It beggared belief to learn last year that a U.S. Air Force bomber had flown from a base in North Dakota to one in Louisiana carrying a cargo of armed nuclear weapons. The B-52's crew had no idea the missiles had warheads attached.

It was only slightly less scary to subsequently learn that the Air Force had mistakenly sent ballistic missile fuses to Taiwan instead of helicopter batteries, which the Taiwanese had ordered. China was not amused.

Neither, it turns out, was Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Last week, in the wake of a classified official investigation into the events, Gates took the unprecedented step of sacking Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne and Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley. Gates said his move came because of "the gradual erosion of nuclear stand-ards and a lack of effective oversight by Air Force leadership."

That's putting it politely. If the Air Force is careless with its nuclear responsibilities, how far down the line does carelessness go? The Air Force brass needed to learn a lesson. Fire two, teach 2,000.

It would be tempting to say that Gates had no choice in the matter, but that's not true. He works for an administration for which "accountability" has largely been a foreign word. Gates, who returned to Washington from Texas to take over the Pentagon from Donald Rumsfeld, showed that there was a new sheriff in town when he canned Army Secretary Francis Harvey after the scandal over living conditions at Walter Reed Hospital.

Gates sent a clear and unmistakable signal that to whom much responsibility is given, much is expected. He's done the same thing now with the top two Air Force officials. This is the kind of leadership that the American people deserve.