Whiteman Air Force Base is located two miles south of Knob Noster. The base was activated following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, becoming Sedalia Army Air Field in November 1942 to train glider pilots and paratroopers. In August 1951, the base was assigned to the Strategic Air Command, with the 340th Bombardment Wing flying the Boeing B-47 Stratojet bomber and KC-97 tanker. The base was renamed in honor of 2nd Lt. George Whiteman, US Army Air Corps, who was killed in his P-40 by a Japanese Zero during the attack on Pearl Harbor. In June 1961, the Department of Defense chose Whiteman to host the nation's fourth Minuteman ICBM wing, with 150 missiles. Before completion of the missile field contraction, SAC activated the 351st Strategic Missile Wing on February 1, 1963. The missile wing made history when it fielded the first female missile crew. In 1990, the base became part of history with the activation of the 509th Bomb Wing flying the Northrop B-2 "Stealth" Spirit bomber. Throughout its continuous military presence, since 1942, the base has always been at the forefront of national defense, especially now with the B-2 able to strike any target in the world at any time.

On the eve of the Nixon resignation, the Soviet Union takes an action that elevates the Strategic Air Command and the North American Air Defense Command to just short of full combat alert status. Under normal circumstances, there would be a direct escalation of responses on both sides that could take us to the brink of nuclear launch. On this evening, though, there is an uncharacteristic hesitation on the part of normally hawkish US leadership. Through riveting narrative the story shows that the hesitation was a reluctance to break an iron clad do not disturb order from the President. A reluctance based in the fear that the event MUST have a rational explanation - an explanation that will vanish in a conflagration of nuclear exchanges if Nixon, in his depressed and panicked state, interprets the event as an attack (and a way out of the Watergate debacle.) The actions of an observant off-duty missile launch officer cause the Joint Chiefs and SAC commanders to back down from an immanent launch.The story is based on a real event and documented evidence that during the Yom Kippur war it was Kissinger, and not Nixon, who handled elevation in DefCon and preparedness. Nixon, it is reported, told Kissinger to handle it. Im dying. Theyre trying to kill me. This was in reference to the Watergate press feeding frenzy that had pushed Nixon to the point of emotional collapse. The Secret Service agent on duty was ordered to lock the door from Nixons Camp David office to the swimming pool for fear he might try to drown himself. The story compresses a series of many such actual events into the evening before the resignation.