 Good morning Barksdale and a warm welcome from Whiteman Air Force Base. My name is Captain Joshua Page with the 519th Bomb Wing 13th Bomb Squadron. Behind me is the B2 stealth bomber, which I think is probably the coolest jet in the inventory. We've got today the flagship, the Spirit of America. So come with me and let's take a closer look. So let's talk a little bit more about what makes this airplane so unique. First off is just the striking design. It was designed in the 80s and filled it in the early 90s, but in my opinion it still looks like it's from the future. So it's the iconic flying wing with the straight triangular edge and the jagged trailing edge that makes this airplane stand out among the crowd. We've got four F-117, 17,000 pound thrust producing engines, and those are actually embedded in the jet. It's kind of why it's hard to see. There's just those little bumps on top of the wing right now. Whereas most jets, you just walk up and you can see the big engine hanging out on the outside. That's not the case for us because we're supposed to be stealthy. So we have embedded engines that hide a lot of our sound and heat signature and that adds to our ability to penetrate the most heavily defended areas in the world. That's just one of many things we've got working for us here in the B2 community. Also we've got stealth coating along the airplane. So low observable materials that coat the entire aircraft that everyone makes sure is pristine and ready to go in the event that the nation calls upon us. So in addition to the engines, the unique signature of the aircraft, we've also got a 6,000 nautical mile unre-fueled range. A lot of our missions, however, on the other side of the globe require tanker support. So we've got on the books the longest recorded flight is about 44 and a half hours. And that was just after 9-11. Whiteman Air Force Base provided the B2s that struck the Taliban initially right after those attacks. So about 44 and a half hours, probably five air to air refuelings, several hundred thousand pounds of gas in the air as you can imagine is quite the daunting feat. But this airplane is pretty spectacular. So when you show in the morning for a normal training sortie, you'll show up, you'll meet your crew chief and maintenance team here at the aircraft. Well, they have preflighted the entire airplane, checked both weapons bays which can carry up to 40,000 pounds of conventional or nuclear weapons. They'll make sure the aircraft is safe and ready for flight. They just configured appropriately. And one of us do the walk around. The other crew member will get all of our gear, our flight equipment, helmet, checklists, our manuals, and all of our life support equipment up into the aircraft. Once that's settled and we do our ground ops, a normal training sortie really consists of takeoff anywhere from 30 to 40,000 feet as our final level off altitude where we'll end up meeting a tanker for a rendezvous where we practice our air to air refueling. It's one of the more challenging things we do as pilots here is manage a very large airplane next to another very large airplane only several feet apart going really fast. So that is a high emphasis item for us here at the 13th Bomb Squadron in the schoolhouse. And once we're done with that, we will go and practice hitting a time on target of a simulated target anywhere in the world. We'll practice our bombing techniques, tactics, and procedures and make sure that we are the most lethal and ready force we can be. And then when we're done with that, we'll come back here to Whiteman. We'll execute several traffic patterns whether that be normal touch and goes, emergency patterns in the event. If something does go wrong, we'll have the skill set to land the aircraft safely. And then when we're done with that, we'll debrief and go over that entire five to six hour ordeal of where we can improve as a crew force. So next we can go and see where we would go up into the aircraft. So here we have the crew entry ladder. We're both the pilot and mission commander entering and exit the aircraft. While I can't take you up there with us today, I can try to paint a picture for you of what you would see if you went up there. So as you climb the ladder, there's several different circuit breakers, oxygen support equipment, and generic equipment that helps to support the aircraft and the air crew during flight. When you turn to your left, you'll see up to the front of the aircraft, there's two ejection seats, one for each crew member. Those are rated at zero zero. That just means zero airspeed, zero altitude. In emergency, in an extreme circumstance, you could eject on the ground or at high altitude and high speed safely. Behind you, you would see not much, honestly. There's not a lot of room to turn around, sit down. There's really nowhere to walk. It can get a little cramped in there sometimes. But on long duration sorties, crews in the past have made kind of makeshift cots for taking a nap, switching out with the other guy. So you get a little bit of shut-eye. Well, that's really all I can show you today. I hope that you've enjoyed your tour here at Whiteman Air Force Base. I hope you've enjoyed getting to see the B2, stealth bomber up close and personal. I hope you have a good day and enjoy the air show there at Barksdale. Bye.