Cheating in the Air Force

Earlier in the year the US Air Force found out that many of their officers were cheating on their proficiency tests. Although the over one hundred officers that were cheating or are believed to have known about the cheating have not been fired, nine people throughout the entire chain of command were fired yesterday, March 27th. Along with the firings, Col. Robert Stanley resigned on thursday. Stanley has been responsible for all of the officers caught cheating on the test (The article can be found here).

The cheating was revealed when there was belief that some officers may have been in possession of illegal drugs and the Air Force was forced to confiscate cell phones during the investigation. When in possession of the phones Air Force Officials discovered that answers to test questions have been sent via text messages from officer to officer during the time of the testing. A former missileers are saying that cheating on the proficiency tests has been around for a long time and is not anything new. Bruce G. Blair, a former missileer, said that "Cheating has been extensive and pervasive at all missile basis, going back for decades." Obviously, cheating is not a new problem if this is true, but this is the first time that the public is hearing of the allegations of the cheating. This leads many to believe that either the Air Force has been turning a blind eye or was somehow oblivious to the problems. 

The fact that many official have either ignored these blatant acts of cheating or just somehow did not know about them is quite concerning. The United States, in my opinion, is a country that is incredibly strict when it comes to safety. Yet, these members of the US Air Force whose primary job is controlling missiles are able to cheat there way through their job. Something about this does not seem right. What are your opinions on the topic? Do you think more people should have lost their jobs after news of this scandal was released?