Crafting History – B-2 Remembering the First Run transcript

[Music] well I didn't know I was going to fly for a career it just kind of happened for me so back in my neighborhood we were on the Final Approach path into off at Air Force Base so we would ride our bikes up to the old Omaha airport up there were uh 3 b2s and on Saturday mornings we go up there and play crew and and you wonder what it's like started college I went into RC I end up going down a navigator path and next thing you know I'm graduating and eventually I had enough hours I get a call one day and it's for my commander and he says uh you're going to Euro NATO joint Jet Pilot training that's when the first like rumors were out there that the B2 uh would be coming out and what the crew makeup might be and this and that but then um as Kosovo became more the the attention of the world and I was selected to be among the first view a lot of the design of the B2 cockpit came from the F-111 so it was an easier transition for me it was clearly a lot heavier than other aircraft I flown so I could feel the weight of it getting Airborne for the first time you're not maneuverable if they pick you up on radar there's nothing you can do first time ever that those be used in combat so it's all about survivability that night for my commander and he uh stands up and says you're executed you're going into combat so we're both packed in our seats we've got our helmets on visors down our mask is up and outside is just jet black I can see every Star I felt every emotion at once continued eastbound press in on our plan our time to go begins driving down 60 seconds 30 20 and then 5 Seconds the bay doors come open I could feel it in the seat of my pants and then 3 2 1 the first weapon releases the second weapon releases and then pretty soon that very quiet night in image it it changed in in a heartbeat all that while those seconds seem like minutes and you're like we're giving them angles if they didn't know we were there before they'd certainly be looking for us now running on adrenaline we're fairly low on fuel so we found our tanker now we have enough fuel to get home approach the the Eastern seab board yeah could finally hear a American voices it just felt good we pressed inbound it checked in and uh uh air traffic control didn't say anything here you are okay yeah I always get emotional when I talk about seeing the US again after all that I'm very lucky very proud and uh very fortunate to have had the opportunity just about anybody who's contributed to the B2 gave me the tools and Technology I needed to do what I had to do and and um I'm really just proud of that airplane