IT’S MY THURSDAY ESSAY FOR VIP SUBSCRIBERS: Sunday’s ‘Midnight Hammer’ Operation Launched in 1941.

“On Sunday, when those jets returned to Whiteman, their families were there — flags flying and tears flowing.” —U.S. Air Force Gen. Dan “Razin” Caine, on the B-2 Spirit bomber crews who conducted their part of Operation Midnight Hammer.

The dead-sexy B-2 Spirit bombers and their highly trained crews got all the attention in the days following Operation Midnight Hammer, but there was so much more to the mission than a half-dozen or so stealth jets carrying massive bunker-buster bombs.

How much more? The story begins 15 years ago, when the Pentagon first looked at how to bomb facilities like Iran’s Fordow nuclear facility, buried deep under a mountain. Actually, it began in the 1980s with the development of our first stealth bomber — or no, wait, that’s not quite right either. To tell the full story of Midnight Hammer, I need to take you back to 1941 and a U.S. Army effort to maximize its ability to “reach out and touch someone” with maximum lethality.

Much more at the link.