Maintenance Squadron remained part of the group. Several of these planes provided the missing-man formation at the conclusion of the 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. 440th Airlift Wing BRAC 2005 determined that the Air Force Reserve Command's 440th Airlift Wing and its C-130 aircraft were to be moved from Mitchell Field, Wisconsin to Pope. The wing started operations at Pope in 2006 and completed the move by October 2007. The first unit assembly at the new location was 1 October 2007. BRAC also made the 440th Airlift Wing the first active associate unit in Air Force history. The Regular Air Force's 2d Airlift Squadron and elements of the 43d Airlift Wing's maintenance units, that were also based at Pope, were receiving operational direction from the 440th while flying and helping maintain the C-130H2 Hercules Air Force Reserve aircraft. At the start of 2010, the 440th Airlift Wing had 16 C-130H models supporting worldwide missions and providing training missions for the XVIII Airborne Corps and 82nd Airborne Division from Fort Bragg. The 440th was a United States Air Force Reserve unit that performed airfield operations to include airfield management, weather forecasting, airfield tower control, airfield navigation and landing systems' maintenance. The 440 AW's 95th Airlift Squadron shared the airlift mission with the 43d's 2d Airlift Squadron. The 440th also had the 36th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron assigned which shared the AE mission with the 43d Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron. Despite opposition from North Carolina congressmen and senators, the 440th Airlift Wing was inactivated as an Air Force cost savings measure. An article in the 6 March 2014 issue