Corps turned over ‘key’ to Minot AFB 60 years ago
Base important part of national defense
MDN File Photo ABOVE: Minot Air Force Base was only two years into construction when this photo was taken in May 1957. The official groundbreaking for the base was held two years earlier on July 12, 1955.
MINOT AIR FORCE BASE – Sixty years ago the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers turned the “key” to Minot Air Force Base over to Maj. Joe Roberts, the first base commander.
“It wasn’t much of a ceremony when Maj. Joe E. Robert, acting base commander, started moving his operations from temporary quarters in the Chamber of Commerce (in Minot) to the base but to commemorate the occasion Lt. Col. T.W. Roe, area engineer for the Corps of Engineers, presented Maj. Roberts a large cardboard “key” to the base,” the Minot Daily News reported in its Feb. 16, 1957, edition.
Roberts and a noncommissioned officer were the first two Air Force members to arrive at the base.
Minot AFB initially was developed as an air defense command and that same year, 1957, the first unit at Minot AFB, the 32nd Fighter Group along with the 32nd Materiel Squadron and 32nd Air Base Squadron were activated.
Two years earlier on July 12, 1955, an official groundbreaking ceremony was held for the new base and later that year, the first portions of land for the base were purchased.
Submitted Photo ABOVE: From the left, Senior Airman Allan Jungst and Staff Sgt. Alex Yount, 5th Maintenance Squadron crew chiefs, install an upper wrap cowling at Minot Air Force Base, March 20, shown in this photo by Airman 1st Class Jonathan McElderry.
Minot AFB was off to a running start – as far as construction.
By September 1956, the base already had some of the basics completed or being constructed. Dormitories, mess hall (dining hall), hangars, noncommissioned officers club, chapel, gymnasium, heating plant and six-story control operations tower, concrete parking aprons, taxi strips and a mammoth runway being enlarged from 8,100 to 13,200 feet in length were among the projects.
Owen Brenden of Minot was an engineer at Minot AFB from 1962 until his retirement in 1987. When the base paper did a story about Brenden for his retirement, the writer said Brenden “is as much a part of Minot AFB’s history as the ICBM or the B-52.” Brenden began working at the base only a year or so after it was activated. He was the second civilian engineer assigned to the base. He became the base’s chief engineer in 1962 and continued until his retirement. During his years at the base he saw many construction projects completed.
‘Spy planes’ at Minot AFB
It wasn’t long after the base was activated that aircraft began to arrive.
MDN File Photo President John F. Kennedy congratulated Minot Air Force Base’s B-52 crew after their record-setting Persian Rug flight in January 1962. The flight halfway around the world from Okinawa, Japan, to Madrid, Spain – 12,219 miles – without refueling set a distance flight record and other records. B-52s arrived at the Minot base the previous year – 1961.
Before any other aircraft was assigned to the base the famous U-2 “spy planes,” arrived. The U-2s and personnel came to the base in the late 1950s for a special project called “Operation Crowflight.” The Minot Crowflight unit was based out of Laughlin AFB near Del Rio, Texas, and temporarily assigned to Minot AFB.
Retired Air Force Tech. Sgt. Glenn R. Chapman of Tucson, Ariz., was at the Minot base with the U-2 unit from January to March 1960 as a camera repairman.
He told the Minot Daily News in a story published in December 2002, “Our mission, although highly top secret at that time, was to sample for upper air radioactivity.” He said samples were collected to determine how much radioactive fallout was in the atmosphere.
He said they also had operating locations in Puerto Rico, Argentina, Australia, Alaska, Panama and other places. “The idea was to sample air at altitudes of 70,000 feet plus from the North Pole to the South Pole,” Chapman said.
In a book Chapman wrote about being with the unit, he said the U-2 operations were top secret until 1960 after pilot Francis Gary Powers went down in his plane over the Soviet Union.
Gerald Ferdon, 91st Missile Maintenance Squadron corrosion control specialist, paints a panel mod stand at Minot Air Force Base, Feb. 2, shown in this photo by Airman 1st Class Jonathan McElderry. Submitted Photo
Minot Daily News files show the U-2s were at the base from September 1958 to May 1960 but Operation Crowflight went on until the late 1990s.
Tankers 1st permanent aircraft
About four years after Minot Air Force base “opened for business,” the first plane to be permanently assigned to the base arrived on Sept. 23, 1959 – a Boeing KC-135 stratotanker called “Miss Minot.”
The first F-106 Delta Dart followed on Feb. 4, 1960. The 5th Fighter Interceptor Squadron was assigned to the base. Minot became a true fighter base.
Two Kaman HH-43 Huskie helicopters arrived in August 1960 for permanent assignment at the base.
