Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire For vets: Pope AFB is no more

End of a long and honorable career: http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123244412
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I wonder how all that's gonna work out? It seems like it would make coordinating jump training for the 82nd a worse PITA than it already was.....

Another American hero consigned to Obama's legacy.

Pope Air Force Base - Camp Bragg was established in 1918 and the following year Camp Bragg Flying Field opened. The first officer assigned was First Lieutenant Harley Halbert Pope, a native of Bedford, Indiana.

Too bad he wasn't a Tuskegee Airman ...... the base would still be open.

Think the Kenyan isn't dumb ? Closing a base in a blue state ! LMAO

The USAF let the base infrastructure go and the base was falling apart including the runway system. The C-130's that were based there were E models well past their time. There was a program to update some of them but the money disappeared and at least two people went to prison over it. IMHO the AF wanted the Army to pony up money to keep the base open.

It looks like the number of units and the size of those remaining will be reduced. Still there will be a, active duty group and a reserve unit whose pilots will still need hours for proficiency and flight pay. In the end the airfield will be an Army asset with USAF units on it. It would not surprise me to also see a few Army aviation units as well. There will be other units from across the country that can fly in and support training as well.

Much of this is not new. When I attended jump school at Benning in 1976 three of my jumps were old C123s from reserve units. On the other hand I often wonder how long we will have a division size Airbone unit. The 82nd has been the only one for close to 50 years and we have had only one Armor Division now for about 10-12 years.