Secretary of the Air Force Barbara Barrett, speaks with airmen at Minot Air Force Base during her visit to the base on March 5, shown in this photo by Airman 1st Class Josh Strickland.

MINOT AIR FORCE BASE – Minot Air Force Base is a unique U.S. military installation. It is the Department of Defense’s only dual wing-nuclear capable installation and many distinguished visitors come to the base each year.

This year Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, along with Senators John Hoeven and Kevin Cramer, visited the base on Feb. 12. Hoeven and Cramer invited Esper to the state during Esper’s confirmation process last year. Esper is one of few Defense secretaries to ever visit the base.

The following month, in March, Secretary of the Air Force Barbara Barrett made a visit to the Minot base. Barrett became secretary of the Air Force in 2019. Her visit to the Minot base focused on quality of life and included a tour of base facilities and meeting with military families

Esper and Barrett are among distinguished visitors who have been to the Minot base so far this year. Last year, the base had 288 distinguished visitors.

“We had distinguished visitors on the ground for 266 days of our 365 days of the year,” Col. Bradley Cochran, commander of the base’s 5th Bomb Wing, told members of the Minot Area Chamber of Commerce’s Military Affairs Committee at its monthly meeting on Feb. 6.

“It is a huge opportunity for us that we take very seriously to educate senior leaders on what the mission is in both the 91st (Missile Wing) and the 5th (Bomb Wing) – the triad – and how important that is for the strategic stability of the United States and really what we consider the shield, the backbone, of the United States military,” Cochran said, adding, “This is a very strategic base.”

The Navy’s submarine-launched ballistic missiles are the third leg of the nuclear triad.

Minot AFB is a place where distinguished visitors can see in one stop the operations of both the 91st Missile Wing’s Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles and 5th Bomb Wing’s B-52 bomber.

“That’s what makes this base so powerful and so strategic,” Cochran said.

Distinguished visitors also come to Minot AFB to show their appreciation and recognize airmen.

Since Jan. 1 of this year, distinguished visitors to the base besides Defense Department Secretary Mark Esper have included Chief of Staff of the Air Force Gen. David Goldfein, U.S. Strategic Command Commander Adm. Charles Richard, Surgeon General of the Air Force Dorothy Hogg and Chief of Chaplains of the Air Force Maj. Gen. Steven Schaick.

“It’s our honor and privilege to do this and to educate our senior leaders on how important it is,” he said of the distinguished visitors’ visits to Minot Air Force Base.

He said many of the visits include dinners and socials with the local community. On behalf of Col. Glenn Harris, missile wing commander, and himself, Cochran thanked community leaders for their support.