(bright music) (bright music continues) (bright music continues) - Welcome to "Almanac North."

I'm Brett Scott.

Tonight, we are joined by a documentary filmmaker and a former military commander to discuss their upcoming film, "Cold War Secrets of Northern Minnesota," the executive director for 23rd Veteran, and local musician, Russ Sackett, who is debuting his new album today.

That's what we've got in store for you on "Almanac North."

Now we are kicking off the show this evening with a special preview of the documentary, "Cold War Secrets of Northern Minnesota."

The film focuses on the role Northern Minnesota played in the pivotal time of the Cold War, as well as the lasting fallout that remains to this day.

Let's take a look.

(cars whooshing) (gravel crunching) (truck whirring) - Well, because I have a truck with a covered box, I volunteered to make the trip up to Ely to pick up this missile.

This is a top-secret mission.

(chuckles) Yes, and we don't have any armed guards or anything like that.

(chuckles) Well, it's a mini-convoy, but it is top secret, so nobody's gonna know about it except us.

(chuckles) (suspenseful music) (suspenseful music continues) (turn signal chirping) (door clicking) (Susanne laughing) - Come on in.

Did you wanna go down and take a look at the thing, see if it's worth your while?

- Oh, I know it's worth our while.

- Really?

- Oh, absolutely.

- [Susanne] Oh my God.

Well, come on.

I just can't believe there was so much of a fuss about this missile.

(laughs) It's crazy.

It's just been hanging here for decades.

(feet thumping) Well, there it is.

- [Ronald] Wow!

- [Susanne] Really?

No kidding.

(Ronald chuckles) And there's the base that it- - [Ronald] Wow.

- [Susanne] It goes on.

- [Ronald] Oh, that's fantastic.

(Susanne chuckles) - I'm glad it's not a real one.

(chuckles) - We had, first of all, no idea that there even existed a model of this Bomarc missile, of the type that was housed at the Bomarc missile site near French River near Duluth.

It is very unique to find it in kind of out-of-the-way place like Ely, Minnesota.

I'm currently serving as the president of the Board of Governors of the St. Louis County Historical Society.

And this missile, it's going to be used as part of the Duluth and the Cold War exhibit that we have at The Depot in Duluth.

- Well, I don't know why my husband thought he had to have it, but... - [Ronald] Oh.

- When the site closed down, I don't know if the guys just went around, looking for souvenirs or mementos, I have no idea.

I think he asked if he could take it.

I don't, (chuckles) I don't think he just walked off with it.

(Ronald and Susanne laugh) Well, I saw on TV that there was going to be a program at The Depot, regarding the air base's role in the Cold War, and someone mentioned the Bomarc missile site, and I thought, "Oh my God, I've got a missile in my basement, maybe they want it."

(laughs) That's exactly how it happened.

I didn't think it mattered to anybody.

- Oh, it's fabulous, it's absolutely fabulous.

And to have the unit's logo on here, it's just, "Say when."

I mean, they were ready, they were ready.

(snaps fingers) "Say when, and we'll do it."

- My husband, Gerald Jacobson, was a missile maintenance technician, I guess you'd call it.

You know, after he passed away, I thought, "Well, you know, what am I gonna do with this thing?"

(chuckles) I think he would be very relieved to know that it's going to a better place.

Oh, boy.

Is it gonna work?

(hook clattering) Oh, there we go.

(feet thumping) - We've just finished picking it up.

It's in great shape.

Well, as we parted company today, she ended the conversation by saying, "Enjoy your missile."

(chuckles) Unusual, yeah.

(suspenseful music) - [Narrator] We all know the atomic bomb is very dangerous, but we are not without personal weapons or defense.

- [Narrator] With the Cold War and the threat of nuclear attack, Duluth Air Defense would protect the nation.

- [Narrator] We must be ready all the time for the atomic bomb.

(suspenseful music) (suspenseful music continues) - Wow, that looks so interesting, and I can't wait to see the rest of it.

And we are now joined in studio by Mike Scholtz and Ray Klosowski to speak about "Cold War Secrets of Northern Minnesota."

Welcome to "Almanac North," both of you.

- Good to hear.

- Thank you.

- Now, Ray, I'm gonna start with you.

