According to the files of The Minot Daily News:

In January 1960, the Minot Chamber of Commerce’s Military Affairs Committee, headed by Dr. J.L. Devine Jr., passed a motion urging the Chamber board of directors to adopt a resolution recommending the name of the base – Minot Air Force Base — as it had become known, remain unchanged. Devine said the suggestion that the name of the base remain unchanged had been made on the grounds Minot could use the publicity.

Lt. Col. Harry Bankard, deputy commander, appearing for the base, said the Air Force was not particularly anxious to rename the installation.

Lt. Ralph Goodwin, information officer, also pointed out the official Air Force position is that there is no objection to the present name.

MDN File Photo Minot Air Force Base is the only dual-wing, nuclear base in the Air Force with its bombers and missiles. The first two B-52H Stratofortresses were delivered to the base July 16, 1961, about a year after Minot Air Force Base became the base’s official name.The 5th Bomb Wing has the B-52s. This photo was taken in 2014 at Minot AFB.

Committee forms

About a month and a half later, a committee of Minot Mayor Maurice Harrington held its first meeting to select and submit recommendations for the official name of the Air Force base north of Minot. The meeting was held March 2, 1960, at the Minot Chamber of Commerce office.

The Minot Daily News reported the Air Base Naming Committee of Minot Mayor Maurice Harrington, a 15-member group, was waiting for a report from U.S. Air Force headquarters in Washington on name proposals on file.

Harrington’s committee voted to invite interested persons and groups to submit additional names for consideration.

The Air Force requirements for eligible names included that consideration would be given only to deceased Air Force personnel with outstanding service records.

MDN File Photo Construction was underway at Minot Air Force Base, shown in this August 1956, photo. In 1960, a mayor’s committee was set up in Minot to select and submit official names for the base north of Minot.

Names on file

Names already in writing and filed with the committee at that time included:

— The Swenson brothers, Capt. Donald Swenson and Staff Sgt. George Swenson, Carpio, who lost their lives while serving during World War II. Donald Swenson was killed March 26, 1944, when the Flying Fortress bomber he was piloting was shot down over Italy. George Swenson was the armorer gunner aboard a B-24D (Liberator) bomber flying from an air base in Africa when it was shot down over the Adriatic Sea following a raid on Suloma, Italy, in 1943.

– Maj. James Howard, Minot, lost his life Nov. 8, 1944, when his P-51 Mustang crashed near the village of Kluse, Germany, after receiving a direct hit from a Nazi anti-aircraft emplacement. Local veterans groups noted Howard “is believed to be the highest ranking fighter pilot from Minot to be killed in World War II.”

– “The Minot Air Force Base” was proposed as a geographical name by the Chamber’s board of directors.

MDN File Photo The main gate at Minot Air Force Base has had changes over the years. This photo shows the main gate in 1973. Thirteen years earlier, in 1960, the base’s name officially became Minot Air Force Base.

The mayor’s committee was told the U.S. Air Force Memorialization Program Committee in Washington, D.C., advised that no names for the Minot base were on file with that committee and up to that time no evidence of local interest in a name change had been put on record.

Maj. J.E. Richstatter of the Air Force advised the committee that since 1957 when the whole program for renaming bases was reviewed that there had been a slow-down in such proceedings.

Members of the committee said the only North Dakotan they knew of at present who ranks in the “national hero” class was Carl Ben Eielson of Hatton, a reserve officer in the old Army Air Corps, who lost his life flying as a civilian in Alaska. But an air base in Alaska already had been named for him.

Name proposals

Any interested persons or groups were invited to submit names for consideration to the committee.

MDN File Photo A new sign installed in 2019 near the front gate carries Minot Air Force Base’s official name with “Home Of The Global Striker.” The sign identifies the role the Minot base and its personnel have in the world.

Names proposed to the Minot committee or the USAF Memorialization Program Committee for the new air base, besides the Swenson brothers and Howard, included:

– Lt. Harry W. Eck, a 23-year-old Minot pilot who was killed Sept 13, 1944, on a bombing mission flying a B-17 bomber over Germany in World War II.

– 1st Lt. Robert Parker Rist, a Velva pilot who was reported missing in action Feb. 13, 1943, following a mission over the Solomons and was presumed dead Dec. 15, 1945.

– Maj. Merle Gilbertson of Maddock, who shot down 10 enemy planes in World War II and lost his life Oct. 18, 1950, when the F-84 jet plane he was flying crashed in Delaware.

– Capt. Raymond Check of Granville, Williston and Minot, was a B-17 pilot with the 307th Bombardment Group in Eighth Air Force. He was killed June 26, 1943, on his 25th mission in World War II during a bombing run of a German airfield in France. It was to be his last mission and he was to be married the next day to a military nurse. He was described as “one of the greatest heroes of the Eighth Air Force.”

– 1st Lt. Warren Schuman of Minot, was a transport pilot with the 91st Army Air Forces Bomber Group. He was killed on Christmas Day, Dec. 25, 1944, in the crash of C-47 in France while taking troops to the front during the Battle of the Bulge. He took part in D-Day operations in Normandy.

In April 1960, the USAF Memorialization Program Committee advised the Minot mayor’s committee the time was not ripe to consider another name for Minot AFB. Minot AFB was officially designated with the name of its nearby city.

Senators reject base renaming

A number of years later, in 1968, there was a move to rename Minot AFB.

North Dakota’s U.S. Sens. Milton R. Young and Quentin Burdick, and Rep. Thomas Kleppe were contacted by Nebraska Sens. Roman L. Hruska and Carl T. Curtis for their reaction to renaming Minot AFB to honor the memory of Maj. Gen. Charles M. Eisenhart, who along with 12 others died on Jan. 17, 1968, in the crash of a KC-135 tanker at Minot AFB.

Eisenhart, a native of Nebraska, was stationed at March AFB, California, and was vice commander of 15th Air Force at the time of his death.

Renaming the base originated with the Omaha World Herald, which advanced the idea in an editorial.

About a month later, Kleppe said he did not support renaming Minot AFB and felt it should continue to be Minot Air Force Base.

“It now has an identity not only with Air Force personnel but with all of the men and women of all branches of the armed services who come from the area,” Kleppe declared. He said he advised the Nebraska senators full consideration was given to the choice of a name when the base was activated and asserted he felt there would be little local support in the Minot area for change.

Again, the base’s name remained unchanged.