Scott Nelson

Kendall Mork was born on this date in 1918 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. At three-and-a-half years of age, Kendall was orphaned when both his parents succumbed to Tuberculosis. An aunt and uncle in Hatton, North Dakota took him. After graduating from High School, he went to the Agriculture College in Fargo, Luther College in Iowa, and then the University of Southern California for Aviation Engineering.

Duane Larson was born at Regent, North Dakota in 1916, and graduated from Regent High School. In 1941, Larson joined the US Army Air Corp and was initially assigned duty as a truck driver. After achieving high test scores, he moved into flight school, getting his wings at a base in Alabama and becoming a pilot with the rank of 2nd Lieutenant.

Rodney Kephart was born in Spencer, Iowa, on this date in 1917. He and his family later moved to North Dakota.

Adolph Marcus Christianson the Third was born in February of 1944. Known as Marc, he was the grandson of North Dakota Supreme Court Justice, A. M. Christianson, known as the Lincoln of North Dakota; and the son of A. M. Christianson the Second, an Army flight instructor who later founded the Bismarck Zoo.

On this date in 1983 a B-52 Stratofortress bomber exploded at the Grand Forks Air Force Base with the loss of 5 personnel. Fortunately, it did not have nuclear weapons on board. That was not the case less than 3 years earlier when on September 15th, 1980, a B-52 on alert status caught fire. Fanned by strong winds, the fire became a giant flamethrower. The crew jumped clear and ran.

Standing a few miles east of Richardton, North Dakota, is a modest conical hill with a lot of history. It’s called Young Man’s Butte. Several legends exist to the origin of the name. One of the most plausible came from Rain-in-the-Face, a Lakota Sioux, born near the Cheyenne River in present day South Dakota in 1835.

Dan Panko was born on this date in Ukraine in 1895. He emigrated to America in 1906 with his family and they homesteaded in North Dakota. A railroad branch of the Soo Line ran near their homestead and young Dan would hop on the train as it went by, ride a few miles, hop off and run back home.

Mary Sherman was born to Michael and Dorothy Sherman on a small farm near Ray, North Dakota in 1921. She graduated from Ray in 1939 as Valedictorian and went on to college at Minot State University majoring in chemistry. When World War II broke out, most men joined the service creating a shortage of chemists and other scientists. Mary was noticed in her chemistry classes and offered a job at Plum Brook Ordnance Works in Sandusky, Ohio. Short on money, Mary decided to postpone her degree and take the job.

On this date in 1976, Eldon Joersz of Hazen, North Dakota, broke the all-time speed record for manned airbreathing jet engine aircraft, flying SR-71 Blackbird, Lockheed’s High Altitude Surveillance Jet.

12/19/2017: Edgar Allen was born in Kansas and flew as a bomber pilot during World War 2. When the war ended, he stayed in the Army Air Force and was assigned to the 6th Ferry Group in Long Beach California. Allen spent his time flying various planes around the country, mostly surplus aircraft being disposed of by the Air Force.