(L/R) Col. John Hed with Maj. Gen. Wayne Gatlin at the Minnesota Air National Guard’s 90th Anniversary event held July 14, 2010 in Duluth, Minnesota.
DULUTH, MINN. – The man called the father of the Minnesota Air National Guard Base in Duluth, Minnesota, Retired Col. John Hed, died from congestive heart failure, January 16, 2012 at the age of 91. Born in St. Paul, Hed became interested in aviation after Charles Lindbergh’s famous 1927 trans-atlantic flight. He became an Air Corps cadet in 1941. During World War II, he was a pilot and maintenance officer based in Mississippi and Alaska, where he also flew search-and-rescue missions. After the war, he rejoined the Minnesota Air Guard in the Twin Cities. He was deployed to Duluth to begin organizing the Air National Guard unit planned for the city in 1948 – 22 years after the idea was first proposed. The 179th Fighter Squadron was created as part of a nationwide activation of about 500 National Guard units of various types during the early years of the Cold War.
