Both retired Air Force lieutenant colonels and their wives now are making plans to return to Minot AFB for Northern Neighbors Day, the base’s open house and air show on Saturday, Aug. 4.

Foote and his wife, Barbara, live in Annapolis, Md., and Sims and his wife, Billie, live in Yuba City, Calif.

The two men’s notoriety goes back to July 1961 when they were aircrew members of one of the first two B-52s arriving at the new Minot AFB.

“There were two aircrafts that day, one of which landed ahead of us – the “Peace Persuader,” said Foote. He recalled (Maj.) Clyde Evely flew the “Peace Persuader” to the base.

Submitted Photo Brad Foote, left, and Bill Sims are shown in this photo taken in 1999. Foote and Sims were crew members of one of the first B-52 bombers to arrive at Minot Air Force Base in July 1961. The two men and their wives are planning to attend Northern Neighbors Day at the base on Aug. 4.

North Dakota Gov. William Guy and Col. Harold Radetsky, Minot bomb wing commander, were aboard “Peace Persuader” when it landed.

Foote said their plane was the backup plane for “Peace Persuader” – “in case it couldn’t get here or land.”

The aircrews flew the planes “right out of the factory” at Wichita, Kan., said Sims, a B-52 electronic warface officer.

Foote’s former wife named the “Peace Persuader” in a “Name the Plane” contest but because she was part of the Air Force family she requested the prizes go to the second-place winner, Murray Sagsveen, a teenager from Lansford who submitted the name “The New Dawn.” Promoted by the base and the Minot Jaycees, the contest drew 3,697 entries, including some from Alaska, Canada and Florida, according to the Minot Daily News.

Sims, a B-52 electronic warfare officer, said he and Foote arrived at Minot AFB before any of the bombers arrived. “We started the bomb squadron by being the first crew there. We probably didn’t have planes for four or five months after being there.”

“It was a big deal to come there,” Foote, a B-52 radar navigator said.

Before coming to Minot AFB, they were stationed at Griffiss AFB in upstate New York, where they were flying the G model of the B-52s.

“We drove out of New York and had no bad weather at that time of the year. It was amazing,” Sims recalled. He recalled he arrived at Minot in February 1960. As for Minot’s winter weather, he said, “We got used to it after awhile.”

The first B-52H model “missile-platform bomber to be operated in North Dakota, the new ‘H’ model has been modified in production and equipped with the latest in armaments and electronic units to make it truly the most devastating weapon ever available for the defense of our country,” the Minot Daily News reported in July 1961.

“When we had the total complement we had at least a dozen or more planes. When we became combat ready we probably had around 20-plus crews,” Sims recalled.

“Minot (AFB) was basically barren land when we arrived,” Sims added.

Foote recalled when they arrived in North Dakota in the 1960s Minot was a railroad town and grew from there and with the development of the new air base.

“We were there during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 – flying alert,” he said.

By 1964, Minot AFB was ranked as one of the biggest military installations in the nation with a military and civilian population of 18,500 men, women and children who lived on or worked on the facility, according to the Minot Daily News.

Foote spent four and a half years at Minot AFB, leaving in 1965. Sims left in the spring of 1966. Foote hasn’t been back to the base since leaving here. Sims passed through the area about 30 years ago.

The two men have kept in contact over the years and after talking about it decided to return to Minot AFB for this year’s Northern Neighbors Day – 57 years since their flight with one of the first B-52s assigned here.

Sims said others on their aircrew – the pilot, co-pilot and other navigator – are no longer living. He said he has no information about the gunner.

When he visits the Minot base Sims said he would like to see where he first lived on base on Summit Drive.

Both Sims and Foote are looking forward to their return to Minot AFB.

“That’s really where we started our military careers – at Minot,” said Sims, crediting the base.

(Prairie Profile is a weekly feature profiling interesting people in our region. We welcome suggestions from our readers. Call Editor Mike Sasser at 857-1959 or Regional Editor Eloise Ogden at 857-1944. Either can be reached at 1-800-735-3229. You also can send e-mail suggestions to msasser@minotdailynews.com.)