Olympic Arena Is Said To Be Detrimental To Wing's Function
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
(Fifth of a series)
Earlier this month, airmen and officers returned to Whiteman Air Force Baseamid much hoopla after capturing the top spot in the Strategic Air Command's annual Olympic Arena competition.
The squad returned from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., with the Blanchard Trophy — symbolic of the best Strategic Missile Wing in SAC — for an unprecedented fourth time.
The exercise covered several areas of competition, including combat crews, missile handling,, electronics, security police and communications.
Competition is staged each year between the nine U.S. Strategic Missile Wings.
Recently, a former Nuclear Safety Non-Commissioned Officer for the 351st Field Missile Maintenance Squadron charged that such "games" are depriving the United States of its top-notch nuclear weapons personnel for as much as four months every year, adding to an already shorthanded supply on base, and delaying critical maintenance.
Former SSgt. Larry Provimce, a native of Kansas City, is currently living in Warrensburg. He has been a member of two Olympic Arena competitions, including 1980 as team chief of Re-entry Vehicle Maintenance.
The 26-year-old Province served five and one-half years.
Province held several key positions during his tour of duty, and he was one of the base's classified monitors. He carries in his mind all types of data about sensitive matters pertaining to Whiteman, from the Emergency Rocket Communications Systems (ERCS) to the inner workings of a re-entry vehicle weapon.
Regarding the spring competitions, Province charged, "They spend millions (of dollars) on Olympic Arena every year and the beneficial gain is very negligible."
Star Wars, as Province terms Olympic Arena, is where "colonels go out there with their chickens and fight to see who wins. ... It's brownie points for the wing and the commanders.
The wing that accumulates the most points gets the big trophy, and the win commander ... gets the big brownie points."
Is it worth it?
Not according to Province.
In his case, "they pulled the best people and took them from the maintenance task, and applied them to the training for this project."
He said this creates a tremendous amount of animosity between the people in the shops — "they guys who were going and were skating, having a good time training and goofing off, and the guys who had to buss their asses because they were the only three or four people left to support the whole wing's mission."
Province claims the rift created by Olympic Arena is "huge."
Time chief in 1980, Province said he handpicked the people he wanted to go, however, he would not allow them to goof off. He said his group's daily function cam first, and OA training second.
Province related that two or three times each week he and his personnel would have to abandon their shop "to go play OA games. We had to stop all maintenance and put on a show for visitors." He claims this only served to put maintenance schedules further behind.
Province admits there are benefits to be derived from the Olympic Arena competition, but they primarily belong to the combat crews.
Overall, "it's a detriment to the wing's actual mission" especially during critical operations, he said. "It literally, for the last three years, has cut our maintenance function in half."
While the actual Olympic Arena competition lasts only one week, training usually begins several months earlier.
Province also charges that Olympic Arena promotes "high-speed work, which has flowed over into certain operational aspects. People tend to use certain Olympic Arena techniques on the actual job to speed up their operations. In a lot of situations that is fine. Some situations, though, Olympic Arena techniques are just not quality maintenance procedures." He said while not out-and-out violations, "they are not the quality work you want."
Province said for most shops the purpose of Olympic Arena could be accomplished just as well with one person coming to each base, evaluating the personnel and declaring a winner.
"The benefits don't justify the thing whatsoever. In cases like ours, it created really bad hardships. We pointed this out last year and said, 'Hey, we don't want to come here any more. Our people who work in the shops don't want to go, period.' "
He said the feelings were echoed throughout the eight other Strategic Missile Wings.
Air Force officials at Whiteman, when informed for Province's charges, replied: "The persons selected to participate in Olympic Arena are among the best assigned, but the non-participants are experts as well and are more than capable of performing the duties. The training for, and participation in, Olympic Arena, do require some time that would otherwise be available for different activities. However, the increase in skills associated with the competition and the credibility the competition provides for this nation's strategic deterrence capability makes it totally worthwhile."
Province, in a word, said the overall situation at Whiteman is "bad." He said the "claims" of targeting errors and weapons violations are treated as the problem.
