Retired Air Force Col. Jacksel M. “Jack” Broughton, a former commander of the 5th Fighter Interceptor Squadron at Minot Air Force Base who is considered one of this nation’s great fighter pilots and aviation giants, is remembered at the Minot base and in the city of Minot. He died Oct. 24 at the age of 89 after a short illness.

Broughton, of Lake Forest, Calif., has the distinction of being the first and only person inducted into the Minot AFB Heritage Hall located in the base’s Pride Building.

The Dakota Territory Air Museum in Minot is planning a special exhibit about the 5th Fighter Interceptor Squadron that will include Broughton. Only a few days before his death, an F-106, like the planes Broughton flew at Minot AFB, arrived at the air museum from Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz.

Broughton’s son, Mark, said his dad was looking forward to the arrival of the plane in Minot and coming to the city for its official unveiling at the air museum. An air museum team will reassemble the plane this winter.

Mark Broughton said his parents often talked about their time spent at Minot.

Jack Broughton told The Minot Daily News in an interview in 2004 that some of his most memorable and enjoyable years were commanding the Air Force’s Thunderbirds demonstration team in the 1950s and commanding the 5th Fighter Interceptor Squadron at Minot AFB from September 1962 to June 1964.

He and his wife, AJ, visited Minot AFB and Minot in August 2004 when he was inducted into the base’s Heritage Hall and was a guest speaker for a reunion of the 5th Fighter Interceptor Squadron.

Many former 5th Fighter members remember Broughton as being a tough but fair commander.

Bernie Pellenwessel, of Minot, who as a young airman worked in the orderly room (5th Fighter headquarters office), then armament, MA-1 (electronics) and 5th Fighter operations during Broughton’s tenure at Minot AFB, said, “He was great. He was a true leader. He would never ask us to do anything he wouldn’t do. When it came to his job as a pilot, he was one of the best ever.”

Broughton, in the interview with The Minot Daily News in 2004, said that was his theory he wouldn’t have any of his people do anything he wouldn’t do. “That was one of my pride and joys,” he said.

Jim Hogan, of Minot, was a 5th Fighter member from 1977-84 and got to know Broughton when he and Tony Alef, currently of Sun City, Ariz., organized the 5th Fighter reunion in 2004.

“He was just a regular guy who didn’t put on airs. He was just a down-to-earth guy,” Hogan said.

“He really set the precedent on the air defense mission and the way it should happen throughout the 12 (F-)106 squadrons. Dignitaries were always coming to the squadron to see how we did what we did,” said Alef, who was with 5th Fighter during Broughton’s entire time at the base, and worked job control as an avionics supervisor.

While at Minot AFB, Broughton was instrumental in getting the aircraft’s deadly ejection seat replaced. “Those innovations were later leveraged globally across all fighters, services and nations to improve the chances of pilot survival,” his family said.

While he was at Minot AFB Broughton also was a key figure in the U.S. response to the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962 when President John F. Kennedy informed the world that Russia was placing secret missiles in Cuba. The Russians had a supply ship heading for Cuba. The entire 5th Fighter Interceptor Squadron was on alert and Broughton was requested to send four alert planes with all weapons on board including hot nukes to Fargo to pull alert there. It was a tense time, but eventually the ship turned around.

Broughton adopted two lynx kittens as mascots for the Minot AFB squadron in 1963. An area farmer shot the female lynx because she was raiding his chickens and discovered she had two kittens. “Spitten” and “Kitten” were the first two 5th Fighter mascots to make their home with the squadron. Over the years, the squadron, which had a zoo license, had numerous cats, many born to the adult cats. When the squadron was deactivated in the late 1980s, two offspring went to live at Minot’s Roosevelt Park Zoo, where they remained until they died several years ago.

The Broughtons and their family left Minot AFB when he attended war college. That was followed by two tours in Southeast Asia.

