This Memorial Day and Vance Air Force Base, Enid

Someone once said, "If you can pick up a book and read it thank a teacher. If you can read the book in English thank a soldier."

Today, Memorial Day,  I would like to thank the two men to the left for helping me read in English and not German. 

My paternal grandfather Reed Burleson fought at the Battle of the Bulge and received multiple medals, including the Purple Heart. 

My maternal grandfather Fred Cherry also fought on the battlefields of Europe, riding in his jeep that he nicknamed "John 3:16." Thanks to my mom, Mary Burleson, for the photographs. I pause to remember my grandfathers for their service to our country.

But I would like to also honor another man, a contemporary of both my grandfathers, a native of Enid, Oklahoma, and a graduate of Enid High School.

Rachelle at the American Cemetery, Normandy

This soldier's name is Leon Robert "Bob" Vance, the man for whom Vance Air Force Base is named. 

Bob is prominently featured at the American Cemetery and Memorial in Normandy, France. 

Rachelle and I have been to Normandy to visit the American War Memorial on two separate occasions. We have spent time at Omaha Beach and toured the American Cemetery where over 10,000 Americans are buried on France's soil. 

Bob Vance's compelling story is told via a holographic image in the museum's lobby upon exiting the American Memorial Museum.

Most Oklahomans do not know about Bob Vance's heroic actions at Normandy, and that includes people who live in Enid, Oklahoma, Bob's hometown. 

Many know about Vance Air Force Base in Enid, Oklahoma, but few know the reason why the former Enid Army Air Corp base is named after Leon Vance. This Memorial Day, I post Bob Vance's story to honor all those American soldiers who gave their lives on the battlefield.

Col. Bob Vance from Enid, Oklahoma

Leon Robert (Bob) Vance, Jr. was born in Enid, Oklahoma, on August 11, 1916. His father was the principal at Enid's Longfellow Middle School, and his mother was an Enid educator as well. Bob graduated from Enid High School in 1933.

He had been an exceptional athlete and an honors student in high school, and after graduation, Bob entered the University of Oklahoma and the ROTC program at OU. Bob attended the university for his freshman and sophomore years before transferring to the West Point Military Academy in 1935.

Bob would spend four additional years at the Academy, graduating from West Point in 1939, part of the class that Newsweek magazine in 1999 called "The Warrior Class" because that year's graduates would go on to fight in WW II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. 

Bob was training to become a pilot for the Army Air Corp (now called the Air Force). While at West Point he met a native New Yorker, Georgette Brown, and the day after his West Point graduation, Bob and Georgette were married at the Academy's chapel.

For the next five years Lieutenant Robert Vance would first be trained, and then train, Army Air Force pilots at various Air Force bases around the United States. He would sometimes wonder if the war would be over before he actually saw combat, but his expertise as a pilot trainer was both needed and rewarded. By 1944 he had become a Lieutenant Colonel in the Army Air Force. 

One of Bob's best friends in the Army Air Corps,  having met him early in his pilot training at San Angelo, Texas,  was Lieutenant Horace S. Carswell. Carswell was a native Texan who had earned his wings in November 1938 and was subsequently assigned as an instructor in the Air Corp, just like Lieutenant Vance.  

The Vance and Carswell couples became fast friends. Both Vance and Carswell would eventually leave the Air Corp training program to fly combat in B-24 bombers. 

Both would arrive in different theaters of combat in April of 1944. Both would earn the Medal of Honor within six months of each other. Both would have Air Force bases named after them - Vance Air Force Base and Carswell Air Force Base.

Bob Vance's Actions at Normandy which Led to His Medal of Honor

Lieutenant Colonel Bob Vance kissed his wife and two-year-old daughter Sharon goodbye and left for England in April of 1944. For two months he trained with other men in a B-24 bomber, preparing for D-Day and the invasion of Europe.

Vance's combat mission would be to fly with a crew in a bomber named the Missouri Sue and drop bombs on the German lines located on the shores of France twenty-four hours before the invasion, softening the beach for the infantry landings that would arrive a few hours later. 

Early on June 5, 1944, the Missouri Sue took off from England for the bombing mission.

The bombs failed to release on the first run over the target, so Lieutenant Colonel Vance ordered a 360-degree turn for a second pass. Somewhere in the process of the second bomb run Missouri Sue was repeatedly hit by German flak, killing the pilot, wounding several members of the crew, and nearly severing Bob Vance's right foot, pinning him to the floor of the plane. 

The crew fought to complete the mission and then turned the plane toward home. Three of the bomber's engines eventually shut down and the fourth had to be shut down to prevent a stall. The damaged plane showered gasoline throughout the trip back across the channel to England. The bomb bay doors remained open with an armed 500-pound bomb dangling precariously. 

Vance was the command pilot of the craft, and as the plane continued its forced descent from 10,000 feet, he ordered that all the crew parachute to safety. Unwilling to have the plane crash into the English landscape, particularly with a 500-pound bomb dangling from the bomb bay, Vance, still pinned to the floor with his severed foot, piloted the gliding plane back into the English channel where it crashed into the water. 

The force of the crash propelled Bob Vance from the plane and knocked him unconscious. Somehow he managed to float to the surface where he was eventually rescued. Unfortunately, Bob's career as a pilot was over. His right foot had been severed.  The surviving ten men credited the actions of Bob Vance for their safe parachute landing on English land.

Vance's Recuperation and Tragic Death

Vance recuperated in