James Buchli, first North Dakotan to fly in space, awarded state's top honor

Jim Buchli credited teamwork as a Marine in Vietnam and at NASA for the opportunity to become the first North Dakotan to fly in space.

Buchli on Tuesday officially added another award to his list of accomplishments as the 49th recipient of the Rough Rider Award, North Dakota's highest honor.

"NASA really allowed us to become team players," Buchli said in a ceremony on the University of North Dakota campus. "Working together for a year for a flight with a crew, you become one. You understand everybody's strengths, everybody's weaknesses. But also there's a very large team on the ground that does exactly the same thing."

The ceremony was held in Robin Hall, home to UND's aerospace program, which Buchli has supported. The award recognizes North Dakotans who have achieved national recognition in their fields, bringing honor to the state.

Bruce Smith, former dean of the John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences, was the point person on Buchli's nomination for the award.

He cited a recommendation letter from Larry Martin, chair of the UND Aerospace Foundation as summing up Buchli's worthiness for the award. "He was an astronaut, for crying out loud."

Buchli spent 14 years as an astronaut from 1978 to 1992 with four missions into space on NASA space shuttles. He went on to be deputy chief of the Astronaut Office for NASA, helping guide astronaut training and operations. In 2019, he was inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame.

Buchli would become friends with John Odegard and helped Odegard build up UND's space studies program and a scholarship fund.

In a video presentation, Diane Odegard, John Odegard's widow, called Buchli "a trusted confidant" of her husband.

Both men were also passionate about fishing, and fishing trips were used to raise scholarship money and tell the story of the aerospace school. Smith was among those on the trips where 34 people were invited.

"When you get paired up with somebody in a boat and you sit there for four hours, you kind of run out of things to say, and you usually end up talking about the Odegard school," Smith said.

Buchli's early years were spent in New Rockford and he graduated from Fargo Central High School in 1953.

He earned a spot at the U.S. Naval Academy and after graduating joined the Marines, serving in Vietnam. He later went to Navy Test Pilot School.

"The Marine Corps gave us an opportunity to see what we could do as a team," Buchli said. "Everything you do in the Marines is with a team."

As Buchli pursued a spot in the NASA astronaut program, he said one of the final steps was talking with a large group of seasoned astronauts and NASA leadership that he called a "tie-breaker" from a well-qualified group of candidates.

Buchli said he told a story from his experience in Vietnam with a group of six on a reconnaissance mission. During the night, a corporal woke him to say he had a snake wrapped around his leg – from the ankle to the thigh. Buchli said his advice was that the snake was just trying to get warm and would be gone in the morning.

"And in the morning, the snake was gone," Buchli said.

Later, a doctor on the astronaut selection committee told Buchli, "that was the best story I've heard in all the selection process – somebody with a snake in combat."

Buchli ended his speech by presenting Gov. Doug Burgum with a North Dakota flag that Buchli had taken with him on his first space mission.

Burgum is also a winner of the Rough Rider Award, named for the military band that Teddy Roosevelt led into battle.

Burgum noted that Roosevelt would become the first president to fly in an airplane.

Burgum said Buchli "is someone who's literally gone farther and gone higher than any other North Dakotan in history."

A portrait of Buchli by Minot-based artist Vern Skaug was unveiled at the ceremony and will be installed at the Capitol on Wednesday.

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