Whiteman Air Force Base

US Air Force base near Knob Noster, Missouri, United States

Whiteman Air Force Base

Near Knob Noster, Missouri in the United States of America

A B-2A Spirit from the 509th Bomb Wing flying over Whiteman AFB.

Site information
Type| US Air Force Base
Owner| Department of Defense
Operator| US Air Force
Controlled by| Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC)
Condition| Operational
Website| www.whiteman.af.mil
Location

Whiteman

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Whiteman

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Whiteman

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Coordinates| 38°43′49″N 93°32′55″W﻿ / ﻿38.73028°N 93.54861°W﻿ / 38.73028; -93.54861
Site history
Built| 1942 (1942) (as Sedalia Glider Base)
In use| 1942 – present
Garrison information
Current
commander| Colonel Keith J. Butler[1]
Garrison| 509th Bomb Wing (Host)
Airfield information
Identifiers| IATA: SZL, ICAO: KSZL, FAA LID: SZL, WMO: 724467
Elevation| 265.4 metres (871 ft) AMSL
| Runways

Direction | Length and surface
01/19 | 3,779.5 metres (12,400 ft) Concrete
Source: Federal Aviation Administration[2]

Whiteman Air Force Base (IATA: SZL, ICAO: KSZL, FAA LID: SZL) is a United States Air Force base located just south of Knob Noster, Missouri, United States. The current home of the B-2 Spirit bomber, the base is approximately sixty miles (100 km) east-southeast of Kansas City; it is named for 2nd Lt George Whiteman, who was killed during the attack on Pearl Harbor.

The facility covers 5,566 acres (8.7 sq mi; 22.5 km2) of land and is maintained by the 509th Civil Engineer Squadron.[3]

## History

[edit]

### World War II

[edit]

In 1942, the United States Army Air Corps selected the site of the present-day base to be the home of Sedalia Glider Base, a training base for WACO glider pilots. In May 1942, construction workers began building a railroad spur for the new air base in an area known to locals as the "Blue Flats" because of the color of the soil. The new railroad line was built by the Missouri Pacific Railroad. The base was officially opened on 6 August 1942. On 12 November 1942, the name was changed to Sedalia Army Air Field.[4]

After the end of World War II, operations at the airfield declined, and many of the buildings were abandoned. In December 1947, the base was put on inactive status.[5]

### 340th Bomb Wing

[edit]

In August 1951, the base was renamed again, to Sedalia Air Force Base, as it was now part of the United States' newest military service branch, the United States Air Force.[4]

In October 1952, the base was turned over to the 340th Bombardment Wing. Improvements were made to the 1942 runway, as well as other base facilities, and Strategic Air Command (SAC) scheduled the base to receive squadrons flying the B-47 Stratojet and the KC-97 Stratofreighter. The first B-47 landed at the base in March 1954.[5]

On 3 December 1955, the base was renamed Whiteman Air Force Base in honor of 2nd Lieutenant George A. Whiteman, an Army Air Corps pilot who was killed during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor while attempting to take off from Bellows Field. Whiteman was born in Longwood, Missouri, and graduated from Smith-Cotton High School in Sedalia, less than 20 miles from the base that would bear his name.[4]

### ICBM era

[edit]

In 1963, Whiteman AFB transitioned from being a bomber base to a missile base. SAC activated the 351st Strategic Missile Wing at Whiteman on 1 February. On 1 September, having retired its B-47 and KC-97 aircraft, the remnants of the 340th Bombardment Wing were transferred to Bergstrom AFB, Texas where it assumed control of the B-52 Stratofortress and KC-135 Stratotanker assets of the inactivating 4130th Strategic Wing.[6]

The transition of Whiteman AFB from a bomber base to missile base required massive military construction projects. 867,000 cubic yards of earth and rock were excavated to make room for underground launch facilities and 15 launch control centers. 168,000 yards of concrete, 25,355 tons of reinforcing steel, and 15,120 tons of structural steel were used in the effort, and a vast underground intersite cable network was installed.[4]

The 351st employed the LGM-30 Minuteman weapons system, an ICBM capable of hitting targets up to 4300 miles away. In the mid-1960s, the Minuteman I missiles were swapped out in favor of the Minuteman II, an ICBM with increased range and an improved guidance system.[4][7]

In the 1980s, Whiteman AFB became the first missile base to field an all-female Minuteman missile crew, as well as the first male and female Minuteman crew.[4]

The 351st Missile Wing and its three squadrons of Minuteman II ICBMs were inactivated on 31 July 1995 as a result of planned phaseout of the Minuteman II.

