Under difficult circumstances

B-52 crew did ‘magnificent job’ when engine dropped from plane

MINOT AIR FORCE BASE - Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James said a Minot Air Force Base B-52 bomber crew did a "magnificent job" when one of the plane's engines dropped from the plane Wednesday while on a local training mission.

"Based on what I have heard so far, the crew just did a magnificent job under difficult circumstances but of course one of the hallmarks of our airmen is we place a lot of emphasis on training and so even under difficult circumstances, training kicks in," said James, in an interview Thursday while visiting the Minot base. "From the sounds of it, they did all of the right things to ensure continuing safety of flight for the period that they remained aloft."

James was informed by Minot AFB officials about the engine incident while at the base Wednesday.

"They do believe at this point that it was really a catastrophic failure of that one engine. Another way of putting that is it disintegrated and then fell out of the aircraft upon disintegration," James said.

"They think it's at the bottom of a river, so recovery of that is something we would like to do because that helps in understanding what happened but that, of course, complicates it if it's at the bottom of the river - it may take a longer period of time," she said.

Minot AFB officials said when the B-52 pilot discovered an engine dropped from the aircraft on Wednesday, an in-flight emergency was declared. The aircraft landed safely with no injuries to the five crew members on board and when the plane landed, it was confirmed the engine was gone. No weapons were on board.

An initial safety investigation board has been set up by the wing commander. UH-1N helicopters assigned to the 54th Helicopter Squadron at the base, located possible engine debris in an unpopulated area about 25 miles northeast of the the base, Minot AFB officials said.

James said she estimates it will be several months before the accident investigation has been completed. "But the key thing is the crew did a great job - no one was hurt. They landed safely," she said.

She said she has "zero indication" the engine incident is a widespread problem within the B-52 fleet.

"I have no indication of that - there's no evidence of that. It appears this was a one off situation but again I want to emphasize it just happened and it will be fully investigated,"  James said.

She added that the Air Force puts a great deal of emphasis on maintenance - preventive maintenance.

James said many people "hearken back to the fact" that the B-52 is an old aircraft. "But they're very, very well maintained and they have very high what we call mission capable rates. They fly a lot, we keep them well maintained in order that they can fly a lot."

James' recent visit

Initially, James planned to visit the Minot base in early December but her visit was postponed because of a blizzard that hit the local area.

The Minot base is the only base with dual nuclear-capable wings - the 5th Bomb Wing with its B-52s and the 91st Missile Wing with 150 Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles located in underground facilities in the Minot missile field.

When James became Secretary of the Air Force three years ago, she toured the nuclear enterprise and held discussions about some issues, problems and challenges.

"I wanted to conclude my tour as Secretary of the Air Force doing a similar tour of the nuclear enterprise to see how we are doing and how have some of the changes of recent years impacted our airmen and what more needs to be done. That's the spirit with which I came here," she said during the interview Thursday.

James will also be visiting Malmstrom AFB in Montana. She visited F.E. Warren AFB in Wyoming in December. Both also have ICBMs.

"Overall, I think it's night and day. On the positive side, I say this first and foremost, I think morale has increased tremendously amongst our airmen in the nuclear enterprise. We have fundamentally changed the way we have trained in the nuclear enterprise and this is particularly true of the ICBM side of the house. Basically we are taking the lessons learned over many years from the aircraft side of the house and we're applying those the way that we train our aircrews much closer now is the way we train our ICBM teams," James said.

She said three years ago it was about "test, test, test and evaluate, evaluate, evaluate." She said if military members weren't getting tested or evaluated, they were getting ready to test or ready to evaluate. "Today it's much more where you actually train, meaning it's OK to make a mistake in training. That's how we learn," she said. She said now they are placing more emphasis on professional development and mentorship.

"I think training has changed in a very, very positive light," she said.

While at the Minot base she said she met with leaders and also in focus groups, one mainly with officers and another mainly with enlisted military members to get the different points of view.

"Morale is up, training has improved greatly in the enterprise, there is a good sense across the board that this is an extremely important mission and it's going to be enduring," she said.

James added that the Force Improvement Plan, also known as FIP, resulted in shifting more than 1,000 new people to the nuclear enterprise and also shifted dollars for new vehicles for defenders as well as new cold weather gear and a variety of other things that money went to design to directly help airmen.

She said she likes to to see whether airmen are actually feeling the impact of those dollars and whether they got the cold weather gear and how all of that is going.

"It was good news for me that 'yes, they do feel the impact and they do appreciate the importance of the nuclear enterprise - not just that we say it but that we're acting and backing that up,'" she said.

Systems being upgraded

James said there's a lot of excitement and general knowledge that the current systems are being upgraded.

She said new programs launched include the new B-21 Raider program, the bomber to replace the B-52, the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent Program to replace the Minuteman III ICBMs and the long-range standoff (LRSO) weapon system to replace the air-launched cruise missile. The Air Force also recently released the request for proposals to replace the UH-1N Huey helicopter fleet.

"There's a lot going on in the area of modernization which will impact this base in a positive way but will really impact the entirety of our nuclear enterprise," James said.

As she visited the Minot base, she said a bonus for her was to see the excitement of airmen with the B-52s who will be deploying to the Middle East later this year in the fight against ISIL.

James' visit to Minot AFB this week was her fifth visit to the Minot base in the three years in her position. "I don't think there's anywhere else in the Air Force that I have been five times," James said.

In recognition of her support of the base and local community while Secretary of the Air Force, Minot Mayor Chuck Barney and Mark Jantzer, a member of the U.S. Air Force Civic Leaders, a group of civilian advisers to the Air Force secretary and chief of staff, presented James a certificate proclaiming her an honorary citizen of Minot. The award was presented to her Wednesday evening at the base.

James will be on duty as Secretary of the Air Force until Jan. 20. After that, she said she hopes for some relaxation time and will decide what is next for her.