a bevy of memories about my early years in Dunseith. Our house was just kitty corner across the street
from the building called “City Hall”. I remember as it was being built that in the summer time before the upper
structure was completed, people were dancing in the open air and I sat in my front yard and watched. In the morning I would pick up the empty bottles in the ditch by our yard and get a penny a piece. Later, when the
City Hall was completed and I was starting to get interested in “DANCING” I told my mother I wanted to go
and dance, but did not know how to do it. Mom turned on the radio and positioned me to dance and guided me
through a few steps in our kitchen. The song was “Whispering”. I went to the dance hall and gave John Awalt my dollar, got my hand stamped in ink that lasted a month, and walked onto the dance floor. I stood around and waited for “Whispering” to be played by Bun Batson and his group from Rolla. While I was waiting I mingled with the likes of some farm kids all spruced up in their white starched shirts, turned up at the cuff two times. They were Dale, Darrel, and Duane Fugere. I thought they were the toughest guys off the farm I ever saw. Also there was another guy named Virgil Sebelious who could do one armed chins on that
bar which was inside the main door of the dance hall. Hell, I was just beginning to realize the attributes of
the farm boys who came to town and bedazzled all the girls we town guys were trying to impress. I stuck around and waited for “Whispering” which never happened. Later on I became aware of the fact that you
could dance to different tunes with the same “two step”. Damn, dancing always has been a challenge.
Anyway, to make a story a little longer, I waited all evening to have the band play “Whispering”, which never
happened, so I never did a dance.Â
 Â
Later on, like maybe like maybe 35 years later I was the commander of an Air Force outfit here in Arizona
My wife, Pat, who has now passed away, and I were at a dance at the air base. There was a band and a
dance floor. She noticed that they were playing ” Whispering” and said that we should dance to that first
song of my dancing career. So we did. That damned band played “Whispering” for 30 minutes and all the women in the outfit cut in and made me dance my feet off to that song for longer than I wanted. But you know, I can dance to that song in my sleep. And sometimes I do just that. Â
 In any case, the simple things in life that happened in Dunseith stay with me, and I’m approaching the age
of 82, and that is something way beyond my early expectations. I used to fly with a guy, who is gone now, who used to say, “Hoz, if we live to be older than 40, we haven”t been doing our job… I did not agree with
him, and he lived to be 75. So there it is.  Bill Hosmer
Bill,ÂWith today being a light day and with so many folks having been added to our distribution in the past several years, the following deserves a re-run.ÂFolks, In the early 60’s Bill and his Thunderbird team, on their way to do performances at some of the larger cities, did several shows (fly overs) over Dunseith. The following is some of the comments of those shows and once we had Bill on line, his comments that follow.ÂFollowing his stint with the Thunderbirds, Bill was the lead pilot for many bombing raids over North Vietnam. Many of the planes in his squadron were shot down and pilots taken prisoners with these raids.  Bill is featured numerous times in a book titled “The Birds Were Silver Then”,  by Lowell Peterson.ÂBill, you are truly one of our home town hero’s and a very modest one too.ÂGaryÂ
ÂDunseith Thunderbird stories posted on 12/27/2007 With Bill’s reply that followsÂÂBill Hosmer,
I thought I’d share with you and the Dunseith Alumni some of the memories that folks have of you and the famous Thunderbirds. I’ve attached a few messages that our class of 65 generated this last April when our subject of discussion for the day was you and those planes performing over Dunseith. Last winter our class members would have, almost live discussions, on various topics and this was one of them.
The first message I just received yesterday from Ron Longie also from our class of 65. All the other messages down to Deb Morinville’s were generated last April.
Ron Longie’s reply to Bill Hosmer:
Gary,
I truly enjoyed reading Bill Hosmers email, the memories came flooding back about the old skating rink sitting in the warm up shed retying skates, warming hands and feet what a memory. I thank you Bill for the trip down memory lane, and I also like Bill Grimme remember the pass over of the jets what a day. Thanks again for all the names of people that I had forgotten.
                                                                  Ron Longie
Â
ÂOn 4/23/07, Gary Stokes wrote: Larry, Again you are a wonderful writer and story teller.