### B-2 era

[edit]

At the 1986 Reykjavik Summit between U.S. President Ronald Reagan and the new Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev, the United States and the Soviet Union agreed to a drawdown of nuclear arms via two treaties: the INF Treaty and START I. This would lead to the eventual phase-out of the Minuteman II systems at Whiteman, and put the future of the base in question. On 5 January 1987, Ike Skelton, a Congressman representing Missouri's 4th district, announced that Whiteman AFB would be the home of the USAF's new Advanced Technology Bomber, which would eventually be called the B-2 Spirit.[8]

On 30 November 1988, SAC announced that the 509th Bomb Wing would divest its FB-111 and KC-135 aircraft, relocate from its then-home station of Pease AFB, New Hampshire which was being realigned as an Air National Guard base pursuant to BRAC, and become the nation's first operational B-2 bomber unit. On 17 December 1993, Whiteman AFB's first B-2 touched down on the installation's runway.[9] 21 B-2s would eventually be produced, 19 of which are still operational. All 19 are based at Whiteman AFB.[10]

On 1 April 1994, the 442nd Fighter Wing of the Air Force Reserve Command relocated to Whiteman AFB with their A-10 Thunderbolt II aircraft to become a tenant command at Whiteman AFB following the BRAC-directed closure of their former home station, Richards-Gebaur AFB, Missouri.[citation needed]

On 10 December 2022, a B-2 suffered an in-flight malfunction and made an emergency landing, with an onboard fire being extinguished by base firefighting personnel; there were initially no other details released, and the Air Force has thusfar declined to state what caused the accident. The aircraft was subsequently declared a total loss as a consequence of the duration and costs of potential repairs, and was retired from service. The nineteen remaining B-2 aircraft were temporarily grounded and checked for safety defects.[11][needs update]

## Based units

[edit]

Units marked 'GSU' are geographically separate units that are based at Whiteman, but are subordinate to a parent unit based at another location.

### United States Air Force

[edit]

This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

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Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC)

* Eighth Air Force
* 509th Bomb Wing (Host Wing)[12]
* Headquarters 509th Bomb Wing
* 509th Operations Group[13]
* 13th Bomb Squadron – B-2A Spirit, T-38A Talon
* 393rd Bomb Squadron – B-2A Spirit
* 509th Operations Support Squadron
* 509th Maintenance Group[14]
* 509th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron
* 509th Maintenance Operations Flight
* 509th Maintenance Squadron
* 509th Munitions Squadron
* 509th Medical Group[15]
* 509th Mission Support Group[16]
* 509th Civil Engineering Squadron
* 509th Communications Squadron
* 509th Contracting Squadron
* 509th Force Support Squadron
* 509th Logistics Readiness Squadron
* 509th Security Forces Squadron

Air Combat Command (ACC)

* Twelfth Air Force
* 432nd Wing / 432nd Air Expeditionary Wing
* 25th Attack Group
* 20th Attack Squadron (GSU) – MQ-9A Reaper[17]
* US Air Force Warfare Center
* 53rd Wing
* 53rd Test and Evaluation Group
* 72nd Test and Evaluation Squadron (GSU) – B-2A Spirit[18]
* 57th Wing
* US Air Force Weapons School
* 325th Weapons Squadron (GSU) – B-2A Spirit[18]

Air Force Reserve Command (AFRC)

* Tenth Air Force
* 442nd Fighter Wing[19]
* Headquarters 442nd Fighter Wing
* 442nd Operations Group
* 303rd Fighter Squadron – A-10C Thunderbolt II
* 442nd Operations Support Flight
* 442nd Maintenance Group
* 442nd Aircraft Maintenance Squadron
* 442nd Maintenance Operations Flight
* 442nd Maintenance Squadron
* 442nd Mission Support Group
* 442nd Civil Engineer Squadron
* 442nd Communications Flight
* 442nd Force Support Squadron
* 442nd Logistics Readiness Squadron
* 442nd Security Forces Squadron
* 442nd Medical Squadron

Air National Guard (ANG)

