FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:   OCTOBER 9, 2002

Contact Patrick Tremblay, ptremblay@asomf.org (910) 483-3003 ext. 229

A New Special Exhibit at the ASOM

EVOLUTION OF OUR COMMUNITY

FAYETTEVILLE, NC.  The Airborne & Special Operations Museum (ASOM) will open its next special exhibit on Wednesday, November 6 at 9 a.m. in the Special Exhibit Gallery. The exhibit, Evolution of Our Community: Fort Bragg, Fayetteville and Cumberland County, 1918 - the Present, chronicles the growth of Ft. Bragg and the surrounding area from the inception of Camp Bragg in September of 1918 to modern day construction, with particular attention to the spectacular build-up to World War II. The exhibit opening will be free and open to the public.

Sponsored by ArvinMeritor-Purolator, the Fayetteville Publishing Company and the Fort Bragg Federal Credit Union, along with the Bleecker Automotive Group and the Holt family, the exhibit will show over eighty years of development. The hallmark of the exhibit will be a unique collection of photographic images from many sources, including the Fayetteville Observer, Roy Parker, Jr., the National Archives, the Museum of the Cape Fear and the North Carolina Collection at UNC Chapel Hill. These photographs will bring to life changes wrought through the years of depression, growth, war, social change and renovation that marked the greater part of the last century.

BUILT TO TRAIN
Activated in September of 1918, Camp Bragg was designed as an artillery testing and training site, with Pope Field opening the following year. The area was chosen largely based on its strategic location and its climate ideal for year round training. Camp Bragg grew slowly at first until becoming Ft. Bragg, a permanent Army post, in September 1922. By the 1930's Ft. Bragg was the largest artillery post in the world. In April 1942 the post became home to the Army's new Airborne Command, beginning a legacy of training airborne soldiers for combat that continues today.

In the eighty-four years since Ft. Bragg's activation, the post has grown into the most populous Army post in the United States, and with nearly forty-five thousand airborne and special operations soldiers, it ranks as one of the largest military instillations in the world. The economic and social impact of the post on Fayetteville, Cumberland County and the Cape Fear region has been enormous. Fayetteville has grown to be one of the larger metro regions in the state, driven in part by the strategic importance of Ft. Bragg.

The installation continues to be a key Department of Defense post. The 82nd Airborne Division and XVIII Airborne Corps have become the Army's strategic reaction force, ready at a moment's notice to deploy anywhere in the world. Joined by the U.S. Army Special Operations Command and several other major commands, these units have thousands of soldiers serving around the world on peace keeping and training missions, including their role as the cutting edge of the war against terrorists.

UNPRECEDENTED EXPANSION
Even before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Ft. Bragg was rapidly becoming a key element in the nation's defense. Fewer than 6,000 soldiers were stationed at Ft. Bragg in June 1940, but by the next summer the number had exploded to 67,000, making the post the third largest community in the state. During this time 31,000 civilian workers, drawn from every quarter of North Carolina and around the country, constructed nearly 3,000 buildings to house, feed, and train tens of thousands of newly mobilized troops. The incredible growth continued in 1942 with the construction of nearby Laurinburg-Maxton Army Air Field and Camp Mackall, both important to the new airborne program. As war intensified, Ft. Bragg's population soared to well over 100 thousand troops. Tens of thousands of soldiers, nine divisions and a host of artillery and airborne units departed for Europe and Asia from Ft. Bragg to help secure the Allied victory.

PARTNERS IN GROWTH
Fayetteville and Cumberland County have grown in size and economic power along with Ft. Bragg. Typical of southern cities its size at the turn of the last century, Fayetteville saw success in textile manufacturing. As Ft. Bragg came into its own, the local civilian communities followed suit spurred by a location central to increasingly efficient transportation systems. Commercial and passenger rail service flowed freely through Fayetteville, and the popular Route 301 grew into Interstate I-95, making the area ripe for a manufacturing boom in the post-war years. Black & Decker, Purolator and Kelly-Springfield Tire are only three of the larger employers who located in Cumberland County during the 1960s and 70s.

In the 1920s and 1930s, Ft. Bragg was a somewhat remote community ten miles from the center of Fayetteville. Now city, county, Army post and Air Force base are, for all intents and purposes, one entity-a single community working together. This convergence of interests and development of a shared vision are an important part of the new exhibit on the evolution of a southern community over more than eighty years.

A fitting place to mount Evolution of Our Community, the ASOM stands as a physical manifestation of this cooperation, as it was conceived, created and is now run jointly by both the military and civilian communities.

THE MUSEUM
Located at 100 Bragg Boulevard in downtown Fayetteville, the Airborne & Special Operations Museum is part of the U.S. Army Museum System and tells the story of Army airborne and special operations units from 1940 to the present. Museum hours: 10am - 5 pm, Tuesdays through Saturdays, Noon - 5 pm Sundays. Closed Monday; open Federal holiday Mondays. Admission is free.

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