<P> 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 . </P> <P> 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 . </P> <P> Pope AFB is named after First Lieutenant Harley Halbert Pope who was killed on January 7, 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 . </P> <P> 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 . </P>

Who is pope air force base named after