“They needed people, and we were just kind of a link in a food chain,” Westhope native and Vietnam War veteran Dennis “Denny” McKechnie says. “I didn’t have a choice. I got No. 19 in the lottery, and my buddy got 18. … We knew where we were going, right?”
They were just boys when their country called them.
“I didn’t want to be there, but yet, here I am with 30 guys. They don’t want to be there neither,” Denny recalls of the plane ride to Vietnam in May 1971.
He was only 20 years old.
The greatest responsibility I have as editor is to tell stories that do justice for the people who experienced them – and so bravely share with others. That responsibility has never felt greater.
This month, North Dakota Living presents its first cover-to-cover tribute to veterans.
Earlier this year, a friend and mentor, Rob Keller, suggested North Dakota Living be considered as a media partner on the Western ND Honor Flight. Getting his endorsement alone was an honor.
“When I left for Vietnam and flew out of Bismarck, that's the first time that I saw my dad cry,” Vietnam War veteran David “Dave” Logosz says. “My mom and dad were there, and my grandparents were there, and they were all in tears. I'm sure they didn't think I was going to come back alive.”
But he did.
There’s a catchy tune any kid who went to Farmers Union Camp will remember.
I’ve got the Farmers Union spirit up in my head / WHERE? / Up in my head! …
I’ve got the Farmers Union spirit up in my head / WHERE? / Up in my head to stay!
It didn’t take me 10 years of camp, earning my Torchbearer Award or being a Farmers Union Camp counselor, however, to understand how interchangeable “Farmers Union” is with “cooperative” in that song.
I owe my early understanding of co-ops to Farmers Union.
Tracie Thompson hasn’t gotten a paycheck in more than a year and a half – and it isn’t because she’s not working.
She’s working – a lot. And she’s trying to make things work in the small town of Westhope, 2 miles from the Canadian border in north-central North Dakota.
A few years ago, the Westhope grocery store, which Thompson managed, was in financial trouble, and the owner was forced to close in December 2023.
Bill Butterfield is good at a lot of things.
The Lodgepole, S.D., native is in the Hettinger High School hall of fame. He got his PGA card two years after picking up a golf club. His Black Angus cows and calves eat out of the palm of his hand.
“I have to be competing in anything I do,” Butterfield says.
Four years ago, the self-taught pitmaster took home the People’s Choice award at his first competition barbecue event in Taylor.
Butterfield didn’t just bring the smoke that day: He brought his homemade seasonings.
I learn so much from the subjects I interview, and I learn about subjects I often know little about. To write for the reader’s understanding requires understanding what I’m writing about first.
For a woman whose dream job is be a college student forever, being a journalist seems forever-college-student adjacent.
Nerd alert: I love research.
In May, I visited with the executive director of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library for the story on page 4.
Kennedy DeLap has a little more hardware to lug with her camera bag.
The Bismarck native and North Dakota Living photojournalist was crowned Miss North Dakota 2025 on June 7 at the Bakken Auditorium in Williston.
“They put the crown on my head, and I just couldn’t believe it,” DeLap says.
She fully expected to be at work the following Monday, editing photos and dicing through interviews from a recent assignment in Medora. But instead, she was being interviewed by the Williston Herald about her new job as Miss North Dakota.
A bear hunt. Jiu-jitsu. Hitting the gym. Simply opting for a few extra steps at work instead of sitting or standing. These are all ways electric cooperative employees have incorporated movement into their lives.