Air Force One

I noticed that the President made a visit to my home state of North Dakota and neighboring South Dakota right before July 4.  Best I can gather, he flew into Bismarck, probably helicopter to Medora ND and the new Teddy Roosevelt Presidential Library; thence back to Bismarck, to Ellsworth Air Force Base near Rapid City SD and helicopter for a major event at Mt. Rushmore.

It is nice to have an Air Force base nearby to land a 747, and convenient connecting flights to the back country which is western Dakota….  Geographically it is a short trip – less than 300 miles – from Medora to Mt. Rushmore.

Because I’m a North Dakota native, I know the territory and have “been there, done that”, both Medora and Mt. Rushmore.  Teddy Roosevelt gave lots of credit to North Dakota for his preparation for the White House.  It is an appropriate place for his library albeit very remote for all but a few who will be able to actually visit it.

Teddy Roosevelt is no stranger to ND, plus he is one of the four Presidents memorialized at Mt. Rushmore.

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My Grandpa Bernard spent a year of his life – 1898-99 – in the Philippines in what was called the Spanish-American War.  Grandpa Bernard’s North Dakota Army regiment – Co C 2nd Battalion from Grafton ND was Grandpa’s unit – arrived in Manila almost on the same day as the Spanish surrendered, so most of his and his colleagues year in the Philippines was engaged against the native Filipinos who were happy that the Spanish were vanquished, but simply wanted the Americans to go home.  There have been books written about the following years.  Grandpa was very proud to have served the nation, and Teddy Roosevelt was, I would guess, quite revered by North Dakotans.

Teddy is also on Mt. Rushmore.  For perspective here’s an overhead view of the area, thanks to google maps. https://maps.app.goo.gl/MR7hQJHhRxhwmnEv8.  Of course, I have no information on precisely what the trip itinerary was.  Air Force One came to Bismarck; the President helicoptered to Medora, likely back to Bismarck.  Air Force One flew him to Ellsworth Air Force Base near Rapid City, and another helicopter trip to Mt. Rushmore, then home….

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The trip had a couple of real world memories for me, in addition to having been to the places of interest.

My first memory of Air Force One was about 1954 above Minot ND.  I would have been about 7th grade at the time, and we lived maybe 40 miles from Minot.  President Eisenhower came to town probably to take a look at the brand new construction of Minot Air Force Base, one of the Cold War fortresses to defend the country against the Soviets.  It and other bases had another function, to supervise missile emplacements across the prairie which probably still exist.

Ike’s Air Force One was by no means the monstrosity now in the air.  Here’s Ike’s official aircraft.

On that day I saw Ike in an open motorcade in Minot, I remember watching his plane approaching Minot  from the east.  In those years, seeing passenger aircraft was unusual and this was a particularly unusual occurrence even for a youngster like me.  I am guessing that Eisenhower had also stopped at the other new ND AFB at Grand Forks, but I don’t know that.  It would make sense.

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I have one other memory of a big plane back in the day.

Earlier, sometime between 1947 and 51, I was outside our home in Sykeston ND, and I saw a gigantic airplane approaching from the northeast at a low elevation.  The plane had six engines and was unfathomable to a pre-ten year old literally out in the country.

Over the years, I have come to believe that what I saw was a B36 on a training flight out of Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota.  It didn’t have a long life span since its development came near the era of jet aircraft, but still, what a memory.