Photo: B-2 Spirit bomber over Whiteman Air Force Base

Whiteman Air Force Base (Whiteman AFB) is a base of the United States Air Force in Johnson County, Missouri, United States. It is near the town of Knob Noster, Missouri. The population was 3,814 at the 2000 census. The base is the home of the 509th Bomb Wing, which operates the B-2 Spirit stealth bombers.

The base was activated in 1942 during World War II as Sedalia Glider Base. In 1951 it passed to Strategic Air Command and was modified for use by heavy bombers. First B-47 aircraft were deployed there in 1954. In 1955 Sedalia AFB was renamed to Whiteman AFB in honor of 2d Lt. George A. Whiteman, a native of Sedalia and one of the first American airmen killed in World War II, during the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.

In 1961 US Government decided to use Whiteman AFB as a support base for a wing of Minuteman ICBMs. In the next few years huge construction works were carried out in the vicinity of the base, with 150 missiles silos and 15 launch control centers being built, together with the necessary support infrastructure. The first Minuteman missile arrived at Whiteman on January 14, 1964. The 351st Strategic Missile Wing continued to serve until the end of the Cold War, and then were deactivated in the 1990s in accordance with arms reduction treaties (START) between the US and Russia.

In the late 1980s, a new chapter in the history of the base opened with the decision to base the new B-2 stealth bombers there. Again a massive construction project was carried out to build the facilites necessary to handle the unique aircraft. The first B-2 landed at the base on December 17, 1993. All 21 B-2's are stationed at Whiteman under the command of the 509th Bomb Wing and its two bomb squadrons, the 13th and 393d.

[Source: Wikipedia]

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