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A Century Of Life At Ft. Bragg

WUNC News | By Anita Rao,
Frank Stasio
Published November 2, 2017 at 12:01 PM EDT

North Carolina is home to the largest U.S. military installation in the world by population. It employs more than 50,000 military and close to 30,000 civilians and contributes tens of billions of dollars to the state’s economy.

Host Frank Stasio speaks with producer Elizabeth Friend, Fort Bragg public affairs officer Tom McCollum, and Master Sgt. Judy Espinosa Betancourt about a collaboration between WUNC, The Fayetteville Observer and the American Homefront Project to commemorate the 100 year anniversary of Fort Bragg.

The base also has a long and storied history. It was built in 1918 as an artillery training ground and later became home to the 82nd Airborne Division and U.S. Army Special Forces. To commemorate a century of life at Ft. Bragg, WUNC is partnering with The Fayetteville Observer and the American Homefront Project to collect first-person accounts of life on and around the base.

Host Frank Stasio talks about that storytelling project with producer Elizabeth Friend. He is then joined by two of the project participants: Tom McCollum, public affairs officer at the base, and Master Sgt. Judy Betancourt. The two will participate in a live storytelling event at the Airborne and Special Operations Museum in Fayetteville this Saturday, Nov. 4 at 3 p.m.

Captain Mike Thomas, 313th Military Intelligence Batallion, on his first deployment during Desert Shield.
Courtesy of Mike Thomas /
Captain Mike Thomas, 313th Military Intelligence Batallion, on his first deployment during Desert Shield.
Bill Herring (L) and his brother Dewey playing soldiers as children living on Ft. Bragg in the 1940s.
Courtesy of Bill Herring /
Bill Herring (L) and his brother Dewey playing soldiers as children living on Ft. Bragg in the 1940s.
Phil Sussman is an officer in the special operations qualification program. Sussman will tell his story this weekend as part of Ft. Bragg Stories project live event.
Courtesy of Elizabeth Friend /
Phil Sussman is an officer in the special operations qualification program. Sussman will tell his story this weekend as part of Ft. Bragg Stories project live event.

Copyright 2017 North Carolina Public Radio
Anita Rao
Anita Rao is the host and creator of "Embodied," a live, weekly radio show and seasonal podcast about sex, relationships & health. She's also the managing editor of WUNC's on-demand content. She has traveled the country recording interviews for the Peabody Award-winning StoryCorps production department, founded and launched a podcast about millennial feminism in the South, and served as the managing editor and regular host of "The State of Things," North Carolina Public Radio's flagship daily, live talk show. Anita was born in a small coal-mining town in Northeast England but spent most of her life growing up in Iowa and has a fond affection for the Midwest.
See stories by Anita Rao
Frank Stasio
Longtime NPR correspondent Frank Stasio was named permanent host of The State of Things in June 2006. A native of Buffalo, Frank has been in radio since the age of 19. He began his public radio career at WOI in Ames, Iowa, where he was a magazine show anchor and the station's News Director.
See stories by Frank Stasio