By P.J. D’annunzio / Edited by David Howard and Joan Page McKenna
On any given day, the skies above Dover rumble with thunder.
Most of the time, it isn’t an incoming storm, though, or any weather-related event. Anyone who lives in Kent County will recognize the familiar roar of behemoth metal-bird aircraft lifting off from or landing at Dover Air Force Base (AFB).
As the home of the C-5M Super Galaxy and C-17 Globemaster III transport aircraft of the U.S. Air Force and Air Mobility Command, the base dates back to World War II and is deeply intertwined with the local community. It’s the largest base of its kind in the United States and is home to 11,000 airmen and their families. Last year, its crews executed 8,000 missions, moving more than 130 million pounds of cargo and 6,000 passengers around the world. Several of those expeditions were security and aid missions bound for Ukraine, according to the base spokesman, Lt. Trevor Wood.
The base became publicly accessible 80 years ago after the U.S. Army concluded top-secret rocket testing during the war. Since then, Dover has become famous for its annual summertime air show.
Initially, the airfield was a civilian airstrip until the Army took it over in 1941 and began testing for a classified rocket project two years later, says Eric Czerwinski, deputy director of Dover’s Air Mobility Command (AMC) Museum. The Air Force didn’t become its own branch of the military until 1947.
Czerwinski, a retired master sergeant with 20 years of Air Force service, says the Army tested plane-mounted rockets launched at targets in the area around the base. Those rockets were then used to great effect in the Pacific and European theaters during World War II. “They were launching the rockets into Bombay Hook, next to Route 9,” he says of the area that’s now a federal wildlife refuge. “Air Force personnel are still pulling out World War II-era munitions from the outer limits of the base, embedded in the earth from the rocket testing.”
The squadrons and transport groups stationed at the base played a crucial role in World War II by participating in operations that decisively weakened the Nazis’ grip on Europe, ultimately leading to the end of the war there.
Dover also had a significant role in Operation Overlord, the code name for what would become known as D-Day, the Allied invasion of Europe through Normandy, France, on June 6, 1944.
Thousands of veterans and active-duty personnel have passed through Dover over the years, but only one has what is arguably the greatest first impression story in Air Force history.
The night before the seaborne invasion, C-47 transport planes from the 436th Troop Carrier Group, based out of then Dover Army Air Field, dropped paratroopers behind enemy lines to disrupt German forces ahead of the landings, explains historian Edwin Delgado. Those aircraft also carried gliders loaded with artillery, jeeps and munitions—all navigating through withering enemy antiaircraft fire. The unit went on to become the 436th Operations Group, still stationed at the base.
During the war, Dover was also home to several P-47 fighter squadrons used to train pilots for duty in Europe. The base helped defend Americans at home, too: Early in the conflict, three B-25 bomber squadrons based at Dover conducted antisubmarine patrols over the Delaware Bay.
A feather in the cap
Thousands of veterans and active-duty personnel have passed through Dover over the years, but only one has what is arguably the greatest first impression story in Air Force history. Charles Grant, 94, a retired flight engineer from Dover who served in the Air Force from 1947 to 1978, spent his early years as a trainee mechanic working on B-29 bombers. His unit was sent to an airbase in England in advance of the Berlin airlift in 1948. One day, senior personnel left the 17-year-old from West Virginia and another junior airman behind to work on their own.
“The other guys wanted to take off and do something one afternoon,” Grant says. “This other fellow and I, we were laying under the airplane looking up at the wing.”
Things got dull after a while. There were pheasant roaming the base and Grant spotted a feather on the ground nearby, so he picked it up and stuck it in his hat. He then went about his business, but shortly thereafter someone called out that a jeep was coming. Grant could tell by the flag that it was a high-ranking officer.
“We stood at attention, and this gentleman got out and said, ‘Hello, fellas,’” Grant recalls.
That gentleman was Gen. Curtis LeMay, a notoriously taciturn figure who was famous for strategizing the firebombing of Tokyo and other major Japanese cities during World War II. He would go on to become the Air Force chief of staff years later.
“What in the hell is that in your hat?” LeMay said.
Grant quickly plucked the feather from his hat. But luckily, LeMay was in a good mood. “Suddenly I remembered this feather in my cap, and they were all laughing there in the jeep,” he recounts.
During the Vietnam War, Grant regularly flew back and forth between Dover and South Vietnam delivering cargo. He now volunteers at the AMC Museum.
The largest base of its kind in the United States, Dover Air Force Base is home to 11,000 airmen and their families. Last year, its crews executed 8,000 missions, moving more than 130 million pounds of cargo and 6,000 passengers around the world. Several of those expeditions were security and aid missions bound for Ukraine.
Lifting up the community
Dover AFB leadership understands that the base is part of a larger community in Delaware and they prioritize engagement with local civic leaders, largely through the 32-year-old Honorary Commander program. The initiative matches civic leaders with active-duty and reserve military commanders to build a bridge between the civilian population and the Air Force, says Wood, the base spokesman.
“The goal is to create an everlasting alliance between unit commanders and civic leaders in order to benefit the base, local organizations and the state of Delaware,” Wood says. “The partnerships created through this program strengthen both Dover AFB and the surrounding community.”
Honorary commanders are given in-depth tours of the base and meet key personnel. The 2024 class consists of 46 local civic leaders. The base partners with the Central Delaware Chamber of Commerce to hold events where Dover personnel meet local business leaders and learn more about area communities, Wood says. High school JROTC students and ROTC cadets can also take part in visits to learn what life is like at an Air Force base.
The base’s best-known public-facing program is the annual First State Airshow. Thousands of people gather at Dover each summer to watch aerial demonstrations and check out vintage and current generation aircraft, including state-of-the-art jet fighters and the cargo aircraft that make up the backbone of the base’s fleet.
Many Delawareans first learn about the base at the air show, but those who want to delve deeper into Dover’s local significance and indelible legacy have plenty to draw them in. It might get a little loud in the heavens above Dover sometimes, but we’re all better off for it.
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