I’d seen the mount for it sitting empty for a long time, but earlier this Spring I took this photo of a Huey helicopter welcoming visitors to the National Guard aviation facility (home to the 112th Aviation Security and Support Battalion) southeast of Bismarck. It’s neat that they’ve got the Blackhawks to go with their mission, so I suppose some of the Hueys and jet rangers don’t see as much use as they had in the past.

I remember this facility as the James L. Grimstad Memorial Aviation Facility, named after my friend Jerry’s dad. He was one of the first pilots in the ND National Guard as far as I know, certainly one of the first helicopter pilots when the state started getting them. Prior to that it was little fixed-wing aircraft.

I did a film-to-video transfer of some of the film the guys shot back in the 40s or 50s and saved a couple of frames on my system…here’s one to bring back the memories:

It was neat seeing film of them logging their flight schedule on a chalk board in a tiny little room…obviously they’ve got much nicer quarters now! I doubt any of them could foresee how the unit’s size, mission, and equipment could change over the years. The helicopters based in Bismarck have done everything from medevac to shuttling VIPs around during times of flooding and natural disasters to flying night vision flights to help law enforcement. Now they’re representing the USA overseas and making us proud!