To Work With Great People
When COVID went global, and people were forced to stay home and find ways to carry on their vocation, a new set of rules emerged. We were already entering a time when working from home, and not in a brick and mortar office, was going to become more of a norm than an exception. But […]
What an honor…
Often times we focus on the negative and how nothing seems to go right. Instead, we should always try to think of the glass as half full rather than half empty. Sometimes good things do happen to us, but we tend to live in the moment then forget about it. An event like that happened […]
From Daylight to Darkness: Practical Tips for NoDak’s Dark Season
It’s been nearly a week since we all changes our clocks back, “falling back” an hour. When I was younger and child-free, I used to call it “invincibility weekend.” Normally sluggish and not exactly a “morning person,” I’d suddenly feel well-rested, perky, and eager to get out of bed as my internal clock was tricked […]
Me? I Didn’t Do Anything Special~ George Franklin’s Military Career Spans Two Wars
A young George Franklin started his military career in September of 1944 at Fort Snelling. Across the Atlantic Ocean Allied troops had reached Paris, and in the Pacific U.S. troops had landed in the Philippines. From Fort Snelling George was shipped to Texas for training. His next stop was Fort Mead, Maryland “and soon after […]
Now Their Air Force, Not Mine
Life after military retirement presents itself in many ways. Some feel the relief of pressure released, others feel sadness of a part of themselves suddenly missing. For Chief Master Sergeant (Ret.) Ernest “Kacky” Crider, it is a little bit of both that hit at different times. Kacky had a long military career both in the […]
Is Veterans Day Important to Those Still Serving?
Veterans Day is a day set aside as a time to thank and pay tribute to those Americans who have served in the United States Armed Forces. Veterans Day (not to be confused with Armed Forces Day which is usually in May) is always on November 11th. It is there to commemorate the small percentage […]
Turret Gunner Recalls ‘Black Thursday’ October 14, 1943
Art Linrud, Velva ND, was one of the World War II veterans who remembered Black Thursday, October 14, 1943, the day of the bombing mission to Schweinfurt, Germany. He was engineer and top turret gunner on B-17 Flying Fortress No. 42-3436. It was one of the relatively few planes without a nickname painted on its […]
A Legacy of Service and Community at Minot AFB
[et_pb_section admin_label=”section”] [et_pb_row admin_label=”row”] [et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text”] Bruce Christianson’s personality fills a room. A conversation with him is bound to be full of intriguing anecdotes, laughter, and the energy of a man decades his junior. But while he is powerful in presence, Christianson remains humble and unassuming about his significant impact on Minot and Minot […]
A Sense of Duty – A Sense of Pride
It was a sense of duty. That’s how one Minot veteran described his commitment to military service.Andy Maragos, 80, son of a Greek immigrant, credits his father with instilling in him a strong work ethic and sense of pride in the United States. “My father came to Minot about 1915 with the railroad as a […]
Lives That Touch ~ Soldiers, Pilots & POW’s
Two lifetime friends, connected through their time at a German POW camp, are joined once again after their lives have ended through a series of events related to a book about WWII heroes in Benson County, North Dakota. Art Linrud and Merlin McCloud would visit about once a year. Art was a turret gunner on […]