“It is quite exciting, I’m very humbled,” Kociuba, call sign”Gucci,” informed FOX 13. “We are certainly doing our homework for it.”
This year’s formation is the first-of-its-kind trifecta with three bombers taking off from different parts of America and meeting up over the Gulf of Mexico out of Tampa airspace.
“We have been working for weeks creating this plan quite precise, so we could do it,” she said. “So we will all brief collectively, and plan together, and make this rejoin happen.”
Along with Kociuba’s bomber, a B-52 Stratofortress is arriving from Minot Air Force Base at North Dakota along with a B-1B Lancer is arriving out of Ellsworth Air Force Base at South Dakota.
“Supporting this occasion is a huge honor for our command and the U.S. Air Force,” Gen. Tim Ray, commander of this Air Force Global Strike Command, said in a news release. “We anticipate this chance to showcase the reliability, precision and flexibility of our bomber fleet to the country in this exciting event.”
Kociuba was preparing for her moment her entire life.
She’s a B-2 instructor pilot that has completed more than 90 combat missions and has over 1,700 flying hours in five distinct planes.
The bombers will fit in a whiskey place –“restricted airspace” — until the pass over.
“We shall rejoin very low altitude, very high speed and quite close together in this whiskey region, then we’ll work our timing, and then do the flyover,” she said.
The flight takes about seven or eight hours round trip before the bombers return to their various bases — meaning Kociuba is overlooking the big game between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Kansas City Chiefs.
“I’m not going to have to see the game, so I expect there is no spoilers before I land,” she explained. “I will need to watch it afterwards!”
