Vance Air Force Base

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Vance Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located in Enid, Oklahoma.

Vance AFB is currently home to the 71st Flying Training Wing, which reports through the Nineteenth Air Force to the USAF's Air Education and Training Command.

[edit] History

In 1941, for the sum of $1 a year, this land was leased from the city of Enid to the federal government as a site for a pilot training field, and on November 21 the base was officially activated. The installation was without a name but was generally referred to as Air Corps Basic Flying School. It was not until 1942, that the base was officially named Enid Army Flying School. The mission of the school was to train aviation cadets to become aircraft pilots and commissioned officers in the United States Army Air Corps. During World War II, the basic phase of training graduated 8,169 students, while the advanced phase of training graduated 826. As the demand for pilots decreased after the war, the Enid Army Flying Field (as it was named in 1943) closed in 1947.

The base was reactivated, and its name changed to Enid Air Force Base in 1948, as one of the pilot training bases within Air Training Command. Its mission was to provide training for advanced students in multi-engine aircraft.

In keeping with the Air Force tradition of naming bases for deceased Air Force flyers, on July 9, 1949, the base was renamed after a local World War II hero and Medal of Honor winner, Lt Col Leon Robert Vance, Jr.

The first aircraft flown at Vance was the BT-13A, followed shortly by the BT-15. In 1944 advanced students flew the TB-25 and TB-26. Following the establishment of U.S. Air Force as a separate service in September 1947, Vance began training in the AT-6 and eventually the T-33. The T-37 Tweet flew at Vance beginning in 1961, and the T-38 Talon in 1963.

In 1995 Air Force officials announced that Vance would transition to the Specialized Undergraduate Pilot Training curriculum. Under SUPT, Vance students begin their training in the T-37 Tweet, followed by the T-1A Jayhawk, T-38 Talon, or other trainer aircraft at separate military flight training bases. With the introduction of the Joint Primary Pilot Training syllabus to Vance in 2005, the 71st FTW began transitioning from the T-37 to the newer T-6 Texan II. Joint training with the United States Navy began at Vance in 1996.

[edit] Interesting facts

Vance is located only 5 miles from the third largest free standing grain elevator in the United States.
Students practice basic patterns and landings at an auxiliary airfield called "Dogface". "Dogface" is located in Cherokee, Oklahoma at Kegelman Air Force Auxiliary Field.