2016 April 8th AFHS of MN Newsletter

Volume 25, Number 1

April, 2016

Custom Motorcycle Honors
B-17 Bombardier

Ken Frison has his own engine service shop in Bloomington. In his spare time, he used his knowledge and
skills to customize a Harley motorcycle in honor of his father Frank Frison. Frank was a B-17 Bombardier with
the 8th Air Force 447th Bomb Group. He was in the 710th Squadron in Rattlesden, England. Frank completed 35
missions from November, 1944 to March 1945. He was the past president of the 8th Air Force Historical Society
of Minnesota.

Ken customized the Harley with an 8th Air Force paint theme. He did a beautiful job embedding 8th Air
Force emblams, nose art, and .45 caliber shell casings on to many parts of his motorcycle.

Luncheons are Wednesday, 11:15 AM
K of C Hall, Bloomington, MN.
See our website: www.8thmn.org

Eighth Air Force Historical Society of Minnesota Officers
& Directors as of January 1, 2016

President Vice President Treasurer John Ahaus
Steve Marks Dick Hill (179th FS) Gary Birchem 10548 Penn Ave., S
5121 Gorgas Ave. 934 Woody Lane 28790 Ivywood TRL Bloomington, MN 55431
Edina, MN 55424 Coon Rapids, MN 55448 Chisago City, MN 55013 (612) 720-8307
(952) 926-0148 (763) 755-3559 (651) 257-1550 [email protected]
(952)-797-2783 [email protected] almostaranch02@
[email protected] frontier.com Vince Parker
38 Moonlight Bay
Spook Johns Dick Kaminski Gene Kretchmer Stillwater, MN 55082
5933 Walnut Dr. 6633 Xerxes Ave S 11206 Virginia Rd. (651) 439-8679
Edina, MN 55436 Minneapolis, MN 55423 Bloomington, MN 55438
(952) 935-3650 (612) 869-5978 (952) 943-3988

James Rasmussen Lawrence Sagstetter
18273 Fillmore St., NE 1696 E. Third St.
Cedar, MN 55011 St. Paul, MN 55106
(763)-434-3654 [email protected]

Frank Frison (447th BG) Past Presidents Ed Kueppers (AM)
William Herbert (96th BG) Earl B. Joswick (95th BG)

James Keefe (95th BG) Richard Postier (96th BG) Harold Rutka (34th BG) Dave Dahlberg (487th BG)

Don Zupan (379th BG) Don Bruns (379th BG) Larry Bachman (392nd BG) Don Kent (401st BG)

Clyde Thompson (490th Dick Kaminski (457th BG) Robert Clemens (15thAF) Al Anderson (ARDC)
BG)

Newsletter prepared and edited by Lawrence Sagstetter, 1696 E. Third St., St. Paul, MN 55106,
Phone: 651-776-7434, Email: [email protected].

“Deterrence through strength, global strike on demand.”

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President’s Report Our friends at the Knights of Columbus hall in
Bloomington have been great, as usual. They
By Steve Marks are always prepared to serve special cakes we
bring in. Here they are ready to serve Gary
Summer air show planning has started again. Birchem’s birthday cake. Their food and
Discover Aviation Days at Anoka-Blaine service are tops.
airport is scheduled for June 4th & 5th. AirExpo
at Eden Prairie is July 16 & 17.

A lot of exciting things are happening with our
8th Air Force group. Our local 934th Air Force
Reserves Air Wing has adopted our
luncheons as a place to visit, have lunch and
learn member stories. Wing Commander
Anthony Polashek came and spoke at a
recent luncheon. His public affairs staff has
visited several times, as well.

Here, Colonel Anthony Polashek & TSgt Please pray for those who are ailing.
Erica Hokkanen are introduced by John Remember those who have gone before us. All
Uldrich at an 8th Air Force Hist. Soc. of are important in our group and make it great.
MN luncheon in March. God bless the United States of America and
keep her safe.
Since the New Year, the size of luncheon -Steve Marks.
crowds has been robust. This is largely the
result of programming organized by Dick Hill. 3
We have had quite a few good speakers
lately, including Colonel Polashek. The
Executive Director of MSP Airport, Jeff
Hamiel, gave a terrific talk on his Air Force
Reserves background and latest airport news.

