It won’t be Pope Air Force Base, N.C., anymore, but even the new Pope Army base (Ft. Pope?) will have an Air Force presence. Despite earlier reservations about destroying synergy between USAF airlifters at Pope AFB, N.C., and the troops they transport at Ft. Bragg, just next door, the BRAC commission accepted the Pentagon recommendations for Pope. The Army will own the facility and the Air force will maintain a 16-aircraft C-130H squadron, instead of its current 25-aircraft wing. It was unclear, from the Friday afternoon BRAC session, if the squadron would be a mixture of active and reserves forces, as USAF proposed, or all Air Force Reserve Command. Pope’s 36 A-10 Warthogs are slated for Moody AFB, Ga.
The Air Force has finished resurrecting a B-1B Lancer, completing a yearslong process to transform a bomber that had been stored for parts in the Arizona desert into the new flagship of the 7th Bomb Wing at Dyess Air Force Base, Texas.