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No. 2 at Minot not named new commander

BISMARCK, N.D. — An Air Force colonel who flew combat missions in B-52 bombers during Desert Storm and holds master’s degrees in music and military arts has been named the new commander at the embattled Minot Air Force Base.

Col. Joel Westa will take over as the commander of the 5th Bomb Wing this month, the Air Force announced Tuesday. He currently is the vice commander of the 36th Wing at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam.

Col. Bruce Emig, the former Minot commander, was ousted following an August flight of a B-52 bomber that mistakenly flew six nuclear-tipped cruise missiles from the North Dakota base to Barksdale Air Force Base La.

The military, after a six-week investigation, said it was an “unacceptable mistake.”

Emig had been in charge of the wing since June after serving as vice commander of the 28th Bomb Wing at Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D. He has been reassigned but the military has not announced the location.

The Associated Press reported Sunday that vice commander Col. Paul G. “Greg” Bell had been promoted to replace Emig, according to Maj. Patricia Traynor, the base spokeswoman. Bell will remain vice commander of the Minot base, the Air Force said.

Westa, a graduate of the Air Force’s Officer Training School, has more than 2,800 flying hours in the B-52, the military said. He has been in the Air Force more than 20 years, after earning a master’s degree in music from Penn State in 1983.

Some 65 airmen have been disciplined and barred from handling nuclear weapons, the military said. The Minot wing also has been “decertified from its wartime mission,” the Air Force said.

Air Force officials would not comment whether the decertification will hinder the service’s war fighting capabilities, or if the measure is permanent.

The Minot base is the command center for 150 Minuteman III missiles, sunk in hardened silos, and is one of two B-52 bomber bases in the country. The base also is home to about 4,800 active duty military personnel. Westa will be the bomb wing’s 48th commander.

Bell, in a statement to The Associated Press, said the Minot bomb wing will “pick itself up, dust itself off and press on.

“Although we’re disappointed in ourselves, we are committed to pressing forward and demonstrating that we are capable of performing all of our missions in a professional manner,” Bell said.

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Wing decertified, COs sacked for nuke mistake