Форт Либерти және Поуп Филд әскери базасының тарихы

US military airfield at Fort Liberty, near Fayetteville, North Carolina, United States

Pope Field is a U. S. military facility located 12 miles (19 km) northwest of the central business district of Fayetteville, in Cumberland County, North Carolina, United States. Formerly known as Pope Air Force Base, the facility is now operated by the U. S. Air Force via a memorandum of agreement (MOA) and an interservices support agreement (ISSA) with the U. S. Army as part of Fort Liberty.

In 1918, Congress established Camp Bragg, an Army field artillery site named for the Confederate General Braxton Bragg. An aviation landing field was added a year later. The War Department officially established "Pope Field" in 1919, and it ranks as one of the oldest installations in the Air Force. Pope AFB is named after First Lieutenant Harley Halbert Pope who was killed on 7 January 1919, when the Curtiss JN 4 Jenny he was flying crashed into the Cape Fear River. After five years, Camp Bragg became a permanent Army post renamed Fort Bragg, now known as Fort Liberty. Original operations included photographing terrain for mapping, carrying the mail, and spotting for artillery and forest fires. Observation planes and observation balloons occupied Pope Field for the first eight years. In December 1927, Pope Field played a role in the development of tactics that would prove critically important in shortening World War II. The 1930s saw the first major expansion of the facilities at Pope. In 1935, Pope Field hosted 535 aircraft in one day as the United States Army Air Corps practiced large scale operations along the East Coast. In 1940, paved runways replaced dirt open fields. Much of the parking ramp space remained unpaved until after World War II. The tempo of activities at Pope quickened with the outbreak of World War II. During the 1940s, the base swelled as a troop carrier training site, and with the institution of paratrooper training at Fort Bragg, Pope began putting the "Air" in "Airborne". Throughout the war, air and ground crews trained here with Army airborne units in preparation for airborne and aerial resupply missions. Hangars 4 and 5 and the Pope Air Force Base Historic District were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991.

On 1 April 1997, the 23rd Wing was inactivated and the C 130s and Pope Air Force Base were realigned to Air Mobility Command under the 43d Airlift Wing designation. The 43d Airlift Wing was designated as the host installation command. On the same day, the 23rd Fighter Group was activated at Pope Air Force Base as a tenant unit aligned under the 4th Fighter Wing at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, NC remaining in Air Combat Command. The 74th Fighter Squadron, 75th Fighter Squadron, 23rd Operations Support Squadron, and the 23rd Maintenance Squadron remained part of the group. Several of these planes provided the missing man formation at the conclusion of the National Anthem at Super Bowl XXXII at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego on 25 January 1998. The 43d Airlift Wing performed en route operations support at Pope Field to include mission command & control, aircrew management, aircraft maintenance, aircraft loading, aircraft fueling and supply. The wing provided strategic, en route airlift support and Lockheed C 130 Hercules tactical airlift support to the Army's XVIII Airborne Corps and 82nd Airborne Division. The wing traces its roots back to the 43rd Bombardment Group (Heavy), which was constituted 20 November 1940, and activated 15 January 1941, at Langley Field, VA. It operated primarily in the Southwest Pacific Theater as a Boeing B 17 Flying Fortress, and later a Consolidated B 24 Liberator heavy bomber unit assigned to Fifth Air Force. The 43rd Operations Group carries the lineage and history of its highly decorated World War II predecessor unit.

BRAC 2005 determined that the Air Force Reserve Command's 440th Airlift Wing and its C 130 aircraft were to be moved from Mitchell Field, Wisconsin to Pope. The wing started operations at Pope in 2006 and completed the move by October 2007. The first unit assembly at the new location was 1 October 2007. BRAC also made the 440th Airlift Wing the first active associate unit in Air Force history. The Regular Air Force's 2d Airlift Squadron and elements of the 43d Airlift Wing's maintenance units, that were also based at Pope, were receiving operational direction from the 440th while flying and helping maintain the C 130H2 Hercules Air Force Reserve aircraft. At the start of 2010, the 440th Airlift Wing had 16 C 130H models supporting worldwide missions and providing training missions for the XVIII Airborne Corps and 82nd Airborne Division from Fort Bragg. The 440th was a United States Air Force Reserve unit that performed airfield operations to include airfield management, weather forecasting, airfield tower control, airfield navigation and landing systems' maintenance. The 440 AW's 95th Airlift Squadron shared the airlift mission with the 43d's 2d Airlift Squadron. The 440th also had the 36th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron assigned which shared the AE mission with the 43d Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron. Despite opposition from North Carolina congressmen and senators, the 440th Airlift Wing was inactivated as an Air Force cost savings measure. An article in the 6 March 2014 issue of the Fayetteville Observer noted that the Air Force has proposed the wing's inactivation and the retirement of its 12 C 130H aircraft. A follow up article in the 11 March edition stated that state congressmen (Ellmers, Hudson, Price, and McIntyre) had spoken out against the proposed inactivation. The last C 130 assigned to the 440th Airlift Wing departed on 29 June 2016, and the unit inactivated on 18 September 2016.

In the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Plan, the Department of Defense started its plan to realign Pope AFB, NC. The Commission called for moving the 23rd Fighter Group's 36 A 10 Thunderbolt II (Warthogs) to Moody AFB, Georgia and the 43rd Airlift Wing's 25 C 130E's to Little Rock AFB, Arkansas; established a Medical Squadron; activated an Air Force Group to provide mission execution, planning, and management of efficient load out of Fort Bragg assets; and transferred Real Property accountability to the Army. The 2005 BRAC Law directed that the mandates be completed no later than 15 September 2011. The 23rd Fighter Group rejoined the 23rd Wing in a ceremony held on 18 August 2006 at Pope. On 19 December 2007, the last three of the A 10 Thunderbolt II aircraft left for Moody AFB. On 1 March 2011, Pope Air Force Base was absorbed into Fort Bragg, becoming Pope Field.

The United States Army Fort Liberty Garrison is the host organization at Pope Field. The garrison provides airfield support, security, and protection to include emergency medical and fire response, aircraft security, and transient alert support. It also provides installation support and is responsible to execute the Inter Service Support Agreement in providing support to United States Air Force (USAF) tenants to include services, facility maintenance, and morale, welfare and recreation support. The United States Air Force 43d Airlift Group was activated at Pope on 1 March 2011, and later redesignated the 43d Air Mobility Operations Group (AMOG) in 2016. The unit performs en route operations support to include mission command and control, aircrew management, aircraft maintenance, aircraft loading, aircraft fueling and supply, air traffic control, and aircraft landing systems maintenance. Furthermore, the 43 AMOG coordinates and supports joint training exercises for Fort Liberty's XVIII Airborne Corps and 82nd Airborne Division. Finally, the 43 AMOG is the lead Air Force unit responsible for rapid deployment coordination of the 82nd Airborne Division's Immediate Response Force (IRF). In addition, the USAF 18th Air Support Operations Group, 427th Special Operations Squadron, 21st Special Tactics Squadron, 24th Special Tactics Squadron, and Air Force Combat Control School operate from Pope Field.

Flying and notable non flying units based at Pope Field. Units marked GSU are Geographically Separate Units, which although based at Pope, are subordinate to a parent unit based at another location.