Former B-2 pilot instructor reflects on experience after planes were used in Iran

By Erika McGuire

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    COLUMBIA, Missouri (KMIZ) — The B-2 Bomber Stealth Fleet held Whiteman Air Force Base in Johnson County played a critical role in the United State’s “Operation Midnight Hammer” airstrike on Iran.

The base is the only one in the country that houses the nation’s stealth bomber fleet and is the sole operational base for the B-2. A total of seven B-2s flew 36-hours round trip Saturday and hit three of Iran’s nuclear facilities.

“It’s like the Super Bowl for these folks and they executed flawlessly,” former B-2 Instructor Pilot Joseph Vandusen said.

Several other B-2s flew west as a decoy. Gen. Dan Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, confirmed in an interview with ABC News that the mission was the second-longest B-2 mission ever flown.

Vandusen was B-2 instructor pilot from 2012-17. He said his longest mission was 31.2 hours long.

“It’s roughing it. It’s like you’re going out camping,” Vandusen said.

He then went onto the international guard and is now a pilot for United Airlines.

“Ever since I was a little kid, I went to airshows and I never really wanted to fly civilian airplanes I always wanted to the military in some capacity,” he said.

According to Vandusen, about 20 pilots are produced a year after they go through a year of B-2 pilot training.

“It’s very selective, still its the Air Force within the Air Force you have to apply for it and it’s extremely competitive to get in,” Vandusen said. “Compared to an airline, [where] they produce over a thousand pilots a year.”

All 19 B-2 bombers are based at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri. The U.S. originally built 21, but two were damaged. Every B-2 mission begins and ends in Missouri with two pilots on board.

“The left seat pilot is flying the airplane responding to threats the right seat pilot is dealing with a radar, the communications and the weapons both of these are very intense,” he added. “Its loud, you have to wear headphones and helmet.”

If something does go wrong during a flight, Vandusen says pilots have a last resort option to escape.

“There are explosive bolts above you for if you have a problem and you have to eject and the ceiling explodes you go up on a rail and you go out and the parachute is suppose to get,” Vandusen said.

When it comes to eating, hygiene and rest, Vandusen says there is a microwave on board and pilots bring a cooler along with a hot cup. There is also a camper toilet behind the right seat and a blow-up mattress for sleeping.

“Someone is constantly out of the seat getting some sort of rest and you learn a lot about sleep and physiology these missions are absolutely brutal you’re exhausted there is no way around it you can’t get enough little naps.” He said.

Vandusen described flying a B-2 Bomber as intense and said overall a flight or combat mission can be challenging, adrenaline rush and exhausting. He says the adrenaline rush heading to a target keeps a pilot going back once the adrenaline rush wears off and traveling back begins, that’s when the real challenge begins.

“Your adrenaline is down and you’re trying to keep each other awake and you’re switching off duties doing the air refueling cuz you got to make it back home and its often times that’s the hardest part,” He said.

According to Vandusen, “Operation Midnight Hammer” likely refueled three times during their flight. Refueling is done mid-air and takes between 20-30 minutes.

“They are connected to another airplane in the sky, a tanker plane comes up and you literally go in and connect underneath,” he said. “There is a boom operator and a tanker who flies the boom into your airplane on the top there is a receptacle so the boom goes in to the receptacle and then you get gas.”

Vandusen said the all the pilots involved deserve praise for their actions in Iran.

“Being able to see the B-2 folks go out and take care of business then come home and then fade back in the shadows and that’s what they do they are Americas 911 force and when called upon they go and and then they fade back in the shadows and they are reading to be Americas 911 force again,” Vandusen said.

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