Marietta Mayor Steve "Thunder" Tumlin declared Saturday, July 11, as Capt. Charles Dobbins Day, honoring the World War II pilot whose name sits on one of metro Atlanta's most recognizable military installations in Cobb County.

Tumlin signed the proclamation on the 83rd anniversary of Dobbins' death during Operation Husky, the Allied invasion of Sicily.

"A hometown hero who walked the Marietta walk," Tumlin called Dobbins at the July 11 signing ceremony, according to the Marietta Daily Journal.

A Marietta kid

Charles M. Dobbins was born Jan. 13, 1916, in Marietta, where he sang in the choir and joined youth groups at Marietta First United Methodist Church. He graduated from Marietta High School in 1933, attended Georgia Evening College (now Georgia State University) in Atlanta, and sold insurance for New York Life before enlisting at Fort McPherson on Oct. 2, 1941.

After advanced training at Turner Field in Albany, Georgia, Dobbins earned his officer's commission in the U.S. Air Corps on May 19, 1942, according to the proclamation. He married Jean Englehart the very next day.

88 missions

Dobbins shipped overseas with the 316th Troop Carrier Group, co-piloting C-47 transports that dropped paratroopers across the Mediterranean theater. By July 11, 1943, he had logged 87 combat missions.

That night, on his 88th mission and third sortie of the day, Dobbins and his crew successfully dropped 16 paratroopers over Sicily before their aircraft was shot down by friendly fire at approximately 9:13 p.m. The plane was last seen three miles northwest of Gela, Sicily. His body and aircraft were never recovered.

According to The Military Standard, U.S. Navy gunners who had earlier suffered a Luftwaffe attack mistakenly fired on the returning American transports.

The base that bears his name

The airfield in Cobb County went through several names after its 1941 construction: Rickenbacker Field, Marietta Army Airfield, then Marietta Air Force Base. On Feb. 15, 1950, it was renamed Dobbins Air Force Base.

That April, Dobbins' brother Capt. Patman Dobbins, his niece Beverly, and his mother Ethel formally dedicated the installation. The base became Dobbins Air Reserve Base in 1992 and serves more than 10,000 active-duty personnel, reservists, National Guard members, and veterans, according to the 94th Force Support Squadron.

Why it matters

In a social media post on July 11, Dobbins Air Reserve Base said personnel there hope more neighbors will learn about the captain's life and sacrifice. The City of Marietta confirmed the proclamation on its official Facebook page the same day.

The proclamation carries no policy change or funding. It is a formal recognition tying Dobbins' story to the community that raised him and the base that still carries his name less than 10 miles from East Cobb neighborhoods.