For 50 years, a small group of admirers of a World War II ace from Greensboro have been trying to persuade the Pentagon to rename Pope Air Force Base for him and his brother, who also was a fighter pilot.

They've been rebuffed for various reasons, including the cost of changing base stationery and signs, but now they have another and perhaps final chance to make the name change fly. The base is about to be transferred to the Army, which will require at least a modest name change. Why not use the occasion to honor Maj. George E. Preddy and 1st Lt. William R. Preddy?

It would only be right, said Eddie Smith of York, S.C. Not only were the brothers North Carolinians, George Preddy is the state's top ace, with nearly 27 kills (credit was shared when more than one fighter contributed to a downing) in less than a year and a half of combat.

"He was the leading P-51 ace of all time, and Pope was not a hero, while Preddy was," said Smith, a director of a foundation formed to keep the memory of the Preddys alive.

Pope, like many other early air bases, was named for a flier from the base who was killed in a crash. 1st Lt. Harley H. Pope was killed in 1917 when his JN-4 "Jenny" smacked into the Cape Fear River near Fayetteville after running out of fuel in bad weather.

It's not clear precisely how long the Preddys' backers have to make their case, but the clock is ticking while the Army and Air Force negotiate the hand-over date. In 2005, the federal government decided to turn the base over to Fort Bragg, and by law the transfer must happen by 2011. The Air Force wants to hand it over sooner, but the Army won't agree unless it gets help covering the field's expenses, said Ed Drohan, a Pope spokesman.

What the base would be called hasn't been decided either, Drohan said, though there seems to be support for simply calling it Pope Field.

Preddy's backers aren't even asking for the whole name. A hyphenated second billing would be enough, Smith said -- Pope-Preddy Airfield.

The Army could do worse. No one came close to Preddy's skills, according to a general who commanded his squadron.

He was "the greatest fighter pilot who ever squinted through a gun sight; he was the complete fighter pilot," Gen. John C. Meyer was once quoted as saying. Meyer was himself the fourth-ranking U.S. ace in Europe at the end of the war.

Hung over but adept

On Aug. 5, 1944, Preddy's unit, which was then based in Bodney, England, was told there would be no mission the next day, and several members engaged in more than a little revelry.

Then they were told they would have to fly after all, to protect a group of bombers. A commander looked at Preddy and decided the young pilot was too hung over to fly. Meyer intervened and said Preddy would be ready when the planes were ready.

Preddy inhaled oxygen to revive himself, said Ray Mitchell, a pilot who flew with Preddy later on, and was able to climb into his plane, a powerful P-51 Mustang that had been dubbed "Cripes A' Mighty," a phrase that Preddy sometimes spouted while shooting craps.

He wasn't fated, though, to suffer with his headache through a dull and droning mission.

The Mustang escorts were cruising above the bombers when they spotted more than 30 German fighters closing in on the lumbering B-17s.

Preddy pounced, and shot down six in less than five minutes.

It would have been one of the most startling feats in the history of aerial warfare even if it hadn't been performed by a pilot so hung over he threw up in his cockpit.

After landing, the still-queasy superace shrugged off the feat. "I just kept shooting, and they just kept falling," he said.

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