“Thunder Under The Big Sky,” a documentary about the history of the military in Montana, will air on KRTV on Saturday, November 10th.
The presentation will air at 6 p.m. and again at 10:35 p.m.
The History Museum director Jim Meinert says this is the most complete, researched film ever produced by the museum. He has been working for the last three years on the special documentary: “A film of this magnitude can inspire and educate generations of people.”
The documentary will take viewers all the way back to World War II. “Few people know that 15,000 war planes roared in and out of Great Falls during World War II,” Meinert said. Many of those crews trained at what was known as the Great Falls Army Air Base, which today is known as Malmstrom Air Force Base.
The documentary will also talk about the woman who flew those planes into Great Falls – they were part of the WASPS (Women Airforce Service Pilots).
A few years later, training began for what was known as the Berlin Airlift: “A route that saved blockaded cities and possibly prevented World War III. They were all trained here in Great Falls,” Meinert said.
Many who served during that time tell their stories and the documentary brings you into one of the planes that actually flew in the Berlin Airlift.
“We cannot forget what happened below the ground. The Minuteman missiles that were constructed. They provided that ‘ace in the hole’ for President Kennedy,” Meinert said.
