to Capt. Essex means death to the career of that officer.
The rub, Capt. Essex said, was that the man he had been reporting turned out to be the son of a retired colonel, who was the friend of a general, who just happened to be the commander of the he Strategic Air Command. The Air Force, however, maintains Capt. Essex's charges of influence are unfounded. Its response indicated that no time had there been any outside influence on anyone in the wing to affect the outcome of (the) investigation into Capt. Essex's allegations.
Investigation Takes Place
Capt. Essex said a "token" investigation labeled him as being the problem, marking the beginning of his miseries.
At this juncture, Capt. Essex began contacting congressmen and attempted to secure information regarding the investigation through the Freedom of Information Act. He had not been allowed to know the findings of the investigation, but when he pieced most of it together he said he was shocked to find the results.
"They made accusations. They said I was incompetent when records that were available proved that I was not in competent."
He referred to an independent psychiatric examination con ducted by an Army flight surgeon and reservist in Kansas City.
"Senior officers, I can name at least four, lied in the investigation," Capt. Essex said pointedly.
As a result, Capt. Essex was removed from his duties, lost his security clearance, and was assigned to the Security Police Group. He also claimed his records have been falsified.
"Anybody who can read or write English, or can understand English, can read one statement by a colonel and read another statement where he denies what he said." From there, "I was locked up. I was put in the mental institute for 21 days. I was placed under house arrest illegally and escorted off base illegally. I've had two efficiency reports written on me which are just totally wrong ... provably so."
The mental hospital, located at Wilford-Hall Medical Center at Lackland Air Force Base, Tex., was the captain's next step into a seemingly unending nightmare.
NEXT: The Lackland Connection
By Kenneth Amos
Star-Journal News Editor
(Second of a serles)
Name: Essex, Eugene R.
Rank: Captain
Serial Number: 554-52-XXXX
Assignment: 351st Missile Security Squadron (SAC)
Base: Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri
Age: 40 years old
Past duties: Vietnam veteran, career intelligence officer, missile-launch officer, and executive-support officer.
Present: Working for the deputy commander of the WAFB Combat Support Group.
Future: ??????????
The past two years have been "a living hell" for Capt. Essex and his family: albeit a self-made hell.
The 16-year veteran of the United States Air Force contends he has experienced a number of violations "of A-l sorts since I was 17 years old and came on active duty." Capt. Essex, who spent three years early in his career at Strategic Air Command headquarters in Omaha, Neb. as an intelligence officer specializing in Soviet electronic warfare and Soviet radar, has been stationed at Whiteman Air Force Base for the past four years. He and his wife, Laurel, and four children live at 314 Grover St.
The captain claims the violations he has witnessed range from persons simply ripping off a pen that belongs to the government, to stealing "tens of thousands of dollars of material airplanes, or whatever."
Although the latter contention seems far from trivial, there are problems much more serious in nature which, he maintains, occur with regularity at WAFB. This has prompted Capt. Essex to speak out. Those problems deal with nuclear safety and the possible compromise of national security. His allegations, brought to light in re cent months, triggered an investigation by Missouri Fourth District Congressman Ike Skelton, who yesterday received a report from the Air Force Inspector General Howard Leaf acknowledging problems related to weapons handling exist at WAFB.
Violations Reported
Adhering to Air Force regulations, Capt. Essex reported what he believed to be serious nuclear-safety violations to his commanding officers. Instead of receiving a commendation, or even something as simple as a pat on the back, Capt. Essex contends he was locked up in a "hard-core" mental institution threatened with injections of drugs, and has been the subject of continual harassment at the hands of his superiors at Whiteman.
The Air Force was asked for its response as to whether or not Capt. Essex is or has been a trusted officer, and to assess his character and career. The response it gave was a general description of duties and positions he has held throughout his career. Going by the book has changed the course of the unassuming life Capt. Essex once led. Instead of looking forward to retirement in a little more than three years, possibly as a major, and then working as the civilian counterpart of an intelligence officer thereafter, Essex now faces the unknown.
By his quest for the truth, he candidly admits his career has been jeopardized and he has been left to wonder about his future every day. "They've essentially ruined me as a professional in anything."
He contends the Air Force is now trying to force him out the door, and estimates it has cost them more than $100,000 to perpetrate a coverup regarding the seriousness of his charges.
His plight began approximately two years ago as a member of a two-man team that goes underground into a missile-launch facility. In the facility are the controls responsible for launching nuclear weapons.
Each of five capsules in a strategic missile squadron is in charge of 10 missiles that are connected with 40 others, for a total of 50 missiles. The five capsules are "tied together" to control the 50 missiles. There are three strategic missile squadrons — the 508th, 509th and 510th—controlling a total of 150 missiles.
In this complex network, two officers are "in the hole" at all times, for a total of 30 officers online.
Problems Begin
On occasion, Capt. Essex, the commander, was crewed with a then-27-year-old lieutenant—who he claims was a self admitted heavy drinker and drug user with a history of passing out while on duty.
Capt. Essex said the lieutenant, to him, admitted hallucinating, seeing such things as a woman who appears up out of a bush, and being worried about hearing voices. Capt. Essex dutifully reported to his super visor the lieutenant was "incompetent and unable to do his job." His reports contained allegations that while crewed together underground the lieutenant went berserk, not once, but several times.
