Distinctly Montana Magazine

92 D I S T I N C T LY M O N TA N A M A G A Z I N E • FA L L 2 0 2 5 406-600-3582 406blinds.com Voted Best Window Coverings In Montana! Book Your Free In-Home Consultation now! Serving Missoula, Bozeman, Butte, Belgrade & Helena Call Mike Stolte, Owner ed from 1,500 pounds of dynamite, from their Piper Cubs. The surface-level detonation of these devices provided no relief from the imminent catastrophe that confronted Miles City. Conse- quently, Keye contacted Sam Ford, governor of Montana, with a simple request: "Send in the bombers." Events on March 21, 1944, constitute one of the most unique ep- isodes in Montana history, which Gary Coffrin properly contex- tualizes as "the ONLY domestic bombing mission ordered by the U.S. Army Air Force during World War II." Primary-source ac- counts from crew members, recorded decades after this incident, provide operational details that were not presented in contem- porary newspaper coverage. According to an article published by his niece in 2009, (1916-2008) received a 9:00 a.m. telephone call from Second Air Force headquarters at Colorado Springs, Colorado. Then director of B-17 combat crew training at Rapid City Army Air Base, Ezzard was initially tasked with delivering the requisite ordnance to destroy the Yellowstone ice jam. Ezzard's crew encountered blizzard conditions throughout sig- nificant portions of their flight to Miles City. Indeed, Earl Tagge, a 20-year-old staff sergeant from North Platte, Nebraska, later recalled that "We had to fly by instruments for about the first half-hour because we couldn't see out of the cockpit." Inclement weather and persistent low cloud cover contributed to revision of the operational plan, which called for transfer of ordnance from Ezzard's B-17 to an army dive bomber that was scheduled to arrive from Bruning, Nebraska. That aircraft never material- ized. According to his niece, Ezzard was then told to "use his own judgment—bomb the river if he thought he could or forget the mission and return to Rapid City." Published accounts generally concur that aerial bombardment of the ice jam commenced at approximately 7:30 p.m. and was con- ducted at an altitude of 2,200 to 2,600 feet. An article published in The Billings Gazette on March 22nd specifically indicates that sixteen "250-pound bombs [were dropped] along a five-mile ice gorge." Destruction of a target that large by one bomber with conventional ordnance would, presumably, have required stra- tegic use of the intervalometer. The B-17 crew stationed at Rapid City Army Air Base in 1944.

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