BOTTINEAU On Saturday, there will be a Carl Woods Day Ceremony at 1 p.m. at the Bottineau County Veterans Memorial Building located at 104 N. Main Street. Recognized will be Carl Woods, Navy pilot, killed in the Vietnam War. The Bottineau AMVETS Post 25 will be honoring Carl Woods and the entire Woods family by naming the AMVETS Post 25 ‘The Carl Woods AMVETS Post 25.’

Carl Woods of Bottineau served as pilot in the U.S. Navy and was only 32 years old when he died after a daring fight for his life on Sept. 28, 1965.

Born June 8, 1933, Woods was an honor student in high school and attended Dakota College in Bottineau like his father had, where he made the All-Conference football team. After enlisting in the Navy, Woods trained in an A1H (AD6) Skyraider, a propeller-driven aircraft that saw service from the 1940s through the 1980s. The AD6 version of the A1H, a single-seat attack aircraft, was also used in the reconnaissance.

When the Vietnam War intensified in 1965, Woods was deployed to Vietnam, where the USS Bonhomme Richard, the Essex-Class aircraft carrier he served on, conducted missions striking infrastructures and transports, defended against aerial attacks from Russian MiGs and conducted reconnaissance flights.

On Sept. 28, 1965, Woods’ plane was hit by an anti-aircraft missile while he was conducting a reconnaissance mission over Qui Vinh, North Vietnam. Instead of bailing out over North Vietnam, Woods maneuvered the plane 40 miles to the Tonkin Gulf, where he died after his parachute failed to open. His body was recovered from the ocean.

Woods was married to Elizabeth McNea of Bottineau and had three children, Mark, Jennifer and Kathryn.

His wingman shared with Woods’ family the details of his service and extraordinary flight skills the day he died, details that his family treasures deeply. Woods, greatly honored and revered by many, is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

The Bottineau County Veterans, Inc. is made up of Willow City, Bottineau, Westhope, Newburg and Lansford for a total of seven veterans organizations and has been working for the past 18 months on a new Bottineau County Veterans Hall. The inside is complete, while the outside of the building still needs work on the brick facing on the front of the building.