Defense Secretary Visits MAFB

For the first time in the history of andamp;lt;a href=andamp;quot;http://www.kxnet.com/t/minot-ai...  More »

For the first time in the history of andamp;lt;a href=andamp;quot;http://www.kxnet.com/t/minot-air-force-baseandamp;quot; class=andamp;quot;kxInlineLinkandamp;quot;andamp;gt;Minot Air Force Baseandamp;lt;/aandamp;gt;, the US Secretary of Defense paid a visit today. Robert Gates flew to the base directly from Chicago, where President-Elect Barack Obama announced Gates agreed to stay on as Defense Secretary for his administration. The secretary addressed a gathering of hundreds of airmen and toured the base. Hours after President-Elect Barack Obama showed his confidence in sitting Secretary of Defense Robert Gates by announcing Gates would continue in the job, Gates himself was sitting in a B-52 bomber, showing his confidence in an air base that has caused him some headaches in the past year. Gates came to Minot Air Force Base to tell the men and women in charge of hundreds of nuclear weapons that mistakes like the one in the summer of 2007 - where six nuclear warheads were accidentally flown from Minot to Barksdale Air Force Base - are not acceptable. Gates told a gathering of more than one thousand airmen at a B-52 hangar at Minot's base that several steps have been taken to make sure nothing like that nuclear mistake happens again in the Air Force. The defense secretary said there was one simple reason he came to Minot Air Force Base. Gates then toured the base, getting a cockpit-seat look at a B-52 bomber, and inspecting training facilities where airmen learn the handling of Minuteman-Three missiles buried in the andamp;lt;a href=andamp;quot;http://www.kxnet.com/t/north-dakotaandamp;quot; class=andamp;quot;kxInlineLinkandamp;quot;andamp;gt;North Dakotaandamp;lt;/aandamp;gt; countryside. And he reminded the men and women who handle both land-based and air-based nuclear weapons that their jobs are uniqely important. At Minot Air Force Base, andamp;lt;a href=andamp;quot;http://www.kxnet.com/t/jim-olsonandamp;quot; class=andamp;quot;kxInlineLinkandamp;quot;andamp;gt;Jim Olsonandamp;lt;/aandamp;gt;, KX News. Gates was joined in his tour of Minot Air Force Base by the Chief of Staff of the Air Force, General Norton Schwartz.  « Less