South Dakota

   South Dakota. Who lives in South Dakota? Well I did - twice during my active-duty career, and it wasn't a bad assignment as one would initially think when receiving orders to Ellsworth AFB near Rapid City. 

EAFB was my first assignment and I was lucky enough to be assigned to different squadrons both times providing security for Minuteman II ICBMs - units that collectively had to drive hundreds of miles on a daily basis to get the job accomplished. 

I hadn't been back there in a long time and floated the idea of a summer road trip to Mrs Lenman and Our Boy, which was received with minor enthusiasm. Good enough! So I planned our route east with overnight stops in Montana there and back, and off we went. 

Naturally, the must-see our first morning there was Mount Rushmore. I never get tired of seeing this tribute to great presidents who placed America first. The work put into carving and blasting granite to display the faces of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln is an impressive engineering feat in an awesome setting. 

Crazy Horse was the next stop. A project that has been in progress since I first arrived in the 80s and well before that. When completed, the tribute to the Lakota warrior will be one of the world's tallest statues. 

Following those sites, a little bit of a drive back to Wyoming to visit Devils Tower. 

As we went on in the few days staying in Rapid City, we went to Badlands National Park, or what OB tagged as 'Tatooine.' Despite my times living in South Dakota, I never went there back then because I simply didn't have an interest to see it. I drove past the exits leading to Badlands Loop Road so many times heading out to Launch Control Centers and Launch Facilities in the 66th Missile Squadron area that I could get a glimpse of it from I-90 and didn't think I was missing anything. Well, I was wrong. The drive through the park is mesmerizing and sparking curiosity in geological creations like when I first visited this place.   

Nearby was something I found especially interesting available for viewing to the public - a Minuteman II Launch Control Facility and Launch Facility. Wow. Now this was something I looked forward to. We were able to visit LF Delta 09, but not  the LCF - Delta 01, because it was closed as was the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site Visitor Center. Both closed on the day before we were departing Rapid City, so we couldn't make it this time. For me, I do want to travel out there again and see it.

The last stops of the day were out to Ellsworth AFB and the South Dakota Air and Space Museum. EAFB still has the Minuteman II Training Launch Facility, where I trained on for the 1984 and the 1993 Missile Combat Competitions, and also for the first iteration of Olympic Flag - held in the heyday of Strategic Air Command's dominance as an Air Force Major Command before being briefly taken over by Air Combat Command. 

Outside the main gate of EAFB is the where the Air and Space Museum is located.

A fun road trip that led to reminiscing about a part my of career and life where I learned about block heaters, how to walk in deep snow, and how I love onion rings and a cold beer. Glad to have made it with the family (minus Our Daughter - who was stationed in Korea at the time, but she's seen it already), and I wouldn't mind doing it again. If you ever think South Dakota would be a boring place to visit, I think you'd be surprised to find it a part of our country worth seeing and spending some time at. ~