Benjamin Jensen

Col. Benjamin Jensen, deputy commander of the 5th Bomb Wing at Minot Air Force Base, will be guest speaker at the Memorial Day program in Minot on Monday, May 27.

The program begins at 10:30 a.m. at the Veterans Section in Rosehill Memorial Park.

Jensen is responsible for about 4,900 active-duty members, 500 civilian employees, and 6,000 family members. He also assists with overseeing operations involving the wing’s fleet of B-52H bombers to provide deterrence and long-range strike capability for combatant command operations worldwide.

Prior to assuming his current position, Jensen was the chief of Bomber Requirements Division at Headquarters Air Force Global Strike Command at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana. He managed the nation’s B-1, B‒2 and B-52 bomber’s $25 billion program memorandum requirements. In this role, Jensen supported nuclear weapon system and strategic force integration across bomber platforms, enabling Air Force Global Strike Command to provide combat-ready forces to combatant commanders for strategic nuclear, global strike and deterrence operations.

Jensen was commissioned in 2001. He graduated from pilot training at Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas, and was operationally assigned to the B-52. He has served in multiple operational and training assignments and logged more than 3,000 hours in B-52H, T-37, T-6 and T-38A. His military assignments have included at the Pentagon in Washington D.C., Columbus AFB, Mississippi, and Andersen AFB, Guam. His career has included operational assignments supporting Operation Enduring Freedom and Continuous Bomber Presence Missions.

The Minot Veterans of Foreign Wars is in charge of this year’s Memorial Day program with Disabled American Veterans, American Legion and auxiliaries of veterans’ organizations participating. The firing squad will consist of members of local veterans’ organizations.