May 27, 1985 - WWII marks a watershed in the life of this nation and in the lives of all who lived through it. In the documentary “We Were the Lucky Ones,” MPR’s Mark Heistad examines the experience of the war and its legacy through the stories of residents of New Ulm, many of which were German-American.
August 18, 1988 - MPR's Stephen Smith observes an average day in the life of a nuclear missile crew based at Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota. He finds out that there is no button to launch a nuke; it's actually a set of keys…and keeping the keys can be pretty dull work.
September 28, 1990 - MPR’s Tom Meersman reports on efforts by the Army Corps to locate 1437 barrels dumped into Lake Superior. The barrels originally came from the Twin Cities Army Ammunition Plant in Arden Hills from a project in which Honeywell was developing fragmentation grenades for the defense department. The secret dumping into lake took place from 1959 to 1962.
June 10, 1994 - MPR’s Martin Kaste reports on a press conference by the Army Corp of Engineers where they detail items recovered while searching for barrels dumped into Lake Superior decades ago.
January 25, 1999 - To close out the millennium, Minnesota Public Radio's All Things Considered presents a look back at Minnesota life in 1900 via a 12-part series, entitled “A Minnesota Century.” In this segment, a look back at the Battle of Sugar Point…a fight between the U.S. Government and Chippewa Tribe over timber.
September 1, 2006 - The Department of Defense says 20-year-old Qixing Lee of Minneapolis died on Sunday, August 27th, near Taji, just north of Baghdad. He was among four soldiers in his unit who were killed when an improvised explosive device detonated near their Bradley Fighting Vehicle during combat operations.
October 13, 2006 - Morning Edition’s Cathy Wurzer interviews Duluth Mayor Herb Bergson about his opposition to the U.S. Coast Guard conducting periodic training exercises on the Great Lakes to prepare for law enforcement and homeland security missions. The exercises have included live machine gun fire.
December 29, 2006 - In 2006, twenty members of the U.S. Armed Forces from our region died in hostilities in Iraq and Afghanistan. On this our final broadcast of the year, we take a brief look back at who they were.
January 12, 2007 - MPR’s Art Hughes reports on the reactions from students as Armed Forces recruiters start visiting high schools, looking for enlistees to join the army. Not surprisingly, there isn’t a universal consensus.
September 3, 2007 - Lake Superior is known for its pristine water, but one oil spill could ruin all that. U.S. Coast Guard cutters, like the Duluth-based Alder, carry first response equipment in case of a major oil spill. The Alder crew was practicing the system on the big lake and MPR's Bob Kelleher went along to see how it's done.