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WSO 5,000 flying hours on B-1B
Last month, Lt. Col. Eric Alvarez, 345th Bomb Squadron Commander and Weapons Systems Officer (WSO), crossed the 5,000 flying hour threshold in the B-1B Lancer at Dyess Air Force Base, Texas, one of only a handful of people to ever reach the mark.
As explained by Gabrielle Terrett, 307th Bomb Wing, in the article Making history and logging hours: B-1B WSO reaches 5,000 flying hours, his journey to reach this goal has gotten him through 14 years of active-duty service and 10 years in the Air Force Reserve.
However, it wasn’t his military career that prompted his interest in flying. Instead, it was a childhood dream that took a different turn and landed him in the B-1B.
“Ultimately, as a kid, I wanted to fly, so I had to take some additional prep courses to make it through all the tests, and at the end, I went to officer training school,” said Alvarez. “I did not get my initial pick, which was fighter jets, but they gave me bombers, the B-1B, and looking back on that, I have zero regrets.”
WSO reaching more than 5,000 flying hours in the B-1B
His “zero regrets” attitude landed him on the short list of aircrews who have amassed 5,000-plus flying hours in the B-1B.
“It was almost 5,001.8,” he said when asked how many hours he’d flown in the B-1B. “It took over 20 years, starting with my first flight back in October of 2004, and on our UTA weekend [in April 2025] we flew a line and were able to make that milestone.”
Despite the relevance and spectacular nature of his accomplishment, Alvarez admits that he never cared much about meeting a certain number of hours. So, he was caught off guard when family and colleagues met him after landing the historical flight.
“It didn’t hit me until I was greeted by my family and friends after I landed because we kept going along like any other sortie with what we trained to do – go up and fly, be ready with our tactics and procedures,” said Alvarez, “Train, fly and land, and oh, by the way, you’ve reached 5000 hours!”
Despite the excitement of everyone around him, Alvarez was satisfied just to share the moment with his community. He was adamant that they were the sole reason any of his flights were possible.
Continuing to serve
When asked what the next step in his career was, Alvarez shared that serving his country for as long as he can is always at the forefront of his mind, but he also hinted that this could change soon.
“I’ll continue to serve and fly for as long as my body tells me to, but I’m sure there will be a time when my focus shifts towards things like spending more time with my family,” Alvarez said.
He expressed how important it is for Airmen at any level to stay focused on the task and embrace lessons from those around them.
As he continues to fly, Alvarez hopes to instill and foster community within the 345th BS to accomplish the Air Force Reserve Command and 307th Bomb Wing missions.
“Knowing your people is just relevant, and that’s not going away anytime soon,” he said. “This effort has provided me the opportunity to continue to recruit and retain experience, to be combat ready, anytime, anywhere, and ensure that we are ready to fight tonight, and then it just gives me the pleasure and satisfaction of knowing that’s our goal, and that’s what we do.”
The Lancer
The 345th Bomb Squadron, initially constituted in January 1942, is assigned to the 489th Bomb Group, a geographically separated unit of the 307th Bomb Wing. The 345th was reactivated in October 2015 as an Air Force Reserve Command (AFRC) B-1B Lancer bomb squadron operating in a classic association with the 9th Bomb Squadron to provide deployable combat aviators to support the Air Force Global Strike Command‘ B-1 deployable combat operations.
Carrying the largest conventional payload of both guided and unguided weapons in the Air Force inventory, the multi-mission B-1 is the backbone of America’s long-range bomber force. It can rapidly deliver massive quantities of precision and non-precision weapons against any adversary, anywhere in the world, at any time.
The B-1 is a highly versatile, multi-mission weapon system. The B-1B’s synthetic aperture radar is capable of tracking, targeting and engaging moving vehicles as well as self-targeting and terrain-following modes. In addition, an extremely accurate Global Positioning System-aided Inertial Navigation System enables aircrews to navigate without the aid of ground-based navigation aids as well as engage targets with a high level of precision. The addition of a fully integrated data link (FIDL) with Link-16 capability provides improved battlefield situation awareness and secure beyond line of sight reach back connectivity. In a time sensitive targeting environment, the aircrew can use targeting data received from the Combined Air Operations Center or other command and control assets to strike emerging targets rapidly and efficiently.
Photo credit: Senior Master Sgt. Ted Daigle / U.S. Air Force
