White and Blue Angels
March 23, 2023 — On this date in 2002, 1,791 people laid themselves down in the snow in Bismarck and made snow angels – at that time a record in the Guinness World Records.
Speaking of angels, one of our own – Navy Captain Gil Rud – commanded the Blue Angels from 1986 to 1988. He says one of his high points during that time was performing in Grand Forks and Fargo, which is going to lead this story to another vehicle – a tractor – in just a minute.
Rud grew up on a farm 10 miles west of Portland, ND, and says his first flight took place during the winter of 1948, when he was just four years old. Bud Hanson, of Mayville, had a plane on skis that he used for transporting young Gil and his mother, Clara, to Fargo when Rud’s Aunt Francis (Lee) graduate from St. Luke’s School of Nursing.
Rud was also fixated by crop dusters when he was a kid. Later, while he was attending NDSU, his dad cut a coupon from the back of a magazine and gave it to him. The coupon, plus five dollars, was good for a free airplane ride, and shortly afterwards, Gil was at Hector
Field looking to cash it in. Soon he was airborne in a Cesna 150 thinking, “This is fun!”
Rud joined the navy and, in 1971, was in Vietnam flying missions from the aircraft carrier, U.S.S. Oriskany. In 1975, he went back and participated in Operation Frequent Wind, this time attached to the U.S.S. Enterprise. One of his jobs was to fly cover for helicopters during the evacuation from South Vietnam, which he says was “a really bad time.”
Jumping forward to 1986, Rud was captaining Attack Squadron 192 when he was selected as commander – or “boss” – for the Blue Angels. This prestigious position was available only to pilots who had commanded their own fleet squadron, but Rud likes to play this down, saying, “They hadn’t had a Norwegian boss before – they just needed to fill their Norwegian quota.”
“Dakota Datebook” is a radio series from Prairie Public in partnership with the State Historical Society of North Dakota and with funding from Humanities North Dakota. See all the Dakota Datebooks at prairiepublic.org, subscribe to the “Dakota Datebook” podcast, or buy the Dakota Datebook book at shopprairiepublic.org.