Trending
A Juneteenth celebration with food, performances and a car show will be held Sunday and Monday in Oak Park in Minot.
Bomb and missile wing commanders at Minot Air Force Base will be guest speakers at the program Monday at 2 p.m. The event is sponsored by the African American Heritage Council, Minot AFB, in partnership with the local Acacia Lodge.
Juneteenth commemorates the day in 1865 when the last enslaved people in the country were informed of their freedom.
Events in the park start at 11 a.m. both days. The car show will be held Sunday at 3 p.m. Other activities include a reading from Minot Public Library, music, kickball, prizes and more. There will be vendors, along with free food and a performance from the Minot Arts Council.
Col. Daniel Hoadley, commander of the 5th Bomb Wing, and Col. Kenneth McGhee, commander of the 91st Missile Wing, will speak during the program on the federal holiday on Monday.
Hoadley ensures the wing's combat readiness and is responsible for operations involving the wing's fleet of B-52H bombers to provide deterrence and long-range strike capability for combatant command operations worldwide. Additionally, his command provides logistics support for the 91st Missile Wing.
He is a 2000 graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy and has served in a variety of operational units, including duty as a standardization and evaluation pilot, chief of weapons and tactics, weapons school instructor and squadron commander. Prior to his current assignment, he was the director, Air Force Global Strike Command, A5X, B-21 Integration and System Management Office, Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling, Washington, D.C.
Hoadley is a command pilot with more than 2,700 flight hours in the B-52, B-1, B-2 and T-38, including 238 combat hours.
McGhee leads more than 1,800 Air Force airmen and civilians in support of the nation's land-based intercontinental ballistic missile mission. The wing operates, maintains and secures 150 Minuteman III ICBMs, 15 missile alert facilities and 150 remote launch facilities covering an 8,500-square-mile area in central North Dakota. The wing provides global deterrence and defends America with the world's premier combat-ready ICBM force.
McGhee earned his commission through the Reserve Officer Training Corps in 1998 from the University of Memphis in Tennessee. A career nuclear officer, McGhee has served in a variety of assignments within the nuclear enterprise with duties related to intercontinental ballistic missile operations, training and maintenance. He is a graduate of the National Laboratories Technical Fellowship Program at Sandia National Laboratory and National War College. Prior to assuming his current position, he served as the 341st Operations Group commander, Malmstrom AFB, Montana.