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M-16 debacle the latest in a line for Hill Air Force Base in '08

They've known what happened for 24 hours, and just admitted it?

So this box "fell off the truck" while on Base, near the ammo storage areas, a person was seen picking up the box and putting it in his car...ON THE BASE?

For some reason, this reminds me of the time the Credit Union on the base was robbed.....like in 1971 or something. It was about 3:00pm, just about the time someone would be reporting for swing shift (starting at 3:30pm). The robber "had a gold tooth". They never caught him, even though they locked the gates for four hours and searched everyone LEAVING. Well, duh. Obviously, the gold tooth was foil (an old trick). It's likely the perp calmly went to work, and drove out after his shift ended...when they weren't searching.

Imagine. A "bank" robbery. Inside a supposedly-secure Air Force Base. And they couldn't solve it.

I hope they do better, here.

I happen to know the people who work OSI on base...they are competent people, its the beauracracy that hampers them most times...

With that description, they should be able to find the guy within a matter of minutes. I wouldn't be surprised if they found the guy already. Seriously, how many guys would fit that description?

What? Was it on a flatbed truck, unsecured? What a bunch of idiots - and these guys are supposed to be protecting us? Wow! Years ago when I was in the Air Force (1962-66), I remember a drawing of an old man wearing a pilots helmet. The enscription on the drawing read, "Sleep tight tonite, your Air Force is awake". Yeah right! Not anymore apparently.

24 hours is incorrect.

Man, who's runnin' that place up there? What kind of a Micky Mouse operation IS this! How embarrassing. Way to go, Hill! Keep up the good work! What do you have up your sleeve for your next trick?

Oh, I think by the time they've narrowed it down to "half the men in Utah"......they'll give up ;)

Seriously, I hope they solve this. Picking it up isn't the crime. Not turning it in cops/OSI *is* the problem.

GO HAFB! Sounds like they have a bunch of winners. I thought the military was supposed to be disciplined? I'm sure the guns will show up in the news sooner or later either in a pawn shop or in the hands of a criminal.

Recent headlines said that bush canned the senior leadership of the Air Force today.

As a Prior Air Force myself, I am glad. Hopefully the new crew can bring some distinction back to the Air Force.

Had this been some upstanding citizen which I think are becoming few and far between, who found them, they should have been turned into the police as soon as it was discovered what was in the container.

But, they may never see them, imagine what they would be worth on the street to any gang banger with enough drug money to put up for them. Heck, they might even be able to hold an auction for them. I just hope police find them before that happens, or we can all lose a little more sleep at night.

Or maybe the container was picked up by some moron who hasn't even looked inside, but is just mesmerized by the pretty box.

Keep your eyes peeled on e-bay.they may show up there.

I totally agree we got to be accontable for the work we are entrusted to do espically here at Hill AFB. I've been at Hill for 16 years and with over 24,000 employees working here bad things do happen, however let us not forget the many thousands of things that go right every day at the base. News people tend to not want to hear about those things. We are flying the F-16, the C-130, and air re-fueling tankers constantly in support of our nation and freedom for everyone. This base pumps billions, yes billions of dollars into the northern Utah economy every single year. We lose the base and this place becomes a ghost town. We live in a negative society that clammers for "bad news". It is too bad. Base workers also give millions of dollars and time to commuity seivice. Let's try to be thankful and a bit understanding.

It's time to get rid of the babysitters MajGen Close and Col Medler and get real leaders up at HAFB. Why do not they bring in MajGen McMahon and get things running smooth again. Somebody obviously needs to clean up!

reporting by Stephen Speckman. Over 24,000 people work at Hill AFB, who, in just last couple of weeks, have been recognized as one of the top military bases for their excellent work. And yet, Mr. Speckman chooses to minimize the accomplishments of the vast majority of dedicated military and civilian workers, to focus solely on a couple of mistakes that involved only a very small handful of people.

Responsibility and accountability is always first and foremost on a daily basis here at Hill and especially within the ICBM arena. Please don't be blindsided by a very biased news article, we do many things right but you will never hear about them from the Desert News. Our leaders from the top down, work very hard to support each and every mission that is being tasked to Hill AFB and it's employees and it's sad to think that those who have made comments to remove what I think are great leaders is the magical answer. There will always be errors made by individuals and organizations, that's just human nature especially when we are doing more with less, so please don't be so quick to judge all employees at Hill AFB so negatively.

Sadly, the AF, in the past 15 years has promoted the WRONG folks to General Officer and Colonel. We need real LEADERS, not the patsy "YES SIR" Generals and Colonels that seem to be so plentiful in the AF today. Leadership is at the bottom of the barrel--today's sacking of the SECAF/CSAF was way overdue. The missile nose cone problem DICATES that both Close and Medler retire TODAY-- probably both at reduced grade as well. The AF has lost all accountability-- discharging senior base leadership is the beginning of new era. All others in the chain of command should also be punished, if they had accountability or responsibility for the nose cone matter. Leadership= Accountability. When you have ass kissing colonels and generals sucking up all the time, this is the result-- no idea of how to lead. This is also a prime "prima facie" case of the Peter Principle-- both the Officers are 4 grades past where they should have been promoted. Tough, YES, However Gen LeMay would have had them gone in 15 minutes-- and thought nothing about it. FIRE THEM NOW.

They closed the Army depot out by Tooele and it didn't turn into a ghost town.

Close Hill AFB and the Ogden area will be ok. Its the laughingstock of the entire Air Force right now.

Of what strategic value is an air force base in Utah? has Wyoming threatened to invade lately? Sheesh we have more mexicans invading this country that anything else.

Close Hill AFB!

They should have closed Hill in 2001. Hill lied about they ability to produce. This cause the Air Force to outsource more work to contractors.

On the positive side Hill has had jet engineers leaving for Iran lately.

To all the ill minded people who have nothing but negative thoughts to say about Hill AFB, you live a minute in the shoes of an Airman. Hill deploys troops overseas to keep your freedom intact so that you have the ability to log onto your computers and gripe about how this is a joke...These Airmen spend months at a time away from their family memebers because they have an obligation to the country...if you think you can protect the base better....hop to it. In a matter of minutes I'm sure we'll all be laughing in your face.