Crowd Facts: A man was dismissed from the US Air Force for asking "How can I know that an order I receive to launch my missiles came from a sane president?"

A man was dismissed from the US Air Force for asking "How can I know that an order I receive to launch my missiles came from a sane president?"

His name was Major Harold Hering, and asked the question on the subject of the two man rule. The two man rule is a mechanism for high levels of security where two people are required for a certain function or authorization.

It’s used commonly in nuclear launch scenarios to ensure that one person’s misbehavior or misconduct cannot cause disastrous results. The two man rule is used in the US Air Force to manage the launch of nuclear weapons and prevent a single individual from launching.

Hering’s statement that landed him in hot water came from the issue of the credibility of the person giving the order to launch. Harold Hering was posing his question to point out that there are no safeguards to verify the person issuing the order (in that case the president) is actually sane enough to be doing so.

Unfortunately, the military higher ups didn’t think very highly of his comment, and dismissed him. Do you think he had a valid claim?

(Source)