Warbirds enlist help of Pope
July 8, 2005 - National Indoor Football League (NIFL)
Dayton Bulldogs News Release
FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. All the Warbirds are asking is help from Pope.
Can the Dayton Warbirds (8-6) enlist the help of some boosters from Pope Air Force Base for Saturday's National Indoor Football League playoff game in Crown Coliseum?
The Warbirds, obviously named because of the association to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in the Dayton-Fairborn area, need all the help they can get against one of the hottest teams in the NIFL, the Fayetteville Guard.
Remember, the Fayetteville Guard (7-7) wear the black and green of the U. S. Army and nearby Ft. Bragg, home of the famous 82nd Airborne Corps. With those camouflage shoulders, there is no escaping the Guard's colors.
Dayton wears the sponsor logo patch of the ¬ËU.S. Air Force. This game isn't for "The Commander-in-Chief's Trophy, but it certainly should be a raucous rivalry.
DAYTON OFF "INTO WILD BLUE"
The Warbirds have their own drum beating with "Off We Go Into The Wild Blue Yonder" so don't be surprised if they get help from the brethren from the USAF Pope Base, home of the Air Mobility Command (C-130s) and the 23rd Fighter Group (A-10s).
The area is one of the largest military complexes in the United States with more than 50,000 at Ft. Bragg, established before the Civil War, and slightly less at Pope AFB, which was opened in 1919.
Pope Field, as it was designated by the War Department, is one of the oldest installations in the USAF and was named after 1st Lt. Harley Halbert Pope, who was killed on Jan. 7, 1919, when the JN-4 Jenny he was flying crashed into the Cape Fear River. Original operations included photographing terrain for mapping, carrying the mail, and spotting for artillery and forest fires.
POPE AFB SUPPORTS FT. BRAGG OPS
Today, personnel and aircraft at Pope AFB have been involved in humanitarian disaster relief, combat actions such as operations in Grenada, Panama, the Middle East and supporting Ft. Bragg's Airborne and Special Operations paratroopers.
Fort Bragg was named in honor of Braxton Bragg, who was born in Warren County on March 22, 1817. Being graduated from West Point at 20, he served in the Seminole War for three years and rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel following the war with Mexico.
The post was known as Camp Bragg until Congress re-designated it as a permanent Army fort in late 1922. In 1942, the first airborne units trained in preparation for combat in World War II. The 82nd Airborne was originally activated at Camp Polk, Louisiana, in January of 1942 as the 11th Armored Corps.
Today, the mission of the Airborne Corps is as a strategic crisis response force, manned and trained to deploy rapidly by air, sea and land anywhere in the world.
CROWN ARENA COZY PLACE
The Guard plays in Crown Arena, a cozy facility that holds about 5,200. The Guard have averaged an estimated 2,739 a game, including the last two home games that attracted an average of 3,512.
The Warbirds will attempt to recruit some "Men in Blue" from Pope. "Into the Blue" is Dayton's war song going into this one.
National Indoor Football League Stories from July 8, 2005
- Montgomery Maulers game notes - Montgomery Bears
- Warbirds enlist help of Pope - Dayton Bulldogs
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