New $24M Idaho National Guard building to be dedicated to Dirk Kempthorne
The Idaho Army National Guard is set to dedicate a recently finished military hub located in the Magic Valley to one of its biggest supporters: the late Gov. Dirk Kempthorne.
Starting next month, the brand-new regional readiness center in Jerome will become home to Idaho’s 145th Light Support Battalion, including for maintenance of its fleet of vehicles. Across its 55,000-square-foot footprint, the $24 million building is composed of a learning center and classrooms, company orderly rooms, battalion planning space and secure equipment storage — and carries a plaque honoring the state’s 30th governor.
Kempthorne, who also served as U.S. interior secretary, Boise’s mayor and U.S. senator from Idaho during his nearly 25-year career in public office, died in April following a cancer diagnosis. He was 74.
In his two terms as governor from 1999 to 2006, Kempthorne oversaw the largest-ever deployment of the Idaho National Guard. He sent the state’s 116th Cavalry Brigade Combat Team to Iraq in 2004 to help support the U.S. operation known as the Second Gulf War under President George W. Bush.
“This was a man that unequivocally supported the Idaho National Guard,” Lt. Gov. Scott Bedke told the Idaho Statesman. “It was not just lip service. He was there to shake everybody’s hand when they left, and there to shake everybody’s hand when they came back — and he took it on as his duty as their commander-in-chief.”
Bedke, who Kempthorne as governor first appointed to the Idaho House of Representatives in 2001, will be among select dignitaries on hand to bestow the honor of dedicating the new National Guard building for his political mentor at a ribbon-cutting event on Monday, June 29. Joining him will be Kempthorne’s wife, former Idaho first lady Patricia Kempthorne, as well as Maj. Gen. Tim Donnellan, Idaho’s adjutant general and commander of the Idaho National Guard.
In more recent years, Kempthorne maintained his investment in the U.S. military, chairing an advisory committee for the USS Idaho Navy submarine. The 377-foot, fast-attack nuclear vessel was commissioned in April with its engine room named for Kempthorne.
After his lie in state honor at the Idaho Capitol and a public funeral in May, Kempthorne was interred at the Idaho State Veterans Cemetery in Boise.
Gov. Brad Little, the state’s 33rd governor, called the dedication to one of his predecessors a “lasting tribute to his leadership, his unwavering support for the Guard, and his enduring legacy of service to Idaho.”
“Gov. Dirk Kempthorne understood that a strong Idaho depends on the courage and commitment of the men and women who serve our state and nation in the armed forces,” Little said in a statement to the Statesman. “As commander in chief of the Idaho National Guard, he championed our service members through a period of historic transformation and sacrifice, always ensuring they had the support they deserved."
With Monday’s ceremony, Idaho once more honors Kempthorne’s commitment to public service. The former statesman continues to be missed by many, Bedke said.
“He left us way too soon,” he said. “It is very fitting that we honor him this way, and it’s just too bad that he’s not here to participate with us.”
