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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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Veterans Issue May 2017

Discovering The Mature Lifestyle May 18 & 19, 2017

Veterans memorials matter Americans lo ve memorials . As soon as a beloved celebrity dies, memorials in many forms begin, almost immedia tely, to appear around the deceased’s home or favorite haunt. Likewise, whenever a teenager is killed in a car accident, within hours, makeshift memorials spring up along the r oadside at the cr ash site. We have a need to pr eserve our memory of important individuals and groups in some tangible way. This is especially true of veterans. Memorials for fallen her oes of all w ars can be f ound in courthouse squar es, par ks and cemeteries all acr oss the na tion. Veterans memorials are everywhere; and some states are considering legislation to expand potential sites for even more veterans’ memorials. Obviously, there is a reason for our love affair with memorials. My dictionary defines a memorial as: “something [mon ument, holiday, etc.] intended to celebrate the memory of a person or event.� Veterans memorials ar en’t just orna te edifices named after a w ar, a ba ttle or a

Guest column

... by Bob Ramsey

bunch of dead soldiers . Memorials celebrate and honor all v eterans and serv e as constant r eminders of who and w hat was lost to w ar and why. It is important for us to remember. If we ever do forget, it means w e have yet to learn the lesson of the losses and will have to suffer more losses in the future. I’m not a veteran. I never had the privilege of serving. Consequentl y I sometimes feel lik e a pr obationary citiz en. I haven’t paid my dues. Others have had to pay them for me. So it’s crucial tha t I’m periodically reminded of my debt. That’s where memorials come in. Memorials not onl y boost our collec-

tive memory , they also ha ve special meaning for each of us individually. For example, a high school principal I kno w cherished a “rub bing� of the name of a former student he had taken from the “wall memorial� in Washington, D. C. He explained that the student worked hard; but still struggled in school and came up a fe w credits short at the end of the 12th grade. For some reason, the principal decided to o ver-ride the rules and graduate the student anyway. Later, the student was killed in action. At his funeral, the boy’s mother told the principal, “We are so pr oud of our son. He was the first person in our famil y to graduate from high school.� The principal’ s e xception to the rule has allowed that family to feel a special pride in their son’s memory. That’s just one soldier’ s life narr ative. Ther e ar e other stories behind e very name on the w all that deserve to be remembered. Memorials help pr eserve these memories.

It’s appropriate that we build memorials to our veterans and revisit them regularly. But the most significant memorials are the ones w e er ect in our hearts and minds. I’m r eminded of the occasion w hen our gr anddaughter-in-law left her job teaching 3-4 year olds. The little students were de vastated. Some childr en cried. Parents were distraught. Then one da y, she dr ew a pictur e of a lar ge heart and wr ote the students’ names inside the pictur e. One little bo y beamed as he told his mother , “No w, I will be in Miss Mar’s heart forever.� That made it all right. It works the same way with the internal and external memorials w e create. They help us keep our “veterans in our hearts forever.� And that’s where they belong. Bob R amsey is a lif elong educator, fr eelance writer and adv ocate for vital aging. He can be contacted at 952-922-9558 or by email at joyrammini@comcast.net.

Museum-owning couple are no strangers to the past II. “In 1943, Geor ge Herbert W alker Bush flew it as part of his training f or W orld W ar II,� Jasperson said. “It was restored exactly as it was.� The other two airplanes are an A T-6D Texan and an L-4 Gr asshopper, a Piper Cub b uilt f or the military. “W e ha ve thr ee more flying airplanes tha t should all be back in the

PLANES - FROM PREVIOUS PAGE “There w ere 15,000 b uilt and onl y 300 ar e left in the world,� Jasperson said. “Six of them fr om the U.S. flew in comba t and came back. This is one of the six. It’s a beautiful airplane.� Another aircraft on display is a Boeing Stear man open-cockpit biplane used for training in World War

near futur e, including the other Boeing Stear man that Geor ge H.W . Bush flew during his Navy training, a TBM A venger tor pedo bomber, and a Na vy F4U-4 Corsair,� Jasperson said. In a second hanger, museum volunteers are doing restoration work on an allmetal BT 15. “W e have a talented gr oup of v olun-

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teers,� Jasperson said. “We have lots of projects. A lot of our v olunteers are into history. They ar en’t a viators, b ut they lik e to tell the stories of people w ho served.�

A future as curators Once the J aspersons r etire fr om their full-time jobs, he said, “We hope to be a t the m useum mor e. We hope to be open one day during the week. We’re still growing. We have lots of room.� Story Musgr ave, a ph ysician and r etired N ASA astronaut w ho made six shuttle trips, will be a t AirExpo 2017 on J uly 15-16 and will be the k eynote speaker a t the Ev ening with Eagles dinner on Saturday, July 15. Bob is a na tive of Hopkins, and J udy grew up in Robbinsdale. Residents of Burnsville since 1975, the Jaspersons have two adult sons, a gr andson and tw o granddaughters. AirExpo 2017 tick ets can be pur chased on the group’s w ebsite or a t the gate. Adults ar e $17, kids 7-12 are $5, kids 6 and under are free. Wings of the North Museum is a t 10100 Fl ying Cloud Dri ve, Eden Pr ai-

Bob Jasperson is pictured outside the squadron building on DaNang Air Base in Vietnam in 1972 while his squadron was on temporary duty from their base in Korea. (Submitted photo) rie. Hours ar e 10 a.m. to Information: w otn.org/ 2 p.m. Saturday and Sun- museum, or 952-746-6100. day, and also is a vailable for pri vate school or Bo y Scout tours at other times during the week.

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