Biography Of Martinus Stenseth – The Great Military Pilot

An adventurous boy from a small farming community finds his passion in flying airplanes. The career he builds leads to National military recognition. The prairie lands of northwestern Minnesota were being developed into outstanding farmland at the beginning of the twentieth century.

Young Martinus Stenseth was born into this agrarian society in 1890. He seemed to be destined to choose a very different life path from the beginning of his life there. His first eight years of school were at District 37, “Heiberg” School. Logging was a big part of life in Twin Valley, where logs were floated down the Wild Rice River to Ada. He was daring and fell into the river often but he became adept at “riding” the logs around the loop and even over the dam. He also caught more than his share of childhood maladies, so his schooling was interrupted when he was sent to Chicago where he entered the McFadden School of Physical Culture in order to build his body and improve his health.

In 1915 and 16 he returned to Crookston, Minnesota where he was a physical education instructor at the Northwest School of Agriculture. There, in 1916 he joined the National Guard. His unit was called into federal service in that same year, and was sent to the Mexican border. He transferred to the Air Corps which led to flight studies at Ohio State University, Pittsburgh University and finally, flight training in France. When the war ended he was one of two men from Minnesota who had earned the title “Flying Ace. ” He received this recognition for shooting down eight enemy planes. His assignments following the first world war took him to Poland, the Philippines, and Latvia. With the approach of WWII Colonel Stenseth was transferred to Las Vegas where he became the commander and the founder of Nellis Air Force Base in 1941. There he built up and developed the Las Vegas Army Gunnery School. The next transfer found him at a base in Iceland where he served as commanding general. A forty- two year service career included the awards of the Distinguished Service Cross with cluster and the Silver Star. Nellis Air Force Base near Las Vegas dedicated their Operations building at the Air Warfare Center to Brigadier General Stenseth in 1980.

His connection to small town life was never broken. He’d often fly his small plane home to Twin Valley and land in a pasture near town to attend family functions. He is the only soldier from this area to attain such advanced military status. The Brigadier is buried in Twin Valley, Minnesota.