Hell in a Handbasket

I came across this Yahoo news report. It seems that some Air Force officers had some unusable out-of-date missile launch codes, they were in a secure underground facility with armed guards at the entrances and on the perimeter, waiting to be transported back to their base. And they decided to take a nap.

The problem is that this is being bandied about in the news as if it was some grave breach of security that could have led to World War III. If the officers weren't supposed to nap then it would be a black mark on their record, as it should be. If officers tasked with the same duty routinely take naps when they shouldn't, then it shows a lack of good leadership and their commander will get in big trouble.

But I don't see the urgency here. The news reports try pretty hard to give the impression that anyone could have stolen missile launch codes from the sleeping officers, which doesn't seem very credible considering that they were napping inside of a secure underground bunker. And I don't see what the big deal is if launch codes that won't work are stolen anyway.

So while I can see this as an indication of general sloppiness that has crept in to the Air Force structure, it seems to me that the journalists that wrote about this incident are hysterical ninnies who are trying to gin up a false crises in order to gain readers.

Some of my readers have a military background. Which one of us is right, the breathlessly concerned reporters or this civilian with my "whatev" attitude?