Acting Air Force Secretary Michael Donley and Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz made the rounds of Air Force bases, including Hill, to assure airmen that the days of mixing up nuclear detonators with batteries and accidentally flying H-bombs over the U.S. heartland will soon be over.

Donley told airmen he hopes to bring stability after the string of screw ups.

Our immediate goal is to settle things down in the Air Force.

Hill has been a microcosm of the Air Force's lack of focus:

1. Shipped nuclear missile fuses, instead of helicopter batteries, to Taiwan, nearly triggering an international incident with China.
2. Allowed radioactive scrap to be incinerated at a civilian trash burning plant.
3. An F-16 riddled a training vehicle, complete with soldiers, with cannon fire in a "friendly fire" oopsie in the West Desert.
4. A case of M-16 rifles got lost (then found) at the base.

But it's not all bad news. Hill recently won a "Blue Sky" environmental award for using landfill gas to produce electricity and planning to install solar panels.

You've got to wonder: What is an environmental award worth if an Air Force base can earn one?

The military is all about war, environmental destruction and unconscionable waste. Last I heard, the Air Force hasn't put catalytic converters on F-16s or offered a 5-cent return deposit on the uncounted depleted-uranium cannon rounds (above) out in the West Desert.