After three decades, B-1 Bomber returns to Grand Forks for special mission

GRAND FORKS, N.D. — It’s a blast from the past at the Grand Forks Air Force Base. The B-1 bomber returned, exactly 30 years after the last one left.

The beast of a plane, which guzzles a million gallons of gas a month, is helping Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota buy time.

“Ellsworth has to undergo a significant runway repair and upgrade, and in order to do that, they need to temporarily relocate their mission,” Col. Tim Monroe, a commander with the 319th Reconnaissance Wing at the Grand Forks Air Force Base, said Tuesday.

Ellsworth is getting ready to host a fleet of B-21 jets, but the Air Force needs the jets fueled and ready. Luckily, Grand Forks has a deep history of hosting B-1 bombers.

“This is not terribly new to us, but we do have to revisit a lot of basic principles of operating an aircraft like this because this installation, for many years, has operated unmanned systems,” Monroe said.

“Grand Forks quickly became one of the best options that popped up: its proximity to Ellsworth is one of its perks, additionally that it’s got a lot of B-1 infrastructure still existing here,” Lt. Col. Nathaniel Butler, the director of the Commander’s Action Group, said.

Specifically, the quality of the fuel lines and the runway at Grand Forks Air Force Base. The base has the potential to host many more of these, and several hundred airmen, as Ellsworth continues construction.

“It’s going to require some infrastructure updates to the installation, but it’s also going to require everybody to play nice and make sure that we are working cooperatively to sustain two wings’ missions from this base,” Monroe said.

“With every project there’s going to be problems, and some of them comes to funding, and a lot of it comes to contracting timelines, I don’t think that there’s anything that any one person can wave a magic wand and fix.” Butler said.

The Pentagon recently awarded the Grand Forks base more than $61 million dollars for renovation work.