You are a retired commander of the Minnesota Air National Guard.

Explain a little bit about your background, and why you're involved with this documentary.

- Mike talked about trying to capture the Cold War, the impact that it had on Duluth and the fact that not many people know the extent that Duluth was involved with the Cold War for 30 years, and why it was one of the key areas in the air defense of the United States.

- And Mike, to what extent was Duluth involved in the Cold War?

- Well, I'm embarrassed to admit, I didn't know the extent to which Duluth was involved, but it was critical to the Cold War, especially in those, right around the 1960s, from the Cuban Missile Crisis, even a little before, and after, you know, Duluth was right in the thick of it.

And so we'll get into a lot of the secrets involved with that in this documentary.

- I'm so excited to see the rest of it.

What made Duluth so special during the Cold War, Ray?

- Well, there were three factors that caused Duluth to be such an important part.

One was, after the war, the Soviets had captured or interred several B-29s that were used in the bombing of Japan and were forced to divert into the Soviet Union.

And the Soviets then back-engineered those down to even the problems that it had, and went on a program of building 850 of these long-range B-29s.

And shortly after that, in 1949, they exploded the first nuclear weapon, the Soviets did, that no one anticipated.

So now they had the aircraft, and they had a nuclear weapon.

The airplane, the B-29, could not reach the United States from internal to Russia.

They had to fly it to a northern staging base, and from there, fly it to the industrial heartland of our country and the population centers.

And they had to fly a very specific route.

And that route took us right over the top of Duluth, Minnesota.

It was the primary and only attack route they could use for several years, probably 10 years.

- I'm ashamed to admit I had no clue about that.

Mike, as you mentioned, you didn't really either.

How did you go about researching this documentary?

- Well, it's been really fun to work on this project 'cause it's a lot of stuff that I just did not know, and Ray has been one of my primary sources, but one of the happy accidents, I convinced Ray to give a speech at The Depot back in February.

And the press coverage from that actually has been shaking loose a lot of new stories that I think have surprised us.

We found out about the woman who had a missile in her basement, that we just saw in that excerpt.

That happened because Ray gave this speech.

And then another person, who was involved in the Cuban Missile Crisis, he contacted you because he- - [Ray] Right.

- Heard that you were gonna do this speech.

So sometimes, you know, there's this sort of cascading effect when you start working on something like this, and you just never know who's gonna come out of the woodwork.

- Ray, how important is it for you to share these stories with the community?

- You know, it's interesting.

Even during the height of the Cold War, the citizenry was not really aware of everything that was going on.

A lot of it was top secret, and also, they weren't aware of the involvement of the citizens in Duluth who were members of the Air National Guard, who actually pulled alert for 22 years around the clock, seven days a week, and where these folks came from.

They were people from downtown, they were businessmen.

The owner of Beck's Furniture Store, the city engineer, principals at Duluth East, schoolteachers, the loggers, all who were trained to the same capability as the Air Force required.

They all had to take human reliability examinations, they had to have a psychological evaluation, physical evaluation, nuclear rules of employment, and they had to do that annually, refreshing.

And so, an Air Force pilot was the same as a Guard pilot as far as, came to flying the airplanes and employing weapons.

- Wow, that is just awesome.

We could go for the whole half an hour of the program.

Last question for you, Mike.

What was your favorite part about making this piece?

- Oh, so I got to go up on this trip up to Ely to retrieve this missile in the basement.

I'm sorry you couldn't be there.

It was just a highlight of my life to see this thing.

It was so fun.

- Wow, we're excited to see the whole piece.

Thank you both for being here.

(bright music) (bright music continues) Our next guests are Mike Waldron, executive director of 23rd Veteran, and Ammon Buhler, a participant in the program.

Thank you both for joining us today, Mike and Ammon.

- Yeah, thank you for having us on.

- So Mike, you're the executive director of 23rd Veteran.

Just kinda give us a brief overview of what the program is all about.

- So 23rd Veteran started here in Duluth in 2015.

So for nine years, we've been running our programs in this area.

We've expanded to Twin Cities and some other cities around the country.

Our primary focus is a 14-week program for veteran mental health.

So the military does a really good job at training us how to be in the military.

