Air Force officials to be ousted

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When does the mismanagement ever end?

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The top military and civilian leaders of the U.S. Air Force will be fired Thursday following a critical report regarding the mistaken transport of nuclear-tipped missiles, military sources said.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates will ask Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley and Secretary Michael W. Wynne to resign following a report on the August flight in which a B-52 bomber crew mistakenly flew across the country with nuclear weapons, sources said.

President Bush was briefed in advance about Gates' decision, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.

Gates is expected to make a statement about the report later Thursday.

A B-52 bomber flew from North Dakota to Louisiana with the crew unaware that six nuclear-tipped missiles were on board. Four officers were relieved of duty afterward, including three colonels.

The report, conducted by a Navy admiral and given to Gates, criticized the Air Force's reaction to the August flight, sources said.

A senior military source said the nuclear weapons incident was the straw that broke the camel's back, but that other leadership issues also factored into Moseley's and Wynne's pending dismissals.

An earlier, six-week investigation into the flight uncovered a "lackadaisical" attention to detail in day-to-day operations at the air bases involved, an Air Force official said in October.

Maj. Gen. Dick Newton, assistant deputy chief of staff for operations, said the investigation found "a failure to follow procedures" by "a limited number of airmen" at the two bases. Newton defended the procedures themselves.

In March 2007, Gates announced the resignation of Army Secretary Francis J. Harvey in the wake of reports of substandard conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington.

In April, Gates said that trying to get the military to come up with new ideas on how to use unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, was "like pulling teeth."

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Gates is a fine man! He's on the ball.