"That's not the problem. The problem is the big picture. All you are seeing here at Whiteman is the manifestation of problems that occur all over the Air Force and the other services."
Province, who has worked on various projects and in various shops, would seem positioned to have a handle on the overall situation.
He said he has seen a decrease in the level of competency of individuals, and an increase in technology required for the modern weapons system. "The people are just not staying. People who have six to eight years until retirement are walking."
As a result, he said, the Air Force has created many of its own problems by replacing those individuals with persons who are unqualified.
"They replace them by taking the guy who runs the supply store, give him a quick course ... on being a nuclear weapons maintenance manager, and stick him in a managerial or supervisory position."
Province also claims there are situations in which Air Force guidelines for safety are not being followed.
"An example of this would be the time-line requirement that they have for maintenance personnel," Province said. "They established a maximum time period where a person can perform certain functions. At the end of that time period, he must stop."
Province maintains that time and time again, he and others were force to hurry through a job of critical importance.
He said during a 3901st Strategic Missile Evaluation Squadron Inspection, "We had a team in the maintenance bay for 12 hours, which is the max. The 3901st team left the area and we expected we would be leaving, too. However, we were informed at that time, approximately 12 hours into the day, we could go home only after we assembled a complete re-entry vehicle system"
Province said the system contains the nuclear warhead itself and associated items that allow it to function properly.
When asked how long such a job would take, Province quipped, "Well, obviously when you have people who want to go home it doesn't take as long as normal. We had about six people performing the operations and it went together in a hurry."
He added: It went together right, but because there were so many people doing so many things at once, you literally did not have a very safe or very well-controlled operation that you would like to have.
"You obviously have people going in several directions at one time, doing several different things. That's exactly what they don't want. You do that in a situation where a man can watch and control every move."
He is quick to point out, however, that all systems were eventually checked and double-checked, and therefore maintains they are reliable.
Province does admit, though, that corners were cut to pick up speed on a job just to meet a deadline.
"If we had to have a unit tomorrow and it wasn't built yet, we had to build it before tomorrow. Because they haven't recognized the problem with fatigue, we've had a couple of instances where fatigued individuals made mistakes."
Province admits there have not been any instances of weapons accidents or incidents because of this, however, "a security problem one night was caused because people had been there too long and were fatigued. The simply neglected to perform a procedure involved in gaining access to a maintenance facility.
"They were tired, they had been there all day, instead of a 12-hour maximum shift, after which there must be followed a chance for eight hours of sleep."
Province admits this affects personnel in the shops maintaining nuclear warheads.
Regarding a question about charges of RV maintenance personnel being frequently ill trained, incompetence and overworked, officials at Whiteman replied, "All Air Force maintenance crews are required to successfully complete a very extensive program. If it is determined during the training or on the job that a person is incapable of performing his duties, he is either retrained into another career field or released from the Air Force."
The reply further stated: "The hours for a missile maintenance crew, like many other jobs, can be long and tiring, especially if they are required to travel great distances to perform their jobs. The Air Force has regulations that govern work rest periods to ensure safety and mission capability are not jeopardized. We are unaware of any allegations by former SSgt. Province in this area. However, the Air Force Inspector General investigated similar allegations and results were provided to Congressman (Ike) Skelton.
Province also cited several violations of the Personnel Reliability Program (PRP), the Air Force's evaluation process of closely monitoring the actions of individuals who are directly involved with Minuteman weapons or weapons systems.
"They have people out there who literally should not be there because they exhibit specific things the program is designed to look for, isolate and remove from the environment."
Province gave details of a person who should have had his PRP pulled, who through his actions nearly caused a weapon to be toppled over on its side. "This is an example of a person who shouldn't be there because his mind wasn't on what he was doing."
He maintains every person who deals with nuclear weapons every day must have a clear presence of mind.
A person who is not thinking about what he is doing is either not going to do the job correctly, is going to forget to do parts of it, or he is just going to ignore safety and security requirements because he's not thinking about it."
Province himself was decertified for making supervisor errors during an inspection on the task of assembling an entire re-entry vehicle.
