Aircraft dating from 1941 to the present are stationed outside the Vance gate. These aircraft represent those used on the base to train pilots. You can also observe aircraft in flight as they perform training missions over the base.
Visitors are not allowed onto Vance AFB without proper military clearance.
History: Vance and Enid
In March 1941, Congress funded the expansion of the Army Air Corps to include new training fields. Enid city officials obtained the lease of approximately 1,000 acres of farmland in Garfield County, four miles south of Enid, to offer as a possible site. On 19 June, the announcement that Enid would indeed host a basic military flying school came. Construction began on 16 August, and the first class arrived on 16 December. In February 1942, it officially became the Enid Army Flying School. Before the school converted to advanced, multi-engine flying training, 8,171 basic single-engine pilots graduated through early 1945. The school graduated a further 1,631 pilots before temporarily being deactivated in January 1947. On 18 September 1947, the Department of the Air Force was created. By 4 November, the Committee for Retention of the Enid Army Air Field unanimously voted to deed the property to the United States Air Force.
On 13 January 1948, the government responded to the city’s invitation by designating the base as Enid Air Force Base as a permanent installation and restarted its mission of training multi-engine pilots. On 9 July 1949, the Air Force renamed the base after Enid’s very own World War II Medal of Honor recipient, Lt. Col. Leon Vance, Jr. Since then, Vance Air Force Base has issued wings to over 35,000 of the world’s best pilots.
