Sixty-five years later, the Minot base is the Department of Defense’s only dual-wing, nuclear-capable installation, with the 5th Bomb Wing and its B-52 bombers and the 91st Missile Wing and its Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles in underground facilities in several counties.

Sixty-four years ago on Feb. 16, 1957, 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.

Submitted Photo President John F. Kennedy congratulates the crew of 60-0040 for their record world flight in 1962, shown in this U.S. Air Force photo. A different plane is shown in the background.

Initially, Minot AFB was developed as an air defense command. In 1957, the first unit at Minot AFB, the 32nd Fighter Group, 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.

Minot AFB was on its way.

By September 1956, some of the basics for the new base were completed or being constructed. The construction projects included 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 major runway being enlarged from 8,100 to 13,200 feet in length.

Not long after the base was activated the aircraft began to arrive.

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.

The 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.

About four years after Minot AFB “opened for business,” the first plane to be permanently assigned to the base arrived on Sept. 23, 1959 – the Boeing KC-135 stratotanker called “Miss Minot.”

The first F-106 Delta Dart followed a few months later on Feb. 4, 1960. The 5th Fighter Interceptor Squadron was assigned to the base and Minot became a true fighter base.

On July 16, 1961, the first B-52H bomber arrived.

Maj. Clyde Evely was the commander of the crew flying the 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.”

Evely’s son, 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.

Brad Foote, now of Annapolis, Md., and Bill Sims, now of Yuba City, Calif., also made history in 1961 when they were aircrew members of one of the first new B-52H bombers to arrive at the Minot base. They were crewmembers of the other plane, a backup plane, in case “Peace Persuader” could not get here or land.

“There were two aircrafts that day, one of which landed ahead of us – the ‘Peace Persuader,'” recalled Foote.

Foote and Sims, both retired Air Force lieutenants, and their wives attended the 2018 Northern Neighbors Day at Minot AFB.

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

Two Kaman HH-43B Huskie helicopters arrived in August 1960 for permanent assignment at the base.

Besides auxiliary planes, the base now had in active operation four types of planes which rank as the best in their category in the U.S. Air Force, according to the The Minot Daily News in August 1960. These aircraft included the

B-52 bombers, F-106 interceptor, and holder of the military speed record, KC-135 tanker and the helicopters.

About a year after bringing the first B-52 to Minot, in 1962, Evely headed a crew in another B-52 for 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.

Minot AFB had a variety of aircraft – fighters, bombers, tankers, jet trainers, C-47 cargo planes and helicopters. Now it would take another step into the intercontinental ballistic missile world.

Construction started 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 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.

Other changes also occurred over the years.

The 5th Fighter Interceptor Squadron converted from the F-106 to F-15s in the mid-1980s. In 1988, the squadron was deactivated.

Other changes at the base included 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.

One of the base’s oldest units, the 906th Air Refueling Squadron and its KC-135s left the base in the early 1990s.

Base units were activated, deactivated, names changed, etc., over the years.

The 91st Missile Wing in 2009 and the 5th Bomb Wing in 2010 became part of Air Force Global Strike Command. This was 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.

Col. Michael Walters is the current commander of the 5th Bomb Wing. Col. Brian Vlaun is vice commander and Chief Master Sgt. Timothy Wieser, command chief.

Col. Christopher Menuey is the current commander of the 91st Missile Wing. Col. Barry Little is vice commander and Chief Master Sgt. Garrett Langston is command chief.

The base has a current total population of 12,405 people, as of Sept. 30, 2020 (end of fiscal year 2020). Of that number, 5,771 are military members, 5,558 military dependents or family members and 1,076 civilians work at the base.

The base had an economic impact of $622.3 million on the local area in fiscal year 2020, the most recent figures available.

From fiscal year 2010-2020, Minot AFB has had a $6.7 billion impact on the local area.

The Air Force is looking ahead to the future for Minot AFB’s weapon systems.

Progress is well on its way on the next generation intercontinental ballistic missile program to replace the existing one at Minot AFB and two other Air Force bases – F.E. Warren AFB in Wyoming and Malmstrom AFB in Montana. On Sept. 8, 2020, the Air Force awarded Northrop Grumman Corp. with the $13.3 billion contract for the Engineering and Manufacturing Development phase of Ground Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD). The effort will span eight and a half years and include weapon system design, qualification, test and evaluation and nuclear certification. When the Engineering and Manufacturing Development phase is completed, the GBSD program office will award a contract for Low-Rate Initial Production, or LRIP.

The Air Force projects GBSD deployment will begin in the late 2020s and be completed by the mid-2030s, said Leah Bryant, chief of Public Affairs and Legislative Liaison for Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center at Kirtland AFB, New Mexico.

In many ways, the B-52 bomber is a completely new aircraft due to extensive cutting edge upgrades that will take it well into the future.

The land-based ICBMs and B-52 bombers are part of the nuclear triad. The other leg of the triad is the nuclear missile-armed submarines.

Minot AFB is getting ready for the Air Force’s new MH-139A Grey Wolf helicopters to replace the Vietnam-era UH-1N Huey helicopters. The helicopters are used to guard the nation’s ICBM fields around Minot AFB, F.E. Warren AFB in Wyoming and Malmstrom AFB in Montana.

An $80-90 million construction project is scheduled to start at the Minot base this summer where a nine-bay facility to house the 54th Helicopter Squadron’s MH-139As and 91st Security Force Group’s tactical response force.

Sen. John Hoeven, a member of the Senate Defense Appropriations Committee, confirmed in November 2020 that Minot AFB will host the MH-139A Grey Wolf with an expected delivery date in 2026 and the new helicopter facility will take about two years to complete.

Minot AFB is on its way into the future.

– Sources include The Minot Daily News, Minot AFB, Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center at Kirtland AFB, New Mexico and Air Force Global Strike Command at Barksdale AFB, Louisiana.