And we have an active program in doing that, in learning that culture and that language, that environment, and if we deploy, our mindset changes even more, but then when we get out of the military, we generally have a five-day PowerPoint class on how to be a civilian.

So it's really difficult.

We get dropped into this different environment.

It's a different mindset, it's a different culture, different language, and it's very difficult for a lot of people to make that adjustment.

So 23rd Veteran runs a 14-week program where we do fear reassociation, so reassociate those negative fears or triggers from the military with new positive events.

And then we also go through exercise and positive psychology, and the whole thing kicks off with a week-long outdoor wellness adventure to build that group cohesion.

- Wow, and Ammon, you are taking part in this program.

You're actually graduating soon, I hear.

- Yes, we started with a back country hike in California.

- [Brett] Wow, how was that?

- It was pretty intense.

The group we went with, it made for a pretty good adventure.

I was able to take photos along the way and capture some incredible images.

- Mike, what would you say, how do participants feel when they're starting the program versus when they end?

- I would say the most difficult thing we do in the organization is convince participants to join.

It can be really difficult leading, and I'm not speaking for Ammon here, but for a lot of people, it can be difficult getting on an airplane and going to the other side of the country to survive for a week with a bunch of people you've never met, especially if you're experiencing symptoms of PTSD or combat stress.

And on top of that, we're asking them to not use substances, no drinking for 14 weeks, no complaining for 14 weeks.

They have to show up to a CrossFit gym for 14 weeks.

So that's really difficult to get on, but once they get on that airplane, once we go through this outdoor wellness adventure, we build these bonds that are so tight that we have over an 85% graduation rate of that entire program.

- Wow.

Ammon, what was the hardest part for you, and what was the best part for you?

- I think the hardest part was saying, "Yeah, I'll go on the trip," because others could use it just more than me.

But, in reality, there wasn't enough to fill the program.

So I was really glad I was go.

The best part was probably today, we talked about things we appreciated of the people in the group that are gonna be graduating, and how tight-knit we've actually become over the time.

We have a few civilians that join us along the way, and we got to talk with them.

Was actually kind of cool today, how one of them feel kind of isolated when they went on a trip recently.

And I was like, "Well, welcome to coming back from basic training," and kind of, you know, the experience we all had, it was actually really cool to see how they react and how they're kind of growing together as a group.

- Definitely.

How can folks here in the community get involved with 23rd Veteran?

- The easiest way is to participate in Ruck Life.

That happens this Saturday.

So June 1st is our biggest fundraising event for the year.

We're down at Mont du Lac, we put a pack on our back, we put food and clothes in it, and we hike for 10 miles.

Two miles to 10 miles, you don't have to do the full thing.

Up to 10 miles, and then at the end, we donate all those clothes to the local DAV.

Any fundraising you do goes to fund 23rd Veteran's programs.

- That's wonderful, and Ammon, what would you say to someone who might be on the fence of joining the program?

- It's worth it 'cause once you start, you'll find a camaraderie that you found while you were in the military.

- And do you feel like you're better in civilian life now after taking the program?

- Yes, we found a way to actually help support each other, and anyone in our group will fully agree with me that it's been well worth the opportunity we had, and we're looking forward to finding ways to continue hanging out with each other after the program's done.

- Mike, how many veterans have you helped throughout the years?

- There's been at least 130 graduates of this program.

We also do some other programs in the community.

We have bladesmithing and forge-building.

We bring in a, often bring in a "Forged in Fire" champion from the History Channel to teach making camp knives for veterans.

We do community education.

So there's quite a large impact that 23rd Veteran's had in this community and communities around the country.

- Great.

Thank you both for being with us today, we appreciate it.

- Thank you for having us.

- Thanks for having us, Brett.

(bright music) (bright music continues) - Now we are joined by musician, multi-instrumentalist, and songwriter, Russ Sackett.

Thank you for joining us on "Almanac North," Russ.

- Hi, thanks.

- We are happy to have you.

We'll have a song from you later on in the show, which we're excited about.

Could you start by telling us a little bit about you, your background, and kind of how you got started in the music industry?

- Okay, yeah, so for, as a young kid, I really enjoyed music a lot.

And I got into playing the piano as a very young kid, in about the first grade.

And then I took up the guitar a little later.

