Whiteman AFB commander highlights future, historic combat
Published 8:40 pm Wednesday, November 4, 2026
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WARRENSBURG — 509th Bomb Wing Commander Col. Joshua Wiitala addressed the community during the Warrensburg Chamber of Commerce Military Affairs Breakfast on Wednesday, Nov. 4, at the Matthews-Crawford American Legion Post 131.
Wiitala touched on several topics related to the ongoing B-2 Spirit mission, while also looking to the future with the eventual arrival of the B-21 Raider.
According to Wiitala, Whiteman Air Force Base – including the 509th, 442d Fighter Wing and the 131st Bomb Wing – has a population of over 12,000. The total includes just over 3,200 active-duty personnel with the 509th. The base brings an economic impact of nearly a billion dollars, a total that, Wiitala said, will spike in the coming years leading into the arrival of the B-21.
“It’s a big base footprint,” Wiitala said. “We are blessed with just incredible infrastructure at this base.”
No timeline for the B-21’s arrival to Whiteman Air Force Base has been made public.
In September, U.S. Strategic Command announced Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota remains on track for a September 2027 delivery.
“The jet is coming here, and there’ll be population growth associated with that; there will be infrastructure associated with that population growth and stuff we’ve talked about quite a bit with our civic leaders on,” Wiitala said. “I think we’re in a good vector when it comes to housing availability, and what it’s going to take from an education standpoint to support more of those folks.”
Wiitala added that there is not much he can say about the B-21’s capability, but drew a comparison between it and the B-2.
“They’re very, very familiar,” Wiitala said. “But at the same time, everything is different. Everything’s upgraded. The engine’s better, the performance, the instruments, avionics, all that kind of stuff. It’s just a whole modernized take on our operations. I’m very excited about the B-21”
Wiitala said infrastructure work is already underway on base to prepare for the eventual arrival of the B-21.
“We’ve had groundbreaking ceremonies,” Wiitala said. “We started taking out old facilities. They had me out there in excavators to pull down a part of the building in a period of demolition. You are going to start to see some new hangars and start to see new facilities across base. If you look up at Elsworth, it’s a complete transformation of an installation. Whiteman is more of an evolution. We’re already a stealth bomber base, we’re already ready to do those kinds of operations. It’s just an evolution of that capability.”
Wiitala looked back on the journey the base has been on over the course of the last year and a half, looking back to two operations supported by Whiteman Air Force Base.
The list includes Operation Midnight Hammer, where seven B-2s dropped 14 GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators on three Iranian nuclear facilities on June 21, 2025. The mission, supported by the 509th and 131st, marked the largest B-2 operational strike in U.S. history.
“What I always ask my airmen when we talk about OPSEC [operational security] is who announced Operation Midnight Hammer,” Wiitala said. “What was the first mention of that online, the first mention of that? The answer is President [Donald] Trump … What I tell our airmen, that is an absolute home run because of the digital age we live in. The mission was announced by the President of the United States at the time of his choosing.”
Wiitala added that the quiet nature of the operation’s completion is also a credit to the community.
“This local community has our back,” Wiitala said. “This local community knows how to keep the operations at Whiteman a secret.”
The B-2s were used in Iran again in March. Armed with 2,000-pound bombs, the aircraft struck Iran’s hardened ballistic missile facilities.
Throughout March into early April, the first combat operation from Whiteman Air Force Base in 23 years took place as part of Operation Epic Fury.
“The team really rose to the challenge,” Wiitala said. “I could not be prouder of how they performed in combat operations.”
The B-2 has also been part of a number of flyovers over the course of the last few years – including one over the White House on July 4, 2025, the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1, 2026, and the America 250 Celebration on July 4, 2026.
Over the course of each year, the B-2 also participates in several exercises and trainings.
“Every year we have a couple of Red Flags and a couple of Large World Exercises,” Wiitala said. “That usually means we go out to the military space. Sometimes we go to Alaska, and we just practice integrating with fighters, with control platforms. Think of a football team with a lot of different players. You’ve got the line, they have their role. You got receivers, a quarterback, etcetera. That’s their chance of bringing all that together, practice as a team. And when it goes down for real, like it did during Midnight Hammer, we have the force package and go out there to go out there as a team.”
Wiitala ended his visit with Chamber members by thanking the community for continuing to support Whiteman and its airmen through various initiatives.
Joe Andrews can be reached at 660-747-8123.
