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Thunder Under the Big Sky

First Aired Monday, March 11th, 2019

Fifteen-thousand military planes roared into Great Falls during World War II. Three years later, courageous Air Force pilots and crews trained 24-hours a day in Great Falls preparing for the Berlin Airlift. They stopped the Cold War blockade, and probably prevented World War III. At the same time, a new Air National Guard was formed to serve Montana, and they were later called up to support oversees wars. A decade later, there was the race in Montana to ready the Minutemen missile as Russia stockpiled missiles in Cuba. It all happened in north-central Montana, and often in top-secret conditions.

Thunder Under the Big Sky

Photo courtesy of The History Museum.

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A P-63 Kingcobra flying over Great Falls in 1943, before being flown to Alaska and transferred to the Russian Airforce.

Photo courtesy of The History Museum.

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Colonel Einar A. Malmstrom for whom the airbase in Great Falls is named.

Photo courtesy of The History Museum.

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Douglas C-54 Skymaster Transport practices a Tempelhof Landing at Great Falls Army Air Base in 1948 in preparation for the Berlin Airlift.

Photo courtesy of Malmstrom Air Force Base Museum.

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Early minuteman missile site near Great Falls.

Photo courtesy of The History Museum.

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Hazel Lee, a member of the WASP (Women Airforce Service Pilots), who died ferrying a fighter plane from New York to Great Falls.

Photo courtesy of The History Museum.

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The first B-17 bomber landing at the Great Falls East Base.

Photo courtesy of Montana Air National Guard.

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First officers and enlisted men of the newly formed Montana Air National Guard (1947) in front of WWII hanger at Gore Field in Great Falls.

Photo courtesy of The History Museum.

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Army 7th Ferrying troops sleeping on cots over the ice arena at the Great Falls Civic Center in 1942 while barracks were being constructed.

Photo courtesy of Malmstrom Air Force Base Museum.

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A Minuteman Missile being placed in a missile silo.

Photo courtesy of The History Museum.

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Some of the crew (1959) of "City of Great Falls".

Photo courtesy of Malmstrom Air Force Base Museum.

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Malmstrom Airforce Base Control Tower.

Photo courtesy of The History Museum.

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The crew of "City of Great Falls," a K-C97 used for refueling and stationed at Malmstrom Airforce Base.