B-2's roar means 'security'

KNOB NOSTER, Mo. -- Sande Cromer has gotten used to the thunderous roars and trembling buildings when military aircraft soar from nearby Whiteman Air Force Base.

"To me, it sounds like security," Cromer said Monday, standing in the door of her downtown Christian book store, The Sparrow's Nest.

The rumbling of warplanes came again early Monday, rattling windows five miles from Whiteman's runways and awakening visitors to the hometown of the B-2 stealth bomber, about 60 miles southeast of Kansas City.

But half a day after the metallic thunderclaps rocked the Missouri night, the Pentagon confirmed B-2s were part of Monday's second allied assault on terrorist targets.

As on Sunday, the bat-shaped aircraft dropped tons of ordnance after covering a distance of some 7,000 miles from America's heartland to Afghanistan.

Folks in Knob Noster say the noisy comings and goings of military planes are hardly noticed, with the B-2s running multiple training missions each week.

The rumbling is audible inside the elementary and middle schools close to Whiteman's runway. It echoes along State and McPherson streets, the major downtown intersection, lined since Sept. 11 with rippling American flags.

Townspeople have come to recognize the distinctive drone of engines building power for takeoff. So what does the B-2 sound like?

Whoosh and roar

"You should understand that you don't hear them coming," said Tina Brant, manager of the Awards & Recognitions engraving shop. "Then they come in low, right over you, and it's WHOOOSH, then ROARRR, and you first say, 'What was that?' If you're a terrorist on the ground in Afghanistan, you don't hear them coming, either."

Carol Smith, owner of Knob Florist, heard the familiar rumbling from Whiteman during the weekend and sensed "that this was it."

"We have known since Sept. 11 that the B-2s would play a part, and I just felt that this was their time, and sure enough they were rolling out to Afghanistan," she said.

Hours after the terror attacks in New York and Washington, Smith put a hand-lettered poster in her shop's front window. Adorned with small U.S. flags, its message begins: "We have met the enemy. It is time they meet us ..."

The declaration had new meaning Monday, Smith said, "because we have finally struck back, and the B-2 helped lead the way."