Driving along Interstate 35 in Owatonna, Minnesota, you can't miss the giant jets near the airport.

"Really, they come from all corners of the country," said Dave Beaver, airport manager. "We had an arrival yesterday from Florida, California, Colorado."

At Owatonna's Degner Regional Airport, planes are coming and going. But there are three on site that never take off, yet they never touch the ground. 

"That display is really something else," said Beaver. "We routinely see people stop off the interstate, come in and ask questions and take pictures."

The story begins years ago when the city acquired one of the T-38 Talon Thunderbird jets from the Air Force. Then Buzz Kaplan, an Army veteran and local plane enthusiast, acquired two more. In 2006, they began the process of moving the T-38's, departing from an Owatonna museum and arriving at the airport.

"It was quite a feat to move those three aircraft a quarter mile," said Matt Thurnau, Chairman of the Owatonna Airport Commission. "They had trucks and trains and moved them slowly down the road."

Moving them was one thing, positioning them was another. Supporters wanted the T-38s to be pointed skyward. They're positioned in a flying formation called the "bomb burst," according to Thurnau.

Each of the jets weighs more than 12,000 pounds. And it's 70 feet from the noses of each of the planes, all the way down to the ground.

"There's 308 tons of concrete and steel at the base of that. So, it's not going anywhere," said Thurnau.

And it's a bit of an engineering marvel. Just this past summer, the monument withstood a storm with 70 mph wind gusts.

"The stands that the planes are on were tested in a wind tunnel, up to 113 miles an hour," said Thurnau.

Don McCann is a long-time Owatonna resident and councilmember. He said the T-38's aren't just a landmark, they're a salute to the men and women of the Air Force. Because when it comes to supporting those in service, the sky is the limit. 

"I almost look at it as the gateway to Owatonna," said McCann. "And that's community coming together and doing something very iconic. And that's really why we like it."

Occasionally the jets have to be cleaned because of bird nests and other debris.

They also need to be painted from time to time, with all three jets receiving new paint jobs this past summer.