15 AIRMEN SUSPECTED OF DRUG USE

Fifteen enlisted airmen who work inside NORAD and at Peterson Air
Force Base, including some assigned to security-sensitive areas, are
being investigated for drug use, The Gazette learned Wednesday.

Some of the suspects have been reassigned pending completion of the
probe. Air Force officials insist there has been no breach of the
nation's security because of alleged drug use at Peterson and Cheyenne
Mountain Air Force Station, the nerve center of the North American
Aerospace Defense Command - which monitors the continent's air space
for missiles and enemy aircraft.

No one had been charged or publicly identified as of Wednesday, said
Capt. Brenda Campbell, a spokeswoman at Peterson.

More airmen could be implicated as the investigation progresses, she
said.

"We do not believe this is a widespread problem," the Air Force said
in a prepared statement from Peterson. "The investigation only
involved U.S. enlisted Air Force personnel and it in no way has
affected mission readiness or mission accomplishment."

The case at Peterson and NORAD apparently has no connection with a
drug probe at the Air Force Academy, Campbell said. She couldn't say
why investigators ruled out a connection. But generally cadets and
enlisted personnel, especially from another base, do not socialize.

The academy continues to investigate 14 cadets for using or dealing
drugs, one of whom faces court-martial later this month. Nine other
cadets were punished for knowing about drug use but not coming
forward. A dozen more were investigated and exonerated.

The investigation at Peterson and Cheyenne Mountain began in
June.

The drugs alleged to have been used are Ecstasy, LSD and marijuana,
Campbell said.

Officials are not disclosing where the suspects work, saying that
information might jeopardize the investigation.

Some of the suspects, however, have been removed from sensitive duties
or work areas and assigned other duties, a move commanders can make
when there is enough evidence against a suspect, Campbell said.

"If it is in the best interest of the Air Force, commanders will take
away secure clearance, the ability to enter high-security areas,
access to weapons and access to any critical component," Campbell
said. "We understand the sensitive nature of the mission. We aren't
going to jeopardize that.

"(The public) will have to trust commanders out here to pull people.
... As soon as there is concrete evidence, those people won't be there
anymore, won't be allowed in there. They are gone."

Missions inside Cheyenne Mountain include some of the most critical in
the U.S. military: watching the skies for missile launches and air
attacks against North America and tracking objects in space to avoid
collisions.

In the case of a nuclear missile launch, personnel inside Cheyenne
Mountain would be in direct contact with the president.

Peterson, headquarters of U.S. Space Command, is also home to
sensitive areas such as the Space Operations Center, a battle station
where all the information collected inside Cheyenne Mountain and other
bases is pulled together for high-level decision making by U.S.
military commanders to assess threats and recommend
retaliation.

Clearly, the suspects would not be working on the consoles inside
Cheyenne Mountain or at the critical Space Operations Center. Only
officers hold those jobs, and the probe focuses on enlisted airmen.

The Air Force has uncovered drug use at other bases. Prosecutors are
pursuing a case against 26 enlisted airmen at Langley Air Force Base
in Virginia for selling or using drugs such as Ecstasy.