The heart was kept in an ice-filled plastic picnic cooler. General Bob Becklund of the North Dakota Air National Guard was operating the F-4, and the cooler was fastened to the backseat. The 33-year-old heart recipient resides in San Francisco
The pics in this post show Brigadier General Robert Becklund’s retirement, which was captured on September 7, 2019, at a formal ceremony held at the North Dakota Air National Guard Base in Fargo, North Dakota. Becklund, the Chief of Staff for Air at the Joint Force Headquarters of the North Dakota National Guard, has 37 years of outstanding service with the Happy Hooligans, including five years as the Wing commander.
More than 30 years ago, Becklund was the F-4 Phantom pilot who flew a highly-publicized North Dakota Air National Guard mission to deliver a baby’s heart to a transplant patient in California.
Later this month, the Fargo Air Museum will debut a notable exhibit to honor the North Dakota Air National Guard’s renowned “Heart Flight.”
The flight of the F-4 Phantom, a supersonic fighter, took place in December 1986 after a Learjet flying from California to Fargo to pick up a heart broke down in cold weather.
“It’s something that North Dakota is very proud of. We’ve never had a lasting exhibit for people to see” according to Fargo Air Museum Executive Director Jackie Williams. “A lot of the kids today don’t even know it happened.”
KFGO radio reported that the heart was kept in an ice-filled plastic picnic cooler. The General Bob Becklund-driven F-4 had the cooler fastened to the backseat. The military flight was authorized by the late governor George Sinner.
“That heart had been out of the donor body for quite some time, maybe 8 hours or so, which in those days was way longer than had ever been done before and well beyond medical technology at the time,” Becklund said.
The 33-year-old heart recipient, according to Williams, resides in the San Francisco region. The golf-ball-sized organ was flown to Stanford Medical Center by Gen. Bob Becklund. Along with news stories, pictures, and paintings, the exhibit told the tale of the Heart Flight. On September 18, 2019, there was a public dedication ceremony at the Fargo Air Museum.
Photo Credit: North Dakota Air National Guard