* Missouri Air National Guard
* 131st Bomb Wing[20]
* Headquarters 131st Bomb Wing
* 131st Operations Group
* 110th Bomb Squadron – B-2A Spirit
* 131st Operations Support Flight
* 131st Maintenance Group
* 131st Aircraft Maintenance Squadron
* 131st Maintenance Squadron
* 131st Maintenance Operations Flight
* 131st Medical Group
* 131st Mission Support Group
* 131st Civil Engineer Squadron
* 131st Communications Flight
* 131st Contracting Squadron
* 131st Force Support Squadron
* 131st Logistics Readiness Squadron
* 231st Civil Engineer Flight
* 239th Combat Communications Squadron

### United States Army

[edit]

Missouri Army National Guard

* 35th Infantry Division
* 35th Combat Aviation Brigade
* 135th Aviation Regiment[18]
* 1st Battalion (GSU) – AH-64 Apache

### United States Navy

[edit]

Navy Expeditionary Combat Command (NECC)

* Coastal Riverine Force
* Coastal Riverine Group One
* Coastal Riverine Squadron 11 (GSU)[12]

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## References

[edit]

1. ^ "New commander takes reins of 509th Bomb Wing". www.whiteman.af.mil. Retrieved 2 October 2023.
2. ^ "Airport Diagram – Whiteman AFB (KSZL)" (PDF). Federal Aviation Administration. 10 October 2019. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 November 2019. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
3. ^ "About Whiteman AFB". www.whiteman.af.mil. Retrieved 1 September 2024.
4. ^ a b c d e f "Whiteman Air Force Base". 12 August 2010. Retrieved 30 March 2020.
5. ^ a b Larson, George A. (2018). Whiteman Air Force Base. Arcadia Publishing. p. 29\. ISBN 9781467128124.
6. ^ "340th Bomb Wing - SAC - Whitman AFB, B-47, B-52".
7. ^ "The Minuteman IA & IB Missiles". National Park Service. Retrieved 19 July 2023.
8. ^ "B-2 Spirit". 19 October 2019.
9. ^ Mailes, Yancy (16 December 2013). "The B-2 comes to Missouri". Air Force Glocal Strike Command. Retrieved 5 April 2020.
10. ^ Insinna, Valerie (29 April 2019). "Here's how B-2 bomber pilots pull off grueling 33-hour flights". Defense News. Retrieved 5 April 2020.
11. ^ "US Air Force Grounds Entire B-2 Nuclear Bomber Fleet After December 10 Accident - Reports". 20 December 2022.
12. ^ a b Hunt, Heidi (15 March 2013). "Naval reservists train in America's heartland > > Display". Whiteman AFB. US Air Force. Retrieved 9 November 2019.
13. ^ "509th Operations Group". Whiteman Air Force Base. United States Air Force. Retrieved 31 March 2020.
14. ^ "509th Maintenance Group". Whiteman Air Force Base. United States Air Force. Retrieved 31 March 2020.
15. ^ "509th Medical Group". Air Force Medical Service. US Air Force. Retrieved 31 March 2020.
16. ^ "509th Mission Support Group". Whiteman Air Force Base. US Air Force. Retrieved 31 March 2020.
17. ^ Pine, Lt. Col. Louis (25 August 2017). "Evolution of airpower > Whiteman Air Force Base > Display". Whiteman AFB. US Air Force. Retrieved 30 April 2020.
18. ^ a b c "Units". Whiteman Air Force Base. US Air Force. Retrieved 31 March 2020.
19. ^ "Units". 442d Fighter Wing. US Air Force. Retrieved 31 March 2020.
20. ^ "Units". 131st Bomb Wing. US Air Force. Retrieved 31 March 2020.

## External links

[edit]

* Whiteman AFB official site
* Historic American Engineering Record documentation, filed under Knob Noster, Johnson County, MO:
* HAER No. MO-86, "Whiteman Air Force Base, Bomber Alert Facility S-6", 29 photos, 6 measured drawings, 24 data pages, 2 photo caption pages
* HAER No. MO-87, "Whiteman Air Force Base, Oscar O-1 Minuteman Missile Alert Facility", 46 photos, 4 measured drawings, 31 data pages, 3 photo caption pages
* HAER No. MO-88, "Whiteman Air Force Base, Minuteman Missile Launch Facility Trainer T-12", 25 photos, 3 measured drawings, 22 data pages, 2 photo caption pages

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