Of course, I played in the school band and stuff, played the trombone, but I really loved playing the guitar.

And so, once I started playing the guitar, I just wanted to start writing songs.

And I also played a lot of keyboards in a lot of bands at college.

And then when I moved here to Duluth in 2003, I just took off running and playing as much as I possibly could around town.

And then I struck out on my own as a solo performer, playing my guitar and singing songs.

And in the last couple of years, I really, really started writing my own songs.

And so here we are with an album and... - [Brett] This is our first album, right?

- Yep, this is my debut album.

It's called "Time is Short," and it's got nine songs that I wrote, and it was recorded here in Duluth by my good friend, Mike Renier, who actually works for the station here, so.

- Great.

- Yeah, so- - And we were talking a little bit off-air, how long this took you to develop, and things happen in life, right?

It's not quick and easy.

- That's correct, things do happen in life, and sometimes a process will take a lot longer than you might expect, or really, a lot longer than you might expect, and something that maybe you think might take just a few weeks or a few months to sew up might wind up taking several years.

So this project actually took over two years to complete.

So, but it's a long time in the making, but we're very glad to have it, so.

- I'm excited to have it too.

What's the inspiration behind this album?

- The inspiration behind the album, I think, is just trying to get songs out there.

I've been struggling as a songwriter for a lot of years, so just having something that I can stand behind as a song, and then just adding another song to it and another song to it.

One of the, actually, one of the big impetuses to get the project off the ground was a 36-hour songwriters' competition at Wussow's Concert Cafe over in Spirit Valley.

And he prompts you with a song topic, and you try and write a song in 36 hours.

So I wrote a couple of songs in 36 hours, and I thought, "Wow, I can really do this."

And another friend of mine, Cheryl Porter, was able to prompt me with a few more song topics.

And really, that really is what gave rise to this project and really solidified all the songs as things that I'd like to have on the record.

A couple other things just came to me, and they're on there as well.

And pretty soon, I had nine songs, and we've got a full album.

And my friend, Mike, I just happened to run into him at a friend of ours' funeral party that we were celebrating his life, and he said, "I'd like to record you."

And I said, "Well, that's funny because I just happened to have written a bunch of songs, so let's do it," so it was- - Perfect timing.

- Great, perfect timing.

- The stars aligned.

- That's right.

- Now the music industry here in the Twin Ports region has really taken off, I feel like, in the last few years.

How do you think it's changed?

- Well, I'm not sure how much I think it's changed.

It has, I suppose, with the advent of the Homegrown Music Festival in the last 20-some years has really kind of solidified a lot of things about the Duluth music scene, but there are a lot of other places to play around, over in Wisconsin or up the shore, or maybe up over the hill, Cloquet, Proctor kind of things.

But, a lot of times, those are just kinda like rock and roll bands, bar bands, and stuff like that.

But the original music scene kind of centers in the Duluth area for, at least for the venues to get out and play original music for people to come out and see it.

- Sure, and how can folks check out this new album that you have?

- Well, you can, actually, that's a great question because this coming Friday, or I don't know when this is gonna air, but Friday, May 31st, is going to be my debut album release party down at Blacklist Brewing.

And the doors open at 7:30, and I have got a band, Woodblind, opening up, and then a band I assembled to play.

These songs are just acoustic guitar and solo voice.

But for the show, we're gonna have a full band.

So that's gonna be great.

And then, so you can buy an album at the show, or you could, I do have a website, it's russsackett.com, and you can order the album directly from me, or if you are on any streaming platforms, like Spotify, Apple Music, those kind of things, on Friday, the album will be available on all those platforms.

- Wow, well, congratulations to you, Russ.

- Thank you.

- We are excited for you, and thank you for being with us.

- All right, thank you.

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- I'm Brett Scott.

Thank you for joining us on "Almanac North."

Playing us out this evening is Russ Sackett.

Let's take a listen in, and I'll see you next time.

Good night.

(upbeat guitar music) (upbeat guitar music continues) ♪ If you get lost inside your head ♪ ♪ You better buck up ♪ Soon you'll be dead ♪ Your time is wasted no matter what you do ♪ ♪ But it all depends on you ♪ If you get worried all the time ♪ ♪ You best relax 'cause everything is fine ♪ (ethereal music)