About 16 months later on July 16, 1961, the first B-52H bomber arrived.
Maj. Clyde Evely was the commander of the crew flying that first B-52 to Minot AFB that day. North Dakota Gov. William L. Guy and Air Force Col. Harold Radetsky, then commander of the 4136th Strategic Wing at Minot AFB, accompanied Evely and the aircrew on the last leg of the flight to the Minot base where an open house called “Peace Persuader Day” was held. The plane was christened “Peace Persuader.”
Clyde P. Evely Jr., of Catawba, Va., told the Minot Daily News in an interview in 2011, it was an honor for his father to bring the first B-52 to Minot AFB. “He had a lot of respect for the B-52,” Evely Jr. said.
About a year later, in 1962, Evely headed a crew that gained notoriety in another B-52. Operation Persian Rug, a B-52 flight halfway around the world from Okinawa, Japan, to Madrid, Spain – 12,219 miles – without refueling. They set a distance flight and other records.
With a variety of aircraft in place at Minot AFB – fighters, bombers, tankers, jet trainers, C-47 cargo planes and helicopters, now the base would take another step, this time into the intercontinental ballistic missile world.
Minuteman ICBMs
Construction began on Jan. 12, 1962, on the new Minuteman I intercontinental ballistic missile complex covering several counties in northwest and north central North Dakota.
By April 1964 all 150 missiles were in place and ready to go, if needed.
A few years later a change would come to the missile field when the Minuteman I ICBMs were replaced by the Minuteman III ICBMs, the current missiles in the Minot missile field. The 741st Strategic Missile Squadron became the first operational Minuteman III squadron.
Countless other changes have taken place at the base over the following years.
The Bell HH-1H helicopters arrived at the base in January 1980 to replace the previous fleet.
The 5th Fighter Interceptor Squadron converted from the F-106 to F-15s in the mid-1980s, and in 1988, the squadron was deactivated.
Among other changes at the base were the air-launched cruise missiles added to the 5th Bomb Wing’s arsenal in October 1989. In 1993 the bomb wing received advanced cruise missiles for the B-52.
The 906th Air Refueling Squadron, one of the base’s oldest units, and its KC-135s left the base in the early 1990s.
Units were activated, deactivated, names changed, etc., over the years of the base.
In 2009 and 2010, the 91st Missile Wing followed by the 5th Bomb Wing became part of Air Force Global Strike Command, the Air Force’s newest major command to focus on the nation’s nuclear enterprise. Lt. Gen. Frank Klotz, a former Minot AFB missile wing commander, led the new command.
Present-day base
Today, Minot AFB is the only dual wing nuclear-capable base with its B-52s and ICBMs.
The 5th Bomb Wing flies, maintains and supports the B-52 bombers and the 91st Missile Wing oversees the Minuteman III ICBMS in underground facilities in the Minot missile complex.
The 5th Bomb Wing’s current leadership is Col. Matthew Brooks, commander, Col. David Ballew, vice commander, and Chief Master Sgt. Paul Elliott III, command chief.
The 91st Missile Wing’s current leadership is Col. Colin Connor, commander, Col. Kelvin Townsend, vice commander, and Chief Master Sgt. John Burks, command chief.
Current population of the base is 12,129 people – 5,501 military members – and the base has an economic impact of $591.5 million on the local area.
Many Minot AFB people deploy to areas around the world. Recently, B-52 bombers and more than 400 airmen deployed to support U.S. Central Command’s Operation Inherent Resolve in the Middle East. The operation is U.S. Central Command’s combined joint task force operation to eliminate ISIS terrorist groups in Iraq and Syria. This is the first time in 12 years Minot AFB bombers have deployed to the Middle East for combat operations.
Airmen from the 23rd Bomb Squadron and other base units were deployed March 9, base officials said.
The 23rd’s B-52s replaced B-52s from Barksdale AFB in the Middle East operations. Later his year the 23rd will swap airmen and planes with the Minot base’s 69th Bomb Squadron.
The Air Force is looking ahead to the future of the base’s weapon systems. Three contractors – Lockheed-Martin, Northrop Grumman and Boeing – are vying for contracts for the initial work on the new Ground Based Strategic Deterrent program or GBSD to replace the Minuteman III ICBMs.
The Air Force is also making plans for a next-generation bomber.
Lt. Col. Raymond Castro, commander of the 5th Comptroller Squadron at Minot AFB, who released the base’s annual economic impact report in February to the Minot Area Chamber of Commerce’s Military Affairs Committee, said, “Minot Air Force Base will continue to have a positive economic impact on the Minot community and surrounding cities in the year 2017 and beyond.” He said those at Minot AFB appreciate the strong support of Minot and the surrounding communities.
Sources include Minot Daily News and Minot AFB.