Hawaii Missile Threat: False Alarm

[The Conservative]

Maybe he got himself a lawyer and the lawyer told him to keep his mouth shut. If the government is coming to "investigate", keeping your mouth shut until they show their cards is advisable.

He wouldn’t need a lawyer in the private sector because his incompetent, public-endangering ass would’ve been fired.

But you know ... public unions.

Public Unions only protect those with 10-year...

[DBTrek]

Average length of service for Federal worker - 13+ years.

[Smitty-48]

For example, the most potentially catastrophic such mistake in the history of the world, was at Cheyenne Mountain in 1979 when the wrong tape was put into the computer resulting in a training scenario being projected onto the main board as a Soviet missile launch, which caused NORAD to come two minutes twelve seconds away from launch of false warning.

But it's not like the person who made the mistake was court martialed for that, the Air Force simply determined that it was systemically far too easy to make that mistake, and so they changed the system not the personnel.

[The Conservative]

Average length of service for Federal worker - 13+ years.

Bingo...

[DBTrek]

For example, the most potentially catastrophic such mistake in the history of the world, was at Cheyenne Mountain in 1979 when the wrong tape was put into the computer resulting in a training scenario being projected onto the main board as a Soviet missile launch, which caused NORAD to come two minutes twelve seconds away from launch of false warning.

But it's not like the person who made the mistake was court martialed for that, the Air Force simply determined that it was systemically far too easy to make that mistake, and so they changed the system not the personnel.

This has what to do with a government employee triggering a false missile threat then refusing to cooperate with the investigation again?

[Smitty-48]

For example, the most potentially catastrophic such mistake in the history of the world, was at Cheyenne Mountain in 1979 when the wrong tape was put into the computer resulting in a training scenario being projected onto the main board as a Soviet missile launch, which caused NORAD to come two minutes twelve seconds away from launch of false warning.

But it's not like the person who made the mistake was court martialed for that, the Air Force simply determined that it was systemically far too easy to make that mistake, and so they changed the system not the personnel.

This has what to do with a government employee triggering a false missile threat then refusing to cooperate with the investigation again?

If their system is flawed and they punish the employee for making an honest mistake, then in future the system is likely to be useless, when employees are too afraid of getting it wrong, and so they don't send out the warning, lest it be a mistake which will cost them their jobs.

The reality of early warning systems is intermittent false warnings, much more likely to be a false warning than it is to be an actual missile launch, if it results in severe punishment, to wit the end of their career, then it's very likely they will just do nothing, if it's a real nuclear attack, nobody will be around to punish them after, if it's not, oh well, good thing they didn't press the button then.

[The Conservative]

For example, the most potentially catastrophic such mistake in the history of the world, was at Cheyenne Mountain in 1979 when the wrong tape was put into the computer resulting in a training scenario being projected onto the main board as a Soviet missile launch, which caused NORAD to come two minutes twelve seconds away from launch of false warning.

But it's not like the person who made the mistake was court martialed for that, the Air Force simply determined that it was systemically far too easy to make that mistake, and so they changed the system not the personnel.

This has what to do with a government employee triggering a false missile threat then refusing to cooperate with the investigation again?

If their system is flawed and they punish the employee for making an honest mistake, then in future the system is likely to be useless, when employees are too afraid of getting it wrong, and so they don't send out the warning, lest it be a mistake which will cost them their jobs.

The reality of early warning systems is intermittent false warnings, much more likely to be a false warning than it is to be an actual missile launch, if it results in severe punishment, to wit the end of their career, then it's very likely they will just do nothing, if it's a real nuclear attack, nobody will be around to punish them after, if it's not, oh well, good thing they didn't press the button then.

True, but I figured comprehension and reading were two of the things you needed for keeping a job?

[DBTrek]

Ah, I see. Can’t fire an incompetent government employee because then other government employees assigned to that position may not do their jobs.

Like ... where does one even start deconstructing that fallacy?

[nmoore63]

Because of the inability to fire government employees.... their pay charts should simply be whatever the prevailing private industry wage is -5%.

It started out that way, but because the government is the government they never suffer any wage corrections....

[Smitty-48]

I'm not one to punish people for honest mistakes incited by systemic failings, the correct response is to modify the system and improve their training, punishing people for honest mistakes is counterproductive, simply breeds evermore dysfunction into the system, which, when you're talking about systems related to nuclear weapons, that can really come back to bite you.