Political Quotes

“on December 20, 1941, the 112th Observation Squadron of the Ohio National Guard arrived in Dover, DE, to begin conducting anti-submarine patrols. It was the first military unit to serve at what is now known as the Dover Air Force Base. The history of the Base actually goes back 2 years further, to 1939, when in response to the Nazi invasion of Poland, the Civilian Aviation Administration, CAA, offered State and local governments on both coasts financial help to build municipal airports. The CAA offered to build one airfield in each of Delaware's three counties; the State did not pursue the offer, but New Castle and Sussex Counties accepted. Kent County passed the issue to the city of Dover, our State capital, and the Dover leaders agreed and purchased the land for a new airfield, in what has been hailed many times since as 'the best investment the city ever made.' In addition to the anti-submarine mission during World War II, Dover's airfield was used, once the Corps of Engineers had done some of its magic, to train fighter squadrons and then, in 1944, as the site for classified air-launched rocket tests, experiments that led to the use of air-to-surface rockets in both the European and the Pacific Theaters. After the war, the airfield was placed on caretaker status, and although it remained inactive for the rest of the 1940s, the name was officially changed to Dover Air Force Base in January 13, 1948.”