"I was essentially working with a team that was not up to speed," Province said. "In other words, the individuals were unable to do the job correctly, on their own, without direct guidance.
"This situation occurred because they were inadequately trained prior to being put in the bay to perform maintenance," he said
Series Summary
On Monday, the Air Force admitted three allegations of nuclear weapons mishandling at Whiteman had been at least partially substantiated.
Tuesday, the chairman of the House Subcommittee on Investigations send a letter to the Air Force legislative liaison asking for a report on corrective measures to be taken at Whiteman. It is due June. 22
Capt. Eugene R. Essex, and a former airman, Paul Sample, have called for an outside, impartial investigation into alleged weapons mishandling at the western-Missouri base. Both claim a self-investigation by the Air Force would only result in a coverup of the seriousness of their charges.
The Daily Star-Journal and WDAF-TV in Kansas City, who have collaborated on this series, submitted 43 questions to officials at Whiteman. Of these, only 13 have been answered to date.
Among the unanswered questions are:
*Is a false sworn statement made by an officer considered to be a serious offense? To what degree?
*What happens to officers who have willfully made false sworn statements and have been caught in the act?
*Is threatening an officer to get him to remain silent after reporting a serious incident(s) normal policy? If that, in and of itself, a serious offense?
*Are there any problems with weapons currently on alert status at WAFB?
*Are most problems encounters at WAFB handled internally and to a satisfactory end so the general public is never endangered?
*Has there ever been a nuclear accident at WAFB?
Officials at Whiteman responded to a question about the public's right to know, by saying, "The public has a right to know of violations that are detrimental to our nation's security. The public also has a right to be informed when positive actions occur to correct those violations. However, laws protecting individual privacy many times conflict with the public release of parts of information."
Essex and Sample maintain they have only revealed the tip of the iceberg about problems in dealing with weapons at Whiteman. They are willing to detail troubling situations only to legislative leaders who they believe to be serious about determining the extent of alleged problems at the base.
Essex said recently, "All individuals concerned about their futures should let their congressman know of their feelings."
By Kenneth Amos
Star-Journal News Editor
(Fifth of a series)
Earlier this month, airmen and officers returned to Whiteman Air Force Baseamid much hoopla after capturing the top spot in the Strategic Air Command's annual Olympic Arena competition.
The squad returned from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., with the Blanchard Trophy — symbolic of the best Strategic Missile Wing in SAC — for an unprecedented fourth time.
The exercise covered several areas of competition, including combat crews, missile handling,, electronics, security police and communications.
Competition is staged each year between the nine U.S. Strategic Missile Wings.
Recently, a former Nuclear Safety Non-Commissioned Officer for the 351st Field Missile Maintenance Squadron charged that such "games" are depriving the United States of its top-notch nuclear weapons personnel for as much as four months every year, adding to an already shorthanded supply on base, and delaying critical maintenance.
Former SSgt. Larry Provimce, a native of Kansas City, is currently living in Warrensburg. He has been a member of two Olympic Arena competitions, including 1980 as team chief of Re-entry Vehicle Maintenance.
The 26-year-old Province served five and one-half years.
Province held several key positions during his tour of duty, and he was one of the base's classified monitors. He carries in his mind all types of data about sensitive matters pertaining to Whiteman, from the Emergency Rocket Communications Systems (ERCS) to the inner workings of a re-entry vehicle weapon.
Regarding the spring competitions, Province charged, "They spend millions (of dollars) on Olympic Arena every year and the beneficial gain is very negligible."
Star Wars, as Province terms Olympic Arena, is where "colonels go out there with their chickens and fight to see who wins. ... It's brownie points for the wing and the commanders.
The wing that accumulates the most points gets the big trophy, and the win commander ... gets the big brownie points."
Is it worth it?
Not according to Province.
In his case, "they pulled the best people and took them from the maintenance task, and applied them to the training for this project."
He said this creates a tremendous amount of animosity between the people in the shops — "they guys who were going and were skating, having a good time training and goofing off, and the guys who had to buss their asses because they were the only three or four people left to support the whole wing's mission."
