B-52 squadron coming

Air Force leader outlines plans for second B-52 squadron

By ELOISE OGDEN, Regional Editor, eogden@minotdailynews.com
Minot Air Force Base definitely is getting a second squadron of B-52 bombers.


After a visit to the Minot base Friday afternoon, Lt. Gen. Frank Klotz, assistant vice chief of staff of the Air Force, accompanied by Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., and Rep. Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D., spoke at a public meeting at the Minot Municipal Auditorium, outlining the details of the Pentagon’s plan announced earlier this year to bring a second squadron of B-52s to the base. About 80 people attended the meeting.


Klotz emphatically said “no” when asked if the events which occurred Thursday regarding the Air Force’s two top-level people would have an impact on plans to bring another B-52 squadron to the Minot base. 


Conrad said the state’s congressional delegation has been involved in intensive talks with leadership and members of Congress, and that they believe these decisions, in reference to another B-52 squadron for Minot, are broadly supported.


On Thursday, Air Force Chief of Staff T. Michael Moseley and Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne were forced to resign. Their resignations were at the request of Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who cited embarrassing nuclear mix-ups, including one at Minot AFB last year, as the reason for asking for their resignations.


During the public meeting Conrad and Pomeroy cited Moseley’s many years of service to the Air Force and this country. “North Dakota never had a better friend than General Buzz Moseley,” Conrad said.


Klotz said the two top leaders had many years of service to the Air Force. “We will miss them greatly, they’re great Americans,” he said.


Conrad had invited Klotz to Minot for the public meeting to talk about the plans for the additional bomber squadron.


Klotz is well acquainted with the Minot base and downtown community. He was commander of the intercontinental ballistic missile wing at the base in 1995 and 1996. He now is responsible for organization and administration of Air Force operations in the Pentagon.


Conrad said their visit to the base earlier that afternoon was done to help prepare for what will need to be done before the more than 1,000 military personnel assigned to the new squadron arrive here.


“That is not only important to national security of the United States, it is also important to this community,” Conrad said, referring to the new squadron.


Lt. Col. Gordon Greanery, bomber programmer with the Air Force Staff at the Pentagon, who also was at the meeting, said it will be several months before the first people are expected to start arriving for the new squadron.


As for establishing a second B-52 squadron at Minot, Klotz said that in response to the incident at the Minot base last fall regarding nuclear weapons, the Defense Department has done a number of steps to try to understand what happened, why it happened and what can be done to fix it and make sure it didn’t happen again.


He said the chief of staff and secretary of the Air Force commissioned a Blue Ribbon panel which did an across-the-board review to determine the root causes.


As an outcome of that and keeping with the Defense Authorization Act, the Air Force is very much in favor of maintaining 76 B-52s. “In times past, we had considered lower numbers than that,” he said.


He said 22 B-52s, which originally were identified for retirement, will now receive the same upgrades and modifications as the rest of the B-52 fleet.


Klotz said one of the concepts Air Combat Command and 8th Air Force has been working on is to take a part of the B-52 fleet and the people who operate the B-52s and set them aside for a period of time – four months, five months or six months – and during that particular period those people in that squadron will have as their particular task the nuclear mission.


Then at any given time one of those squadrons – at Minot or Barksdale AFB, La., the other B-52 base, will have as their primary responsibility the nuclear mission for several months, and then that mission will transfer to one of the other squadrons, he said.


 Klotz said the nuclear mission plan for the B-52 squadrons will be under way as early as this summer.


Conrad said the Air Force decision to bring a second squadron of B-52s to Minot AFB will have a significant impact on the Minot area economy and secures the bomber mission at the base for the long-term future.