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Chaplain’s Message Editor’s Notes

The Prayer of the Airman's Wife by Lawrence Sagstetter

Make clear my airman's path of victory, You may have noticed the BT-13 on the
That it is sure and swift. back page. Wings of the North (WOTN)
in Eden Prairie is rebuilding one in their
Grant him strength of spirit and body, hanger at Flying Cloud Airport.
That he may defeat each enemy. Volunteers do all the work on Saturdays
Give him vision to see his duty, all year round.
That it is done as it should be.
And grant him comfort and peace, The WOTN BT-13 differs from the one
That he may know his work is just. being restored by Jim Johns’ group of
specialists at Anoka – Blaine airport.
But most of all, Lord, keep him safe, That one, another different BT-13, will go
That he may soon return – to the WASP museum in Sweetwater, TX
when it’s finished.
To the family, country, and freedom
That his courage protects. Says Jim, “Our hero, and our inspiration
for the BT-13 restoration project is
A 1945 Wehrmacht joke: Elizabeth "Betty" Wall Strohfus. Her
tireless, enthusiastic support for the
When we see a silver plane, it's WASP program over a period of many,
American. A black plane, it's British. many years has made it possible for
When we see no plane, it's countless others to gain an appreciation
German.” for what Betty and her sister WASP
endured and accomplished for America
A pilot always taught the 2nd real and for women aviators of all
phase of flight training to a co- generations.“
pilot: "Gear up, flaps up, shut up."

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8th$Air$Force$Historical$Society$of$Minnesota$ Folded Wings
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Other 8th members we have lost the last
“We simply cannot put into words how much we few months:
love, appreciate and admire this gentle lady.
She is truly a very special human being and a Myron Asper
national treasure.” Ed Baxter

Unfortunately, Elizabeth “Betty Wall” Strohfus, Wally Bohrn
96 years young, of Faribault, MN, passed away Leroy Christianson
Sunday, March 6 at the Milestone Senior Living
in Faribault, surrounded by her family. Dewey Folkstad
Calvin Garrison
From National Guard Brigadier General Sandy Robert Holden
Best, “Thanks for serving as an inspiration to Clinton Johnson
women (in aviation, in the military, in Minnesota,
in the US, all over the world) and men too. Mark Olson
Love, hugs and prayers to you and your family.” Glenn Rudell
Robert Sandahl
“Thanks for pioneering the way for women and Dexter Shultz
making it easier for all who have followed. We Bruce Boitz-Furu
love your energy and will always remember you
for your significant contributions as a female in 5
pilot in WWII, as a mentor, and as a role model.
We love you Betty. You are a woman ahead of
your time and a true pioneer. Godspeed!”

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From Lou Martin: Christmas Party Photos

Had a fun Christmas part at Mancini’s in
December. About 75 people showed up. That
was enough to fill the dining room. The
entertainment was terrific. Heidi Ziman
entertained singing cabaret songs. Her
personal piano player accompanied her. They
were both so good; we may invite them back
next year

This photo reflects my last flight in an F-100 in
1993. It was with Flight Systems who were
towing Dart targets for German Tornado
fighters. At the time I was working for the FAA
in Frankfurt, Germany.

I flew the aircraft from the back seat for about
an hour while the German fighters took shots at
our towed target. The aircraft did not have the
thrust of our Air Force F-100s as the engines
were de rated to make them last longer. This
was possible because the aircraft were very
light compared to operational fighters and they
didn't need the full 17,000 pounds of thrust with
after burner. Retired Air Force pilots flew them
on contract.

The following year a 60 year-old retired Hun
pilot was killed flying one of the Flight
Systems F-100 and I worked with the German
Government in documenting the accident report
for Flight Systems. The U.S. ANG flew their last
F-100 in 1979.

Happy Spring.

Lou Martin

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German City Evacuated After Center or zooming around the E Street
Unexploded World War II Bomb Is Expressway. But few know that the Beaux Arts
campus is where Gen. “Wild Bill” Donovan and
Found his band of OSS agents invented the spy craft
that helped win World War II, the pistol pencils,
German authorities recently ordered one of the fake passports and the propaganda broadcasts
country’s biggest postwar evacuations after that led enemy soldiers to doubt their causes
discovering an unexploded U.S. bomb from (and sometimes their wives).
World War II in the western city of Cologne. The
bomb was discovered ahead of the construction After the war, the compound became the first
of a heat pipeline. The latest bomb—found in a home of OSS’s successor agency, the CIA. And
densely populated Cologne neighborhood—is yet even to its neighbors, the spot’s remarkable
one of the largest discovered in the city so far. pedigree as the place that bedeviled Hitler and
crafted the Cold War might as well be stamped
“top secret.”

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A World War II bomb lies on a truck
platform after being defused by a bomb-
disposal squad in the Germany city of
Cologne.

Former OSS spies on a mission
to save old headquarters

By Steve Hendrix

The birthplace of modern American
espionage has been hiding — as befits a
former nest of spies — in plain sight.