Province claims the rift created by Olympic Arena is "huge."
Time chief in 1980, Province said he handpicked the people he wanted to go, however, he would not allow them to goof off. He said his group's daily function cam first, and OA training second.
Province related that two or three times each week he and his personnel would have to abandon their shop "to go play OA games. We had to stop all maintenance and put on a show for visitors." He claims this only served to put maintenance schedules further behind.
Province admits there are benefits to be derived from the Olympic Arena competition, but they primarily belong to the combat crews.
Overall, "it's a detriment to the wing's actual mission" especially during critical operations, he said. "It literally, for the last three years, has cut our maintenance function in half."
While the actual Olympic Arena competition lasts only one week, training usually begins several months earlier.
Province also charges that Olympic Arena promotes "high-speed work, which has flowed over into certain operational aspects. People tend to use certain Olympic Arena techniques on the actual job to speed up their operations. In a lot of situations that is fine. Some situations, though, Olympic Arena techniques are just not quality maintenance procedures." He said while not out-and-out violations, "they are not the quality work you want."
Province said for most shops the purpose of Olympic Arena could be accomplished just as well with one person coming to each base, evaluating the personnel and declaring a winner.
"The benefits don't justify the thing whatsoever. In cases like ours, it created really bad hardships. We pointed this out last year and said, 'Hey, we don't want to come here any more. Our people who work in the shops don't want to go, period.' "
He said the feelings were echoed throughout the eight other Strategic Missile Wings.
Air Force officials at Whiteman, when informed for Province's charges, replied: "The persons selected to participate in Olympic Arena are among the best assigned, but the non-participants are experts as well and are more than capable of performing the duties. The training for, and participation in, Olympic Arena, do require some time that would otherwise be available for different activities. However, the increase in skills associated with the competition and the credibility the competition provides for this nation's strategic deterrence capability makes it totally worthwhile."
Province, in a word, said the overall situation at Whiteman is "bad." He said the "claims" of targeting errors and weapons violations are treated as the problem.
"That's not the problem. The problem is the big picture. All you are seeing here at Whiteman is the manifestation of problems that occur all over the Air Force and the other services."
Province, who has worked on various projects and in various shops, would seem positioned to have a handle on the overall situation.
He said he has seen a decrease in the level of competency of individuals, and an increase in technology required for the modern weapons system. "The people are just not staying. People who have six to eight years until retirement are walking."
As a result, he said, the Air Force has created many of its own problems by replacing those individuals with persons who are unqualified.
"They replace them by taking the guy who runs the supply store, give him a quick course ... on being a nuclear weapons maintenance manager, and stick him in a managerial or supervisory position."
Province also claims there are situations in which Air Force guidelines for safety are not being followed.
"An example of this would be the time-line requirement that they have for maintenance personnel," Province said. "They established a maximum time period where a person can perform certain functions. At the end of that time period, he must stop."
Province maintains that time and time again, he and others were force to hurry through a job of critical importance.
He said during a 3901st Strategic Missile Evaluation Squadron Inspection, "We had a team in the maintenance bay for 12 hours, which is the max. The 3901st team left the area and we expected we would be leaving, too. However, we were informed at that time, approximately 12 hours into the day, we could go home only after we assembled a complete re-entry vehicle system"
Province said the system contains the nuclear warhead itself and associated items that allow it to function properly.
When asked how long such a job would take, Province quipped, "Well, obviously when you have people who want to go home it doesn't take as long as normal. We had about six people performing the operations and it went together in a hurry."
He added: It went together right, but because there were so many people doing so many things at once, you literally did not have a very safe or very well-controlled operation that you would like to have.
"You obviously have people going in several directions at one time, doing several different things. That's exactly what they don't want. You do that in a situation where a man can watch and control every move."
He is quick to point out, however, that all systems were eventually checked and double-checked, and therefore maintains they are reliable.
Province does admit, though, that corners were cut to pick up speed on a job just to meet a deadline.
"If we had to have a unit tomorrow and it wasn't built yet, we had to build it before tomorrow. Because they haven't recognized the problem with fatigue, we've had a couple of instances where fatigued individuals made mistakes."
