The last decade has been one of change for Vance Air Force Base.

• The decade dawned with fears of a glitch called “Millen-nium Bug,” better known as Y2K, that threatened to impact computer systems worldwide as 1999 gave way to 2000.

Vance spent months preparing to deal with potential Y2K computer problems and was ready for anything as the clock struck midnight. But as Dec. 31, 1999, became Jan. 1, 2000, nothing happened, leading the base’s communications branch chief to declare Y2K a “non-event.”

• July 2000 saw a new contractor take over base operating support and aircraft maintenance operations. DynCorp was awarded the contract, replacing Northrop, which had held the contract since 1972.

Northrop filed a protest with the federal General Accounting Office, but GAO sided with DynCorp, upholding the contract award in November.

• In December 2002, CSC Applied Technologies LLC became Vance’s prime contractor. CSC retained the contract in February 2008. This time DynCorp filed a protest, but that action was dismissed the following month.

• Sept. 11, 2001, rocked the nation, the world and Vance Air Force Base. In the immediate aftermath of the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon and the downing of an airliner in rural Pennsyl-vania, the alert level at Vance immediately was raised and access to the base restricted.

Since Sept. 11, 2001, Vance has installed a three-part emergency notification system, providing telephone, network and loudspeaker alerting systems to communicate details about emergencies to base personnel.

• In January 2002, Vance was blanketed by a thick coating of ice as the worst ice storm in 100 years paralyzed northwest Oklahoma, leaving the base, as well as the surrounding area, without electricity for four days.

• In May 2003, Vance received its first T-38C, an updated version of the venerable trainer with improved avionics and a computerized “glass” cockpit.

The first T-6A Texan II turboprop trainer arrived March 18, 2005, at Vance, as the replacement for the T-37 “Tweet.”

The final T-37 left Vance Oct. 27, 2006, concluding 46 years of operation at the base.

• In 2005 Vance survived the latest federal Base Realign-ment and Closure round, avoiding closure and gaining a new mission, introduction to fighter fundamentals, and 99 new jobs.

IFF came to Vance in April of 2007 as the 3rd Flying Training Squadron was transferred from Moody Air Force Base, Ga., and activated as 3rd Fighter Training Squadron.

• In May 2006 the Commander in Chief, President George W. Bush, landed at Vance on his way to a graduation speech at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater.

• In September of 2005 the city of Enid began the process of deeding 132 acres of land to the Air Force to enable Vance to expand. The transfer was completed in April 2006. That land now is home to the Landings at Vance, the base’s new military family housing area. Vance base housing was privatized in October 2007, with Pinnacle-Hunt Communities LLC signing a 50-year lease with the Air Force.

• New housing isn’t the only construction at Vance over the last decade. A new $10.6 million, 55,000-square-foot maintenance hangar for the T-1A Jayhawk opened in September, 2004.

• In April 2006 the base’s new $15 million Consolidated Logistics Complex was dedicated, combining operations housed in several separate buildings on base, some of which dated back to World War II.

• A $14 million force protection enhancement project was completed in 2008. The industrial gate, renamed Baker Gate after Enid native and former Air Force pilot Ralph Baker, and the main gate, Hairston Gate, were relocated farther north, giving Vance a more secure perimeter.

• Vance held three air shows during the decade, one in Octo-ber 2000, one in May 2003 and one in October 2008. The Air Force Thunderbirds performed at Vance in both 2003 and 2008. The 2008 show drew more than 35,000 people to the base.

• In June 2009 Vance was hit by its first civilian labor dispute since 1965, when the union representing some 775 employees of CSC and three sub-contractors voted to strike. The work-stoppage lasted more than two weeks.

• Also in June, ground was broken for the $20 million Armed Forces Reserve Center that will bring Army Reserve and National Guard forces to Vance.

• In addition, the $3 million project to improve Wheat Capital Road was completed and dedicated in June.

• The decade saw seven men hold the position of 71st Flying Training Wing commander — Col. Curtis Bedke, Col. Doug Raaberg, Col. A.J. Stewart, Col. Michael Callan, Col. Bryan Benson, Col. Richard Klumpp and the present commander, Col. Chris Nowland.