Air Force Admits Nuke Missile Launch Crew Slept On Duty

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - Air Force officials admitted Thursday that three officers violated security protocol for failing to guard and return to their air base codes for launching nuclear missiles because they fell asleep.

The launch codes used to facilitate secure communications between an underground missile-control facility and missile silos near Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota were not compromised as these were already deactivated and replaced, Col. Dewey Ford, a spokesman for the Air Force Space Command in Colorado, told CNN.

Based on results of an investigation of the incident, the device containing the codes had been returned to the Minot base and had remained inside a lockbox in a secure resting area where the 91st Missile Wing crew holding it fell asleep on July 12. There were no nuclear weapons at the missile silo below the missile alert facility, where the resting area was located.

The Air Force is still reeling from serious security lapses, including the wrongful shipment of nuclear warhead fuses to Taiwan and wrongful arming of a B-52 bomber flying between two air bases in August 2007.

The two incidents prompted a revamp in Air Force leadership that cost the jobs of the Air Force secretary and chief of staff.