Broughton left the Air Force, retiring in 1968, after putting his own Air Force career on the line and sacrificing it to protect two of his pilots who allegedly strafed a Soviet freighter in Cam Pha harbor during the Vietnam War. Broughton had ordered the gun-camera film destroyed. About two months after Broughton retired, Copley News Service cited an account from an unidentified source who reported seeing the damage to the Soviet ship Turkestan and believed it probably wasn’t hit by the Air Force but apparently North Vietnam anti-aircraft gunners struck it when they were trying to shoot down a low-flying American warplane, according to the New York Times. Broughton and Brig. Gen. Billy Mitchell have the notoriety of being the only officers in the history of the U.S. flying forces to have a general court-martial verdict reversed.

Broughton was one of the 50 most decorated officers in the United States. He received more than 40 separate awards and decorations, including four distinguished Flying Crosses, two Silver Stars and the Air Force Cross, the Air Force’s highest award for individual heroism in combat.

In a July 2014 Aviation History article about a vanishing breed of pilots, author Walter J. Boyne, a retired Air Force colonel and author of numerous books on aviation, joins Broughton with several other aviation greats in a special pilots’ club. The others include Edward Rickenbacker, America’s ace of aces in World War I; Gen. James H. Doolittle, who organized and executed the famous B-25 raid on Tokyo in April 1942; Hubert Zemke, who became a prisoner of war camp leader in 1944; and Col. John Boyd, who influenced American air combat tactics.

When he saw the article, Broughton told The Minot Daily News, it was “a marvelous surprise. What a delight to have a membership card in that club.”

Broughton was one of a few men who started their military careers as Army officers and transitioned into the Air Force when it was founded. He started his military career in the 1940s with the Army Air Corps after graduating from West Point (World War II ended before he could take part in combat missions). He was a founding member of the Air Force Fighter Weapons School in the early 1950s. He served in both the Korean War and Vietnam War, flying more than 200 combat missions.

In his 2004 interview with The Minot Daily News, Broughton said he took much pride in his accomplishment of being combat-ready in every U.S. Army Air Forces and U.S. Air Force fighter from the P-47 to the F-106.

Broughton was an early pioneer in promoting diversity. According to his son, “he personally believed in equal human rights and work opportunities for all people regardless of sex, race, age or any other man-defined category. In the military setting, he advocated the same perspective as long as a person’s personal actions did not interfere with established military protocols and/or team efficiency. This was a breakout perspective for a high-profile officer at that time.”

After leaving the military Broughton held several civilian positions. His last full-time corporate job was with Rockwell International, where his expertise helped make the B-1 bomber and space shuttle Endeavour safer to fly.

He authored two best-selling books about the Vietnam War, “Thud Ridge” and “Going Downtown: The War Against Hanoi and Washington.” “Thud Ridge” was selected for the prestigious Air Force Chief of Staff professional reading list. Another book, “Rupert Red Two: A Fighter Pilot’s Life from Thunderbolts to Thunderchiefs” is about Broughton’s experiences flying fighters and leading military units during his military career, including at Minot AFB.

Broughton continued to consult, write and speak during his semi-retirement and until the time of his death.

Mark Broughton said his father “enjoyed the traditional inter-branch military rivalries, but he also believed that all the services had to work together to make America her best. As such, he was never afraid to reach across teams, groups, units or branches to get or give help. One key example of this is that he reached out to the Navy-sponsored Blue Angels to share best practices and draw on their combined expertise. When notifying people of my father’s death, one of these Navy veterans shared, ‘Jack Broughton is probably the only Air Force person that the Blue Angels would do a flyover for the funeral.’ “

Jack Broughton’s survivors include his wife of 63 years, Alice Joy (aka AJ); four children, Mark, Sheila, Maureen and Kathleen; nine grandchildren; and a brother, Robert.

A memorial service was held for Broughton Thursday in St. Matthew’s Church in Newport Beach, Calif. A full military service and burial will be held at a later date at Point Loma, Calif.