ENID — The history of Vance Air Force Base can be marked by the succession of aircraft that have filled the skies over Enid, but at its core the base’s history centers around its people.

Heather Melsby, Vance wing historian, detailed the history of the base Wednesday as part of the Brown Bag Lecture series at Cherokee Strip Regional Heritage Center.

The idea for the base stemmed from the onset of World War II and America’s seemingly inevitable entry into the war.

In 1941 Congress approved a $2.5 billion, 84-Group Expansion Plan that provided funding for 20 new flying fields. Enid Mayor Charles Walker and Chamber of Commerce President Martin Garber thought Enid would be a good place for a flying field, and searched the area for suitable land.

They finally settled on about 1,000 acres of land about three and one-half miles south of the city center. A site inspection team led by Gen. G.C. Brandt arrived to survey the land.

Brandt walked the land, which had been rendered quite muddy by spring rains. With mud up to his knees, Brandt said the Army was seeking land “suitable for a flying field, not a duck blind,” Melsby said.

Despite the mud and Brandt’s misgivings, the deal was struck. Initially, the Army leased the land for $1 per year with a 25-year option. The $4.4 million construction project officially began Aug. 16, 1941.

Maj. Henry W. Dorr, the Army Air Corps project officer, arrived that summer and set up his headquarters downtown in the Enid post office. He moved to the base in November.

On Dec. 7, 1941, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor put bases all over the nation on high alert, and the facility known as U.S. Army Air Corps Flying School Enid was no exception.

Dorr quickly posted armed sentries at all of the base’s gates, but because no ammunition was available, the sentries were armed with empty rifles. Later that night Dorr obtained 300 rounds of ammunition from Enid Police Department.

The first 63 cadets, in Class 42-D, arrived a few days after Pearl Harbor was attacked. Construction was continuing on the base even as training began, and conditions at best were difficult. They lived in basic Army barracks and often had to fly through the dust being blown off nearby fields. The cadets’ day began at 6:20 a.m. with “Reveille” and ended with “Taps” at 10 p.m. Their one indulgence was a welcome dance, which every class attended downtown in the Youngblood Hotel.

Training continued throughout the war, and the base underwent two name changes, becoming Enid Army Flying School in 1942 and Enid Army Air Field in 1943.

Throughout the war 8,169 students in 39 classes trained at the base.

The end of the war saw the base’s mission reduced to advanced multi-engine flight training. On June 31, 1947, the base was deactivated.

Which was where another of the people integral in the base’s history came along. Maj. Floyd E. Welsh, an Alva native who had trained and served at the base, was War Surplus Property Officer in Washington, D.C.

Deactivated bases were being auctioned off and dismantled, but when the Enid Army Air Field file crossed Welsh’s desk, he squirreled it away, leaving the facility in official limbo.

Two years later the Berlin Airlift began and the newly formed U.S. Air Force realized the need for additional training facilities. Air Force officials contacted Welsh and asked if any World War II-era airfields still were in the inventory. Welsh produced the Enid Army Air Field folder and, on Aug. 1, 1948, the facility was reactivated as Enid Air Force Base.

Less than a year later it had yet another name, Vance Air Force Base, named for Enid native and Medal of Honor recipient Lt. Col. Leon R. Vance Jr.

Vance’s story is well-known. Badly injured when his B-24, Missouri Belle, was struck by German flak during a bombing mission, Vance took over from the fatally wounded pilot and ordered the crew to bail out. He thought one of his crew mates still was aboard, so Vance flew the ship to the English Channel, where he ditched it in the water.

He was trapped in the fuselage until an explosion blew him clear of the aircraft. Rescued by the British, Vance learned his crew mate had safely bailed out.

That was not, however, Vance’s last flight, Melsby said. As he was being flown from the hospital to the base from which he would be transported back to the U.S., Vance asked the plane’s young pilot if he could take the controls. Melsby said she spoke to the pilot, who said he couldn’t refuse a lieutenant colonel, so he agreed.

The C-54 transport bringing Vance back stateside was lost at sea and he was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.

Another significant person in the history of Vance is Eileen Collins. She was one of the first female pilots to train at the base, and returned as a T-38 instructor pilot. Collins went on to become the first female space shuttle pilot and commander.

In 1995 the Base Realignment and Closure commission targeted Vance for closure, but Enid rallied behind the base. Local residents wrote more than 5,000 letters to the commission in support of Vance, and when the commissioners came to Vance for a site visit more than 12,000 local residents showed up waving signs of support.

The commission ultimately decided to close Reese AFB, in Lubbock, Texas, instead.

Vance has seen many changes over the years, different training programs, different aircraft and a great deal of construction and expansion. But in the end, Melsby said, the mission has remained the same, training pilots.

In the 59 years since those muddy fields south of town became a flying training field, 31,460 young men and women have earned their wings there.