As the B-2 stealth bomber swept in low for a second pass I thought: “This wasn’t supposed to happen. I shouldn’t be here.”
The original plan was to be sixty miles to the South looking at antique farm equipment in the tiny town of Makoti, North Dakota. But the Threshers Museum there was by appointment only, I’d been unsuccessful at getting anyone to answer the phone, and apparently voicemail hasn’t made it to Makoti yet.
I was searching for a Plan B, when the local FM station ran a promo for the Northern Neighbors Air Show at the Minot Air Force Base. Minot is not only the home to North Dakota’s active Minuteman missile wing, it’s also one of only two locations where the US keeps our B-52 heavy bombers. Once every two years they open the airbase to the public, and that day just happened to be the upcoming Saturday. I could recognize Kismet when I saw it, so Plan B for bombers it was!
Not your average Air Show
I’ve been to air shows before, but they were all at civilian air fields. Typically such events will feature a couple military demonstration teams like the Blue Angels or Thunderbirds, but most of the aircraft shown are either vintage military planes or special acrobatic planes. This was the exact opposite. Rather than an air circus, this was an open house at an active Air Force base. Uniformed airmen were everywhere, and there was only token representation of the antique and civilian aircraft. Security was tight, and for good reason. The planes on the flight line that were hosting school kids today would be flying missions tomorrow.
He ain’t heavy, he’s my bomber
Something about bombers has always appealed to me. Perhaps it comes from growing up as a fat kid, but these unlikely machines that can haul thousand pound bombs six miles high and then drop them with precision on targets thousands of miles distant are more interesting to me than the flashier fighters. The B-17G Flying Fortress of 1943 is my favorite, but the equally resilient B-52 Stratofortress comes in a close second for the jet era.
When I lived on Guam as a tot I remember watching the huge B-52s coming and going from Andersen on the way to Vietnam, their impossibly long wings flexing and bouncing as they touched down. Most of the BUFFs still in service were born just about the same time I was, so you could say we grew up together. What does BUFF mean you ask? Well to the top brass the B-52 bomber is called the Stratofortress, but to the airman on the tarmac it’s a Big Ugly Fat F****r. No wonder I like ’em!
More flying toys for military girls and boys
I also wanted to see what the missile wing had to show since Minot is home to some of the Minutemen missiles that had not been deactivated by the START treaty. Obviously most of the attention was focused on the more dramatic aircraft, but there was a nice display of the maintenance trucks used to transport the Minuteman and service the launch sites as well as the armored vehicles used by the security teams to protect the silos. I was slightly disappointed that there was no actual missile to see. An inactive dummy would have been fine and a bigger draw for the public I think.
Of course on my drive up to Minot I’d already noticed several of the telltale fenced launch sites indicating the presence of nuclear warheads hiding just beneath the prairie. There wasn’t a whole lot of difference between the appearance of these live sites and the decommissioned museum versions, at least on the surface.
The crowds were intimidating (some people reported waiting in line for more than an hour to buy carnival food from one of the vendors) and the sun was hot, so I left before the headliner Thunderbirds did their show. I’d watched them before, and after all they were just the skinny kids. I had already seen the Husky size models I’d come here to see.
Next time: Another Fortuna