The B-21 Boom Boom Monster.
That's just one name out of thousands that airmen and their families submitted for the B-21 Long Range Strike Bomber, whose official name was unveiled as the B-21 Raider on Monday at the Air Force Association's annual Air, Space & Cyber Conference.
The moniker comes from "Doolittle Raiders," the World War II-era bomb crews who launched morale-boosting strikes on Tokyo after the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor. (At this week's Air Force Association conference, Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James handed the mic to Richard E. Cole, a 101-year-old retired lieutenant colonel and last surviving "Doolittle Raider," to announce the name of the new bomber.)
Air Force Global Strike Command in March launched a website asking airmen, their family members and retirees to suggest names for the next-generation aircraft. And airmen got creative, slightly goofy and sometimes a bit clumsy with their suggestions.
We have to thank the The War Is Boring blog for obtaining the complete list of rejected submissions through a Freedom of Information Act request and posting it on its website on Thursday.
Here are some of our favorites:
Semi-Legitimate
Avenger
Blackbird
Fighting Spirit
Guardian
Global Century
Liberator II
Matador
Odyssey
Sentinel
Sentry Strike
Sky Phantom
Zeus
Ridiculous
Ameri-cat (meerkat)
Ancillary Training
Another waste of taxpayer money
Backhand
Bacon double cheeseburger
Baconater
Badasswhoopass
Basilisk
Big Badda Boom
Boaty McBoatface
Bomb Diggity Bomb
Boom Boom Monster
Carrier pigeon
Chair Force One
Chuck Norris
Cottonmouth
D.E.A.TH. (Deterring Enemies Around the Hemisphere)
Donald J Trump
DronesRBetterButWeLikeWastingMoneySo...
Explody McBombface
God's finger
Hole in the Sky to Throw Money Into
Honey Badger
ISIS flyswatter
Nukey McMeltface
McLovin
McLoveUBombTime
Planey McFly
Rock Lobster
Santa's Little Helper
SAVETHEA10
Sir Bombs-a-lot
SBD (Silent But Deadly)
Sneaky McBombFace
Spirit II: Electric Boogaloo
Taxslayer
THIS is why we can't have nice stuff at the Deid
UR Screwed Now
Ominous
9/11 cover up
Black Death
Death Angel
Grim Reaper
What do you think? What are you favorites?
-- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at@Oriana0214.