 Colette, I think your Uncle Bill Hosmer was part of these Thunderbird shows
 that Larry is talking about. Wonderful story from Larry Hackman Gary & Bill & Paul
 Did you read about the Blue Angle pilot crashing yesterday and getting
 killed at a flight demonstration. That brought back a memory when the
 Thunderbirds would come and fly over Dunseith. They would fly over and do a
 few maneuvers usually about once a summer or when ever they were in the
 area. I remember they would come right down main street what seemed as low
 as tree top high. The street lights would start rattling and the next thing
 that happened was there was five jets following each other right down main
 street. It really made you stop what ever you were doing and pay
 attention. If I remember correctly is that they would even break theÂ
sound
 berrier a few times just to make sure that everyone would come out of their
 houses to watch the show. That was still legal in them days,(You know, way
 back when). Mostly I think it was to get the Hosmer families
 attention. Colette’s uncle was one of the pilots if I remember correctly.
 Then for the closing of their demonstration they would come flying down main
 from the north end of town. They would come so low and so fast that the top
 of street light poles would be sucked in and touch, creating arches from one
 end of main to the other end. They would have to have the fire dept. go out
 the next day with the ladder truck to streighten the poles back out. I
 always thought the town would have looked better with the arches, and
 really would have looked good at Christmas. You know with the arches
 decorated with Christmas lights and such. It really would have created a
 amazing sight in the dark of night. If you can emagine. You know, that is a
 helluva idea for the street dance during the reunion. You can just emagine
 everyone doing the snake dance (or is that crack the whip) down main under
 the arches. Maybe someone ought to pass that idea onto someone. But I
 think Colette’s uncle retired. Its really to bad about that Blue Angel
 Pilot. We must all say a prayer for the well being of his family.
 You all take care and smile,
 larryÂÂColette Hosmers reply: Gary and Larry, Great memories. Actually, Bill was my cousin — my Uncle Jack
 Hosmer’s oldest son. Bill and his wife, Pat, have a cabin at Lake
 Metigoshe and have spent the summers there for years now. Bill still
 tells great stories about those days. One was that Uncle Jack had to
 walk down to Casey Sine’s store the next morning to offer an apology.
 Casey got skinned up when he “hit the asphalt” as the jets thundered
 down main street at the end of their performance. Larry – I also like the idea of the arched street lights.
 Colette
ÂÂAllen Richard’s Reply:ÂBill Hosmer, one of Jack Hosmer’s older sons was a pilot with the Air Force Thunderbirds in the 60’s. They were performing at the Minot Air Base and did an impromptu short show above Dunseith Min street. I was mowing hay in a road ditch along Highway 3– Getting buzzed by an F-100 (yeah that is what they flew back then) at 500 mph is a true religious experience.ÂBy the way, after Bill Hosmer left the he did some test pilot work and demonstrations for Cessna–Great guy and fun to talk with. Last I saw him he was living @Lake Metigoshe God — been gone so long I forgot how to spell it! Anyway Collette or Jess might know his whereabouts.ÂÂBill Grimme’s reply:
Great stuff! The Thunderbirds were a big part of our younger days. I
remember hearing rumors that there might be a flyover (I’m sure an official
announcement would not have been allowed). Seems like it always corresponded
with some event at Minot AFB. We would wait in anticipation on the day and
still be surprised when the Thunderbirds made the first pass. Cakes fell,
kids and adults ran outside, Brownie cameras were pointed to the sky (doubt
that the pictures turned out) and, as Colette has shared, Dunseith citizens
skinning their knees when they hit the deck. What a day!Here is a good link to the Thunderbird history. Colette’s cousin is
prominent in the article.Bill
http://www.usafthunderbirds.com/history.html
ÂÂColette’s Hosmer’s reply:Hey Bill, I replied to the Thunderbird story before I read your e-mail.
 So….one real live account of a “man” actually hitting the deck.