One winter day Capt. Essex and the lieutenant were snowed in "November capsule," located approximately 45 minutes from WAFB, beyond regular-duty hours. They faced the possibility of being underground for two days instead of the normal 24 hours. Capt. Essex said he observed the lieutenant in an agitated state, worsening with each passing hour beyond the normal changeover time. At the 30-hour mark a ringing telephone, according to Capt. Essex, set the lieutenant off.
"I answered the phone. This individual ... screamed, yelled an obscenity and leaped toward me with the phone in his hand," so as to do bodily harm.
When the incident was reported, Capt. Essex said his supervisor said, "Yeah, Gene, we know this guy. We know he gets upset. We know he gets a little bit crazy. But all you have to do is tell him to shut up and sit down and you can control him."
According to Air Force regulations, if a person demonstrates emotional in stability (about anything from marriage problems to financial troubles) ... he must be removed from control of nuclear weapons until the particular problem is resolved.
Removal from duty is done in accordance with the Personnel Reliability Program (PRP). The program establishes the requirements and responsibilities for screening, selecting and continuously evaluating all personnel who control, handle, have access to, control the launch of, or control entry to Minuteman weapons on weapons systems. It also provides for the selection and retention of personnel who are emotionally stable and have demonstrated good judgement and pro fessional competence. It provides guidance for the removal of all individuals of questionable reliability.
The process of removing persons from this type of duty is known as "pulling their PRP." Assignment of a person to and removal from a personnel reliability position, according to the Air Force, is purely an administrative action and not a form of reward or punishment. Removal of a person from such a position requires reassignment to other duties, either temporarily or permanently.
Capt. Essex requested to never again be crewed with the individual and said he was told he would not be.
What happened?
A few months later "they crewed me with him permanently," Capt. Essex said laughing in disbelief.
But it was not a laughing matter to Capt. Essex at the time, as he again asked his immediate supervisor and his commander not to be crewed with the lieutenant. He said, "If you think he's competent, then I'm telling you that together as a crew we're not competent. And you're putting two people down there in the hole, an incompetent crew controlling nuclear weapons." The captain was told if he could not control the individual, he was not a fit commander.
"I couldn't believe it." Capt. Essex said. The veteran officer pondered the situation and concluded he may have possibly been wrong about the lieutenant. The two-man team had eight more alerts together, each further confirming Capt. Essex's earlier evaluation of the man. "What I felt was that the person needed professional counseling, which I couldn't give him."
It Happened Again
The next major incident involving the pair occurred during Global Shield exercises in 1979.
Global Shield is an annual large-scale, no-notice, 20-day training exercise designed to test the command's capability to carry out Emergency War Orders which support the U.S. policy if deterrence fails, and to realistically measure SAC's response to a set of pre-planned events leading up to a simulated attack on the U.S.
Again, the lieutenant exhibited behavior considered by his commander undesirable for a missile-launch officer.
According to Capt. Essex, the crew's operations officer threatened them with a bad rating for changing over (turning control of the missile-launch facility over to another crew) too early during a learning exercise, even though records indicate they were not instructed when to do so.
At this indictment, the lieutenant "became very agitated" and argued with the major about the point for about one-half hour on the telephone, according to Capt. Essex, during a self explanatory sequence known as "communications minimize." The captain claims for the next 12 hours the lieutenant was walking around, "smashing his fists together. He was angry. He would leap up and start cussing." The crew that eventually succeeded Capt. Essex and the lieutenant later testified he was still in this state "when we were changed over."
"This is especially unacceptable because we were controlilng live Minutemen weapons," Capt. Essex said.
Once again, the captain reported the unusual behavior to his major, who proceeded, in front of a witness to threaten Capt. Essex with the establishment of an Unfavorable Information File (UIF), which according to Capt. Essex means death to the career of that officer.
The rub, Capt. Essex said, was that the man he had been reporting turned out to be the son of a retired colonel, who was the friend of a general, who just happened to be the commander of the he Strategic Air Command. The Air Force, however, maintains Capt. Essex's charges of influence are unfounded. Its response indicated that no time had there been any outside influence on anyone in the wing to affect the outcome of (the) investigation into Capt. Essex's allegations.
Investigation Takes Place
Capt. Essex said a "token" investigation labeled him as being the problem, marking the beginning of his miseries.
At this juncture, Capt. Essex began contacting congressmen and attempted to secure information regarding the investigation through the Freedom of Information Act. He had not been allowed to know the findings of the investigation, but when he pieced most of it together he said he was shocked to find the results.
"They made accusations. They said I was incompetent when records that were available proved that I was not in competent."
He referred to an independent psychiatric examination con ducted by an Army flight surgeon and reservist in Kansas City.
"Senior officers, I can name at least four, lied in the investigation," Capt. Essex said pointedly.
As a result, Capt. Essex was removed from his duties, lost his security clearance, and was assigned to the Security Police Group. He also claimed his records have been falsified.
"Anybody who can read or write English, or can understand English, can read one statement by a colonel and read another statement where he denies what he said." From there, "I was locked up. I was put in the mental institute for 21 days. I was placed under house arrest illegally and escorted off base illegally. I've had two efficiency reports written on me which are just totally wrong ... provably so."
The mental hospital, located at Wilford-Hall Medical Center at Lackland Air Force Base, Tex., was the captain's next step into a seemingly unending nightmare.
NEXT: The Lackland Connection
