Woodring Historic Mural was dedicated on Memorial Day, 2023. The mural by Enid artist Tox Murillo, is painted on the hangar housing the A-26 Lady Liberty, the only flying invader left in the nation. It is located next to the ML Becker Learning Center and across the street from Oklahoma’s official Vietnam War Memorial.
The mural depicts:
- Charles Lindbergh, Amelia Earhart and Wiley Post were frequent flyers into Enid Air Park, Oklahoma’s first official municipally bonded airport. Enid businessman CE Knox had a series of aircraft and Lindbergh was one of the pilots who flew them into Enid. Lindbergh, Earhart and Post laid out new runway expansions and dedicated Enid Woodring Municipal Airport on May 30, 1933.
- Local Air Force barnstormer and test pilot Bert Woodring was killed testing aircraft. The airport was named after Woodring, who is shown in the lower left hand corner in his aircraft
- Ralph Baker is shown with his BT-13 Trainer next to Woodring’s aircraft. His family donated the land that Vance AFB is built on.
- The wreath at the wall and the grieving lady is Rachel Esbaugh, she represents the Gold Star Families to show the public that freedom comes at a great cost. Her husband was KIA in Iraq.
- The Vietnam Memorial Wall at Woodring Regional Airport, dedicated on Veterans Day, 2013
- The portraits in the middle are Bert Woodring (left) and Col Leon Vance Jr.
- The A-26 Lady Liberty is the only flying invader left in the nation.
- The Vietnam Veteran is Larry Stephens who was photographed reflecting on the names on that panel
- The Statue of Liberty is a symbol of freedom that many of our veterans looked for as they returned to the US after serving during WWII and beyond.
- The Huey scene bring awareness to those men and women who fought beneath the “wild blue yonder” in ground pounding efforts in Vietnam.
