Editing Pope Field (section)

===43d Airlift Wing===
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]], [[North Carolina (U.S. state)|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 [[Star-Spangled Banner|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.