Air Force: Missile officers felt pressured to cheat

Air Force officers responsible for the nation’s nuclear weapons arsenal cheated on a proficiency test because they felt too much pressure to perform perfectly, Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James concluded.

“I heard repeatedly from teammates that the need for perfection has created a climate of undue stress and fear,” James told reporters. “I believe that a very terrible irony in this whole situation is that these missileers didn’t cheat to pass, they cheated because they felt driven to get 100 percent, getting 90 percent or 95 percent was considered a failure in their eyes,” she also said.