The old headquarters of the Office of
Strategic Services is a little cluster of
stone and brick buildings clearly visible
to anyone walking out of the Kennedy
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It was only after the State Department committed to protecting the heritage not just
announced plans to redevelop the site for of the OSS headquarters but other historic
additional office space that OSS veterans properties on Potomac Hill, including the
learned no one had ever bothered to gain original Navy Observatory and buildings that
historic status for their home. Rumors housed the precursor to the National
spread that the structures could be Institutes of Health.
demolished, so some aging spooks have
come in from the cold of retirement to fight “This is a very important place,” said Mina
one more mission for the old HQ, joining Wright, the GSA’s director of planning and
with local preservationists to save at least design, as she stood outside the office used
some of it for posterity. by Donovan, the charismatic founder of the
OSS. The State Department now uses the
“I thought it was outrageous,” former OSS space as a conference room, but it is still
and CIA agent Hugh Montgomery said of the lined with photos of Donovan and a case
possible loss of the offices that once displays some of the medals he won as the
directed his secret operations behind enemy most decorated officer of the first World
lines. “I think we all assumed it was already War. “We are totally dedicated to protecting
protected.” the sense of history here, which will depend
on the successful integration of the old and
The 90-year-old Montgomery, who recently the new.”
retired from a 63-year career in intelligence,
testified at several meetings of the D.C. The agency has begun its own process of
Preservation League and helped compile getting the compound on the National
information for the league’s application for Register of Historic places and next month
historic landmark status. Several other will hold a meeting to gather public
surviving OSS vets and their descendants comments about the setting. It will take more
have also contributed memories, documents than a year to develop a master plan for the
and photographs to the effort. site, Wright said. But absent a flat guarantee
that the facades won’t be lost, OSS
“I call them the most dangerous band of 98- supporters want to ensure their HQ won’t be
year-olds in the country,” said Charles reduced to a bronze plaque.
Pinck, the son of a former agent and
president of the OSS Society, an alumni
group. “It kind of caught us all off guard. We
thought, ‘Oh my God, are they going to tear
down this historical treasure?’ 

The General Services Administration, which
is directing the building project, says those
fears are unfounded. During a recent tour of
the site, agency officials said they are

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“They deserve to be saved,” said retired “You never knew what was in all those
General John Singlaub, 92, who was messages being carried back and forth,”
dispatched from these buildings to missions said McIntosh, who went on serve as a field
in occupied France. Later, he was sent to operative herself, at one point passing
Manchuria as CIA station chief when the explosives to a saboteur who would blow up
young agency was housed in the same a Japanese troop train.
offices. “It’s more historically correct to
preserve these than some other buildings I Montgomery said the cables he received in
see in Washington.” the field were usually just signed “109,”
which was the room number of Donovan’s
Not even many history buffs knew much office. “That’s how he would tell us what
about the heritage of the hard-to-reach mischief we were to undertake next,” he
compound. The sloping site overlooking the said.
Potomac, is now bound on one side by the
expressway and on the other by the The compound was a hive of adventurers in
restricted streets surrounding the State between secret missions, brainy
Department. cryptographers and a parade of future
leaders. Future CIA directors Allen Dulles
“It’s a mystery why it was never listed [as a and Richard Helms were both OSS alums.
historic landmark],” said Peter Sefton, an
architectural historian with the D.C. There was star power, too, in the blocky,
Preservation League. “It’s tempting to think it overcrowded offices. Actor Sterling Hayden
was a secrecy thing, but it was more likely was an agent. Donovan enlisted the
just lost in the rush of events after the war. German-born bombshell Marlene Dietrich to
I’ve lived in Washington 45 years and didn’t take risky morale-building tours of combat
even know it was there.” units. McIntosh remembers one of her
colleagues taking dictation from Hollywood
Elizabeth “Betty” McIntosh, who is 99 still director John Ford, who commanded an
has clear memories of her wartime duty at OSS Field Photographic Unit.
OSS headquarters, where the days were a
mix of stifling clerical routines and thrilling
glimpses of intrigue. In a memoir of her OSS
days, which provided background material
for the historic landmark application, she
recalled stumbling into a demonstration of
secret gadgets. One was a pencil that shot a
single bullet. Another was a chemical that, if
splashed on an enemy official in a crowd,
would drench him in a foul, fecal odor for
days.

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8th Air Force Historical Society of Minnesota Membership

Name____________________________________________________________________________

First Name Middle Initial Last Name

Address___________________________________________________________________________

Street Apt. No. City State

___________________________________________________________________________

Zip Code Tel. No. 8th AF unit or other service?

I want to subscribe for: 1 Year, $20.00_____ 2 Years, $40.00_____ 3 Years, $60.00_____ Other____

E-mail address____________________________________________________________________

Please send this form (or a copy) with your check or money order for $20.00 per year to:

8th Air Force Historical Society of MN
Gary Birchem, Treasurer
28790 Ivywood TRL
Chisago City, MN 55013

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