Province admits there have not been any instances of weapons accidents or incidents because of this, however, "a security problem one night was caused because people had been there too long and were fatigued. The simply neglected to perform a procedure involved in gaining access to a maintenance facility.
"They were tired, they had been there all day, instead of a 12-hour maximum shift, after which there must be followed a chance for eight hours of sleep."
Province admits this affects personnel in the shops maintaining nuclear warheads.
Regarding a question about charges of RV maintenance personnel being frequently ill trained, incompetence and overworked, officials at Whiteman replied, "All Air Force maintenance crews are required to successfully complete a very extensive program. If it is determined during the training or on the job that a person is incapable of performing his duties, he is either retrained into another career field or released from the Air Force."
The reply further stated: "The hours for a missile maintenance crew, like many other jobs, can be long and tiring, especially if they are required to travel great distances to perform their jobs. The Air Force has regulations that govern work rest periods to ensure safety and mission capability are not jeopardized. We are unaware of any allegations by former SSgt. Province in this area. However, the Air Force Inspector General investigated similar allegations and results were provided to Congressman (Ike) Skelton.
Province also cited several violations of the Personnel Reliability Program (PRP), the Air Force's evaluation process of closely monitoring the actions of individuals who are directly involved with Minuteman weapons or weapons systems.
"They have people out there who literally should not be there because they exhibit specific things the program is designed to look for, isolate and remove from the environment."
Province gave details of a person who should have had his PRP pulled, who through his actions nearly caused a weapon to be toppled over on its side. "This is an example of a person who shouldn't be there because his mind wasn't on what he was doing."
He maintains every person who deals with nuclear weapons every day must have a clear presence of mind.
A person who is not thinking about what he is doing is either not going to do the job correctly, is going to forget to do parts of it, or he is just going to ignore safety and security requirements because he's not thinking about it."
Province himself was decertified for making supervisor errors during an inspection on the task of assembling an entire re-entry vehicle.
"I was essentially working with a team that was not up to speed," Province said. "In other words, the individuals were unable to do the job correctly, on their own, without direct guidance.
"This situation occurred because they were inadequately trained prior to being put in the bay to perform maintenance," he said
Series Summary
On Monday, the Air Force admitted three allegations of nuclear weapons mishandling at Whiteman had been at least partially substantiated.
Tuesday, the chairman of the House Subcommittee on Investigations send a letter to the Air Force legislative liaison asking for a report on corrective measures to be taken at Whiteman. It is due June. 22
Capt. Eugene R. Essex, and a former airman, Paul Sample, have called for an outside, impartial investigation into alleged weapons mishandling at the western-Missouri base. Both claim a self-investigation by the Air Force would only result in a coverup of the seriousness of their charges.
The Daily Star-Journal and WDAF-TV in Kansas City, who have collaborated on this series, submitted 43 questions to officials at Whiteman. Of these, only 13 have been answered to date.
Among the unanswered questions are:
*Is a false sworn statement made by an officer considered to be a serious offense? To what degree?
*What happens to officers who have willfully made false sworn statements and have been caught in the act?
*Is threatening an officer to get him to remain silent after reporting a serious incident(s) normal policy? If that, in and of itself, a serious offense?
*Are there any problems with weapons currently on alert status at WAFB?
*Are most problems encounters at WAFB handled internally and to a satisfactory end so the general public is never endangered?
*Has there ever been a nuclear accident at WAFB?
Officials at Whiteman responded to a question about the public's right to know, by saying, "The public has a right to know of violations that are detrimental to our nation's security. The public also has a right to be informed when positive actions occur to correct those violations. However, laws protecting individual privacy many times conflict with the public release of parts of information."
Essex and Sample maintain they have only revealed the tip of the iceberg about problems in dealing with weapons at Whiteman. They are willing to detail troubling situations only to legislative leaders who they believe to be serious about determining the extent of alleged problems at the base.
Essex said recently, "All individuals concerned about their futures should let their congressman know of their feelings."
