CONTACT: Chuck Morris, (850) 644-1061; <camorris@mailer.fsu.edu>

Sept. 11, 2008

FSU FOOTBALL FANS: LOOK TO THE SKIES, AND YOU WILL GET A BIG SURPRISE

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- It’s a bird . . . It’s a plane . . . It’s a . . . stealth bomber?

Florida State University football fans attending Saturday’s game against the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga will see something quite special in the skies over Doak Campbell Stadium prior to the game’s 3:45 p.m. kickoff. Just as the FSU Marching Chiefs complete the final note of the national anthem, a B2 Spirit bomber -- known to many as a “stealth” bomber for its ability to evade detection by enemy defenses -- is scheduled to fly over the stadium. Fans are advised to look toward the north end zone, where the bat-like aircraft will first be seen as it speeds south.

The bomber -- one of only 20 in the world -- is part of the Air Force’s 509th Bomb Wing, headquartered at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri. On Saturday, the B2 will take off from Whiteman, perform flyovers at three separate events and then fly back to base, all without landing.

FSU has a military connection that enabled it to bring the B2 to Tallahassee. The commander of the 509th Bomb Wing, Brig. Gen. Garrett Harencak, is the father of Megan Harencak, a recent FSU graduate who was a member of the Air Force ROTC program during her time at the university.

B-2 bombers led the way in the campaigns over Afghanistan and more recently in Iraq, where their accurate payloads of up to 16 2,000-pound bombs were an integral part of the effort to remove the regime of Saddam Hussein from power.

The B-2 carries a crew of two pilots and is capable of striking anywhere in the world, either by flying directly from its base in Missouri or by deploying to locations outside the United States. The bomber holds the record for the longest combat mission in aviation history: 44 hours, from Whiteman Air Force Base to targets in Afghanistan.

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