 Another one was Jimmy McKoy. He was up on the roof of the Crystal
 Cafe to get a better view of the show. He swore, that when the planes
 came down main street, if he wouldn’t have flattened out he would have been hit! Colette
ÂÂSusan Fassett’s reply:
The story I remember is that a lot of the older folks in town thought we were being attacked by the Russians when the planes came flying so low over the town. I remember standing in the alley behind our house and you could see the pilots in the planes very clearly, as low as they were. It was a real treat for us small town kids.  Susan
ÂÂMessage I got yesterday from Deb Morinville Marmon:Dear Gary,ÂMerry Christmas!! Are you overwhelmed yet? My goodness, this list is taking on a life of it’s own!ÂMy mom, Frances Morinville used to tell this story of the day the “Thunderbirds” came to town (pretty much unannounced)ÂBack in those days the big threat to the USA was the USSR. Everyone talked about the “communists”. Mom and Dad talked about them so much I came to think I could identify one if they walked down the street kind of like a Martian or other alien. Anyway, Mom said that one of the jets came really low right over main street.  The door opened at the store and an elderly woman came in, white as a sheet. Mom got her sat down in the chair by the window and after she could catch her breath she said “I think the communists are attacking!” Mom told that story for years, she got such a kick out of it. I also remember forming a caravan to the Minot Air Base to watch the air show. It was one of the thrills of my childhood years. Thanks Bill, for the joy of those days and also for your service to our country.ÂMerry Christmas to all my old “homies”ÂDeb Morinville MarmonÂBill Hosmer’s comments & Reply: Thunderbirds
      Thank you for taking the time to comment on that brief period of
time in a long life.  The flattery I’m experiencing is a gift from
you all, and that is important to me. By the way I answered a
direct mailing from Susan Fassett, so she was not included in this
series of observations and impressions response.     Just to clarify a couple of impressions, we did not do any
supersonic maneuvers. The explosive sound that was heard was in all
likelihood, the afterburner which is a loud and sudden explosive
acceleration which that engine incorporated. The solo pilots used
it more than us working guys in the formation, although it’s
possible anytime. On one of the South American shows we did in 1961
the President of Paraguay asked our lead to do a supersonic pass.
He explained that the shock wave might possibly break many windows
in the air terminal. The president said, “This is my country, and
those are my windows”. So the leader had the solo to open the show
with a boom. No windows were broken, but they had alot of tape
helping to withstand the shock.      What caused KC Sine to fall was not in the plan, but it happened
like this:Â Â As lead headed us toward Minot, I asked him permission
to do a slow pass down main street. I wanted to see if my folks
were at our store on main street. I was low and very slow with my
landing gear down. Unknown to me the other wing man pulled out of
the formation, got behind me a good distance then lit the
afterburner, accelerated to nearly 500knots, flew UNDER me as we
passed the bank on the corner. KC explained to me when Dad and I
went to apologize, he had that masterful fast paced dialogue with a
little swearing going on, telling me, that fast one was going to
kill him right in front of his store,etc, etc, then he ended his
tirade, he said, “hey kid, wanna banana?” I’d heard that many
years before that Sept day in 1961. What a piece of work that man
was.       There are Thunderbird reunions every other year in Las Vegas where
we get together with us oldtimers, and all the teams before and
after us, and are treated to a private air show by the current
team in their beautiful F-16 aircraft at Nellis AFB. This year it
was last month. The number of attendees from our earlier teams are
less and less, but it is like being in Dunseith at our famous
100th and125th Celebrations to see all the generations in
attendance, to give the heart a tug, and the mind a blast of
afterburner.       I did eject from the airplane I flew to ND about two weeks after
we had been there. It was not at a show, but during our arrival
maneuvers at a Navy Base in Rhode Island, I had the engine quit
running, tried some emergency airstarts, tried to position the
bird to make a dead stick (engine out) pattern, but was too low,
so ejected without injury, and flew the spare airplane in the show
the next day. The other one exploded in an empty field with no
damage to anything on the ground, except the dirt.  I landed in a
tree and I was not as good a tree climber as I was down at Willow
Creek, but shoot.       I’m hoping someone can figure out the best way to get us in
computer contact on a regular basis. I can contribute $$, but my
brain power is limited.         Cheers and Happy New Year to you all, and thank you from my
heart. Bill Hosmer
