AIR FORCE GENERAL DEFENDS MORALE AMONG MISSILE WING

Maj. Gen. Garrett Harencak, the Air Force’s Assistant Chief of Staff for Nuclear Deterrence and Nuclear Integration, said recent reports that morale is low among the Air Force’s nuclear crews are overblown, and he said he observed “exceedingly good” spirits among airmen. Citing an unreleased Rand Corp. report and an email from senior leaders at the 91st Missile Wing at Minot (N.D.) Air Force Base, the Associated Press reported last week that the missile wing was rife with dissatisfaction. Last month, it was reported that 19 officers at Minot had been temporarily decertified after poor performance on an inspection. “No one who has ever run an organization, a large organization, can honestly say everyone is always happy all the time,” Harencak said on the sidelines of a speech at the Capitol Hill Club Friday. “To take a small subset of a small subset and say, ‘Well, you’ve got a couple of people who for whatever reason weren’t particularly happy, that means morale was bad everywhere.’ That’s a jump I can’t take.” Harencak said his visits to Minot have revealed a different atmosphere. “I’ve talked to the people there,” he said. “Compared to the difficulty of the mission, the difficulty of their circumstances, wow, these guys are motivated, they’re professional.”

During his speech at the Capitol Hill Club, Harencak also emphasized the importance of maintaining an adequate nuclear deterrent, and at one point took a jab at nuclear abolition advocates and the push for a world free of nuclear weapons. “When that happens, where we can get rid of these weapons within, you know, soon, we’ll have a big party at my house,” he said. “I think it’ll kind of be cool, you know, as a nuclear guy and everything else, we’ll have a big party. I just ask that you don’t feed any hors d’oeuvres to my unicorn, all right? Because he makes a mess in the yard.”