The deputy commander of US nuclear forces, Vice Adm. Tim Giardina, has been relieved of duty amid a military investigation of allegations that he used counterfeit chips at an Iowa casino, the Navy said Wednesday.
The move is exceedingly rare and perhaps unprecedented in the history of US Strategic Command, which is responsible for all American nuclear war-fighting forces, including nuclear-armed submarines, bombers and land-based missiles.
Iowa state officials have said Giardina is alleged to have used $1,500 in counterfeit chips at the Horseshoe Casino in Council Bluffs, Iowa, across the Missouri River from Strategic Command headquarters near Omaha, Neb. He has not been charged with a crime.
The Navy’s top spokesman, Rear Adm. John Kirby, said Giardina, who had held the job since December 2011, is being reassigned to the Navy staff pending the outcome of the probe by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.
As a consequence of being removed from his post at Strategic Command, Giardina falls in rank to two-star admiral.
Retired Air Force Gen. Eugene Habiger, a former commander of Strategic Command, said he believes this is the first time in the history of the command that a deputy commander has been relieved of duty.