Posted on Apr 20, 2022
Near Kansas City, a stealthy Cold War bomber takes its place in new doomsday scenarios
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B-2 stealth bombers stationed at Whiteman Air Force Base are relics of the last century. But the sub-sonic batwing planes give the U.S. Air Force the power to hit even the most heavily defended targets, anywhere in the world. And that capability seems a lot more important now than it did when B-2s were first deployed.
Military minds imagined the B-2 stealth bomber primarily as a doomsday weapon — a virtually unstoppable way to tote nuclear bombs and drop them on the Soviet Union.
But some 30 years ago, just as the massive bat-winged jet began to take flight, the Berlin Wall came tumbling down and the Cold War mostly thawed.
Military minds imagined the B-2 stealth bomber primarily as a doomsday weapon — a virtually unstoppable way to tote nuclear bombs and drop them on the Soviet Union.
But some 30 years ago, just as the massive bat-winged jet began to take flight, the Berlin Wall came tumbling down and the Cold War mostly thawed.
Near Kansas City, a stealthy Cold War bomber takes its place in new doomsday scenarios
Posted from kcur.org
Whiteman AFB
Flying
Russia
Cold War
Pentagon
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On June 1st, 1992, I was in the huge audience in the main hangar at the Offutt Air Force Base flightline when President George H. W. Bush, standing alongside General Colin Powell, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, oversaw the stand-down of Strategic Air Command, and the Stand-up of Air Combat Command, which merged some SAC units into Air Combat Command, making it the largest Major Air Command in US Air Force history, while other SAC units formed the new streamlined USSTRATCOM.
Later still, the former SAC and some tactical fighter units from ACC calved off into what is now Air Force Global Strike Command.
“The long, bitter years of the Cold War are over,” declared Gen. Colin Powell, the nation’s top military officer, “and America and her allies have won — totally, decisively, overwhelmingly.”
“You did your job well,” Bush said. “The horror of World War III never came. You kept the peace, and the nation and the free world will be forever grateful.”
But that night, when the Air Force's two largest fighting commands merged, we were witnesses to a transition larger than any other in US Air Force history. And as President Bush began his last refrain, the giant doors of the hangar began to open into the cool air and the dark night enveloping Offutt Air Force Base. And true to the perfect timing coordination of ATC, Operations, and the 55th's Wing King, the president of the United States finished his last paragraph, but paused at his last sentence.
There was a deafening roar as the walls of the hangar shook and the bleachers we were all standing on rattled. And through the now wide-open hangar doors that gave us an unobstructed view of the last two-thirds of the flightline, the bright orange-red afterburners of a B2 Spirit came into relief, barely 150 feet above the hangar, and the giant aircraft rose up into the moonless night, the two orange-red jets eclipsing the night's stars.
The entire throng of several hundred people gasped in unison, paused, and then roared in approval, breaking into raucous applause. The standing ovation lasted over ten minutes, while President Bush and General Powell walked around the dais, smiling, shaking hands, and waving at all of us in the crowd.
It was an amazing night, a truly memorable experience.
That speech, that event, that hangar, that crowd, that president, that Chairman of the JCS...what an amazing experience to have had!
Later still, the former SAC and some tactical fighter units from ACC calved off into what is now Air Force Global Strike Command.
“The long, bitter years of the Cold War are over,” declared Gen. Colin Powell, the nation’s top military officer, “and America and her allies have won — totally, decisively, overwhelmingly.”
“You did your job well,” Bush said. “The horror of World War III never came. You kept the peace, and the nation and the free world will be forever grateful.”
But that night, when the Air Force's two largest fighting commands merged, we were witnesses to a transition larger than any other in US Air Force history. And as President Bush began his last refrain, the giant doors of the hangar began to open into the cool air and the dark night enveloping Offutt Air Force Base. And true to the perfect timing coordination of ATC, Operations, and the 55th's Wing King, the president of the United States finished his last paragraph, but paused at his last sentence.
There was a deafening roar as the walls of the hangar shook and the bleachers we were all standing on rattled. And through the now wide-open hangar doors that gave us an unobstructed view of the last two-thirds of the flightline, the bright orange-red afterburners of a B2 Spirit came into relief, barely 150 feet above the hangar, and the giant aircraft rose up into the moonless night, the two orange-red jets eclipsing the night's stars.
The entire throng of several hundred people gasped in unison, paused, and then roared in approval, breaking into raucous applause. The standing ovation lasted over ten minutes, while President Bush and General Powell walked around the dais, smiling, shaking hands, and waving at all of us in the crowd.
It was an amazing night, a truly memorable experience.
That speech, that event, that hangar, that crowd, that president, that Chairman of the JCS...what an amazing experience to have had!
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