Walhalla's refurbished Sabre jet rededication ceremony to take place on Veterans Day
Nov. 10—WALHALLA, N.D. — A piece of war history displayed in Walhalla will be the star of a rededication ceremony Saturday, Nov. 11, following a refurbishment project bringing it back to its glory days in service of the U.S. Air Force.
Jim Martini, a veteran and co-chair of Walhalla's 175th Celebration committee alongside Zelda Hartje, said he's happy to see the jet in improved condition.
"It's a great feeling," he said. "I feel so good about seeing that airplane looking like it should look."
Walhalla Airport's F-86H Sabre jet has been refurbished through the work led by Erick Thornberg, a local to the area who joined Martini in the "Save the Sabre" committee to give the display jet some care.
Martini said he's driven by the jet for years, always disappointed by the bad shape it was in.
"It's a war bird," he said. "It symbolizes our military and sacrifice and so on, and it was just a shame to let it go the way it was let go."
COVID halted the interest in refurbishing the jet until six months ago, when Thornberg approached Martini to restart the campaign. Thornberg, along with a group of others interested in the project, volunteered his time to clean up the plane, repaint it and add new decals and a plaque. He coordinated with the National Airforce Musuem in Dayton, Ohio, which owns the plane, and the American Legion, which is in charge of the jet's caretaking. The project, to Thornberg's estimate, took more than 80 hours to complete.
"I would not have been able to do it without the help of a lot of people in a lot of different ways," Thornberg said.
The jet, though it is displayed in North Dakota, actually didn't do any service in the state, said Maxwell Sabin, collections manager at the Fargo Air Museum.
The history of the jet begins when it was delivered to the Nellis Air Force base combat crew training wing in Nellis, Nevada. From there, it has hopped around the country and world at large through New York, Massachusetts, France during the Berlin Wall crisis and Maryland. The jet was retired in 1971, taking its final flight to the Grand Forks Air Force base around August of that year. It was trucked to Walhalla that September and formally dedicated on Sep. 10, 1971.
Sabin will be among Walhalla residents, veterans and officials at the rededication ceremony 11 a.m. Saturday. He will talk more in-depth about the plane's history in the American Legion, which sponsored the project along with a few private donors. Lt. Col. Michael Stobie, the new commander of the Cavalier Space Force Station, will also speak at the event.
The plane isn't fully renewed. Martini said the canopy and windscreen still need to be replaced, but it's not easy to find those parts. Still, he's satisfied with what's been accomplished.
Martini has also dubbed the jet the "North Star Sabre jet," inspired by the photo taken by Shanice Bailey of the plane sitting in front of the Big Dipper, which houses the North Star, also known as Polaris.
The plane spent its time in Walhalla donned in its Vietnam era paint, Sabin said. The new paint has made it silver, so it shines in the sun. Sabin had previously seen the jet in 2021, and the difference between then and now has impressed him.
"There are three other F-86s in North Dakota that are on display, and this one has gone from being in the worst shape to being in the best shape," he said. "I think that's a testament to the people that are doing this refurbishment and the people of Walhalla itself."
