Air Force Nuke Chief Fired for Being Drunken 'Boor'

When the Air Force fired Maj. Gen. Michael Carey in October, it said only that it was for "personal misbehavior." Now we know what that means. Carey essentially appears to have made a drunken spectacle of himself during a three-day official trip to Moscow in July, insulting his hosts and fraternizing with "suspicious" women, according to an investigative report released via a Freedom of Information Act request. Here are some highlights, courtesy of the Washington Post (which notes he "behaved like a boor"), Russia Today, and CNN:

• Carey became "visibly agitated" about a long layover in Zurich, and started drinking. "He appeared drunk and, in the public area, talked loudly about the importance of his position as commander of the only operational nuclear force in the world, and that he saves the world from war every day," one witness said.
• Carey kept on drinking throughout his stay in Moscow. There, he met two, to use his term, "hot women," at the rooftop bar at the Ritz Carlton, and again at a restaurant the next night. They were evasive about whether they were Russian or British.
• Carey himself found the women suspicious. "For people who are in business to be kind of conveniently in the same place where we’re at, it seemed odd to me," he said.
• While at the restaurant, "Maj. Gen Carey had alcohol and kept trying to get the band to let him play with them," the report said. "The band did not allow Maj. Gen. Carey to play with them."
• Carey had another eyebrow-raising encounter with a female tobacco store clerk. "A tobacco store lady talking about physics in the wee hours of the morning doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me," he told investigators.
• The report says Carey "was frequently rude" to his hosts, both during dinner—where he offended with unspecified comments about Syria and Edward Snowden—and during a walk through the Red Square, where he "pouted and sulked" because he couldn't keep up. He also kept arriving late to events.
• At one point on a tour of a monastery he tried to give their (again female) guide a fist bump. "She had no idea what he was trying to do," a witness said. "It was again, very, very embarrassing."

Carey has now been re-assigned as an assistant to the commander of the Air Force's Space Command. "This was an unfortunate incident," that commander said. "Maj. Gen. Carey has otherwise served the nation very well. (More Michael Carey stories.)