North Dakota
Hundreds of Airmen Will Move from South Dakota Base to North Dakota Starting This Month
Hundreds of airmen and a fleet of B-1B Lancer bombers will be temporarily relocating from Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota to Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota starting this month.
An estimated 800 airmen and 17 B-1B Lancers from the South Dakota base are cleared to relocate approximately 500 miles northeast for about 10 months. The move follows legal and environmental approval for Ellsworth to begin runway construction for the new B-21 Raider bomber — slated to be housed there in the next couple of years.
“The runway construction at Ellsworth is a key milestone in ensuring we’re ready to receive the B-21 Raider,” Col. Derek Oakley, the commander of the 28th Bomb Wing, said in a news release this week. “This project illustrates the U.S. Air Force’s commitment to our nation’s newest long-range strike bomber and to the surrounding community.”
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Grand Forks Air Force Base is currently home to the 319th Reconnaissance Wing, which operates the RQ-4B Global Hawk drone. While the North Dakota installation no longer supports the nuclear mission, the base used to house Minuteman II intercontinental ballistic missiles, as well as B-52 Stratofortress and B-1B Lancer bombers, from the mid- to late-20th century.
Retired Air Force Col. Mark Gunzinger, a former B-52 bomber command pilot and director of future concepts and capability assessments for the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, told Military.com in an interview Friday that relocations like this are good for training purposes, but are often difficult on a service member’s dependents.
“From an operational perspective, it’s good experience to operate from different air bases frequently, rather than just your home air base,” Gunzinger said, but added, “It’s never an easy thing to do, even if you’re trained to deploy periodically and your family is used to it. Doing that for an extended period of time is usually rough on families.”
This isn’t the first time this year the B-1Bs from South Dakota have been shuffled around.
In January, just weeks after a Lancer crash at Ellsworth, 250 airmen and an undisclosed number of bombers were relocated from Ellsworth to Dyess Air Force Base in Texas due, in part, to extensive damage to the runway from the incident. In this week’s news release, the Air Force revealed that those South Dakota Lancers moved to Texas were later used in military operations overseas.
“Earlier this year, several of Ellsworth’s bombers relocated to Dyess AFB,” the news release said. “While there, they were tasked and conducted strikes in Iraq and Syria against Iranian-backed militant groups.”
The Department of Defense will eventually replace the B-1B Lancer with the B-21 Raider. Ellsworth was chosen in 2021 as the first base to house the new bomber. Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri and Dyess Air Force Base were announced in September as the second and third bases that will house the B-21.
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North Dakota
North Dakota voters to decide single-subject requirement for future constitutional amendments on June 9
BRECKENRIDGE — Coaches, teammates, friends and family gathered in the south parking lot of Breckenridge High School for another state tournament sendoff.
Corbin Abner Lee / Wahpeton Daily News
This year, it was Troy Berndt taking the ceremonial convertible ride. He is headed to St. Michael-Albertville High School for the Minnesota Class A State Track and Field Meet on June 4-6.
Corbin Abner Lee / Wahpeton Daily News
He will be running in the third heat of the 400-meter prelims, scheduled for 4:52 p.m. June 4. There are seven athletes in each heat, 21 total, and nine will advance to the finals at 6:20 p.m. June 5.
The top two finishers in each heat advance, along with the next three best times. Berndt’s personal best time of 50.67 has him seeded 13th, but the 10th-, 11th- and 12th-seeded runners are less than five hundredths of a second ahead of him. The eighth- and ninth-seeded runners are also close, at 50.33 and 50.39, respectively.
Berndt dropped nearly seven-tenths of a second from his previous personal best at the Section 6A West Subsection Meet on May 21, running 51.35, and shaved another 0.68 seconds off at the Section 6A Championships on May 28 with a time of 50.67. If he keeps lowering his time, he will have a shot at reaching the podium against the best runners in Class A.
Corbin Abner Lee / Wahpeton Daily News
Results and photos will be available online immediately following the race June 4 and in the June 10 print edition of the Wahpeton Daily News.
Corbin Lee is a sports reporter for the Wahpeton Daily News and Richland County News-Monitor. Corbin can be reached by calling (701) 291-3551 or emailing corbin.lee@wahpetondailynews.com.
On this day in 1971, Rugby repeated as North Dakota’s high school sand greens golf champion behind medalist Dwight Stempson’s winning performance.
Here is the complete story as it appeared in the paper that day:
Rugby Repeats As Sand Greens Golf Champion
RUGBY, N. D. — Rugby repeated as North Dakota high school sand greens golf champion here Wednesday, posting a four-man total of 293 strokes for 18 holes.
Led by medalist Dwight Stempson’s medalist 36-35 — 71, the Panthers were eight strokes ahead of runnerup Stanley, which had a 301. Following were Garrison 311, Beulah 315, Leeds 322, Ashley 323, Bottineau 328, Pembina 329, Tioga 332, Parshall 341 and Hettinger 342.
Stempson and teammate Bruce Carlson each had one-under par 71s, but Carlson was unable to be at the regional and wasn’t qualified for individual honors.
Rounding out the Rugby totals were Delwin Wilson 40-37 — 77 and Dennett Hutchinson 35-39 — 74. Gary Kirchoffner, 41-39 — 80, was Rugby’s fifth entrant with the best four-of-five scores counted.
Runnerup Stanley was led by Steve Springan’s 34-38 — 72 and Joe Springan’s 36-38 — 74. Their two-man total of 146 strokes was good enough for the doubles title. Two strokes back with a 148 was the duo of Stempson and Wilson. Stan Saathoff and Mike Stepina of Garrison each had 76s for a 152 total and the Ashley combo of Steve Maier (76) and Dave Kretschmar (78) was fourth with a 154.
Stempson was the driving contest winner with a distance of 280 yards. Chris Knutson of Garrison headed the pitch and putt competition.
Kate Almquist is the social media manager for InForum. After working as an intern, she joined The Forum full time starting in January 2022. Readers can reach her at kalmquist@forumcomm.com.
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