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Discovering The Mature Lifestyle

Veterans Issue

May 19, 2017

May 2017

Wings of the North Museum is a passion for Burnsville couple BY SUE WEBBER CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Following his dischar ge fr om the service, he had a v ariety of jobs: a used car salesman, a resiBob J asperson of Burnsdential Realtor in Burnsville and ville started flying a t a ge 15 a t Apple Valley, and a bar and resthe Fl ying Cloud Airport. He taurant partner in Burnsville for graduated fr om Hopkins High 15 years. For the last 21 years, he School in 1964 and then got a has worked in quality control at degree in ci vil engineering fr om Kraemer Mining & Materials in the Uni versity of Minnesota, where he enter ed the Air F orce through the R OTC pr ogram, and also met his futur e wife , Judy. “We w ere married in 1969, two da ys after I r eceived both my degr ee and m y Air F orce commission,� Jasperson said.

Service Jasperson w as sta tioned in Korea with the Air Force during the V ietnam w ar. But on Easter w eekend 1972, his unit w as deployed to tempor ary duty in Vietnam. During the ne xt five months, he flew 115 missions. “I was a back-seater, Weapons Systems Officer (WSO), or GIB (guy in back) in the F-4 Phantom twin-engine jet fighter,â€? Jasperson said. â€œI had planned to do 20 years and retire, but the way the politicians ran the war in Southeast Asia and the w ay the pub lic treated its servicemen changed my mind,â€? Jasperson said. While he w as in V ietnam, his wife got her pilot’s license at the Crystal Airport. “W e w ere in a flying club that went all over the country,â€? Jasperson said. “There were 60 people in the club , and we had six airplanes.â€?

adjacent to their of fices. In A uHoney, let’s start a gust of 2016, the m useum w as moved to a ne w facility on the museum southeast corner of the airport, The gr oup’s first e vent w as near the end of runway 36 and a ga thering of P-51 Mustang the control tower. fighter-plane pilots in Ma y of Wings of the North is dedi1998, f ollowed b y Mustang cated to presenting and preservRoundup ‘99 and annual AirEx- ing a viation history b y putting

and a couple doz en people who do da y-to-day w ork and planning, he said. “Man y of us do two or three jobs,� he said.

Hangar treasures

The museum sponsors an annual AirExpo tha t dr aws 150175 people for a weekend in July. Jasperson said he sees a r enewed interest in W orld War II these da ys. “Man y, man y families have an elderly member who is telling those stories ,â€? he said. “World W ar II w as dif ferent. Everyone on the home front was involved. Ther e w as r ationing, and e veryone helped with the war effort.â€? Many families w ho had a father or gr andfather in the military find photographs, uniforms or other service-r elated items that they donate to the museum. One of the m useum’s ne west e xhibits is a r eplica of the Spirit of St. Louis , given to the museum on loan fr om the Minneapolis-St. P aul Metr opolitan Airports Commission. “It w as made f or the 1957 movie ‘The Spirit of St. Louis,’â€? Jasperson said. “It w as trucked Bob and Judy Jasperson are seated in the pilot seats of a B-25 Mitchell bomber that was on loan to the Wings of to our hanger and w e put it tothe North Museum over the winter, and recently returned to its home base. (Submitted photo) gether. It w as created strictly as a mo vie pr op. It w as ne ver inon air displa ys, symposiums , tended to fly. â€? Burnsville. His wife , J udy, also pos in the years since 2000. Five aircraft are on display at In 2012, the gr oup purchased school pr esentations, and other works there. the m useum no w; thr ee others But what occupies mor e than hangar 72D on Sierr a Lane a t programs. “We are also ambassadors for are out for work. 20 hours of the couple’ s time Flying Cloud Airport, w here One is a P51D Mustang. each week is a project they share. they oper ate W ings R estora- the m useum,â€? J asperson said. In 1998, they opened the W ings tions, the m useum’s r estoration “We speak a t the Lions, Rotary PLANES - TO NEXT PAGE arm. and Kiwanis clubs.â€? of the North Air Museum in In 2015, the group began leasThe small staff includes a couEden Pr airie. Bob is the dir ecing space to operate the museum ple of retirees who are docents, tor; Judy is the curator.

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