Whiteman Air Force Base

World War II

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 August 6, 1942. On November 12, 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

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 December 3, 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

In 1963, Whiteman AFB transitioned from being a bomber base to a missile base. SAC activated the 351st Strategic Missile Wing at Whiteman on February 1. On September 1, 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 replaced in favor of the Minuteman II, an ICBM with increased range and an improved guidance system. They were tipped with 1.2 megaton W56 thermonuclear warheads.^[4][7] Beginning in the late 1960s, 10 of the 150 active missiles had their warheads swapped with Emergency Rocket Communications System (ERCS) transmitters, which would ensure communication with surviving American strategic forces in the event of a nuclear war.^[8]

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 July 31, 1995, as a result of planned phaseout of the Minuteman II.

B-2 era

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 January 5, 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.^[9]

On November 30, 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 December 17, 1993, Whiteman AFB's first B-2 touched down on the installation's runway.^[10] 21 B-2s would eventually be produced, 19 of which are still operational. All 19 are based at Whiteman AFB.^[11]

On April 1, 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 December 10, 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 thus far 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.^{[12][needs update]}

In June 2025, during the Iran–Israel war, seven stealth bombers from the airbase were sent to strike Iranian nuclear program sites. The bombers completed their mission, dropping GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator 'bunker-buster' bombs and successfully returned to the airbase, having traveled to Iran and back.^[13] The operation was called "Operation Midnight Hammer" by the Americans.^[13]

In December 2025, a Chinese national was arrested for taking photographs of B-2 aircraft as well as the base's perimeter fencing.^[14] In January 2026, Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins commenced the process to shut down a business adjacent to the base,^[15] reported to be affiliated with Guo Wengui, a former Chinese intelligence agent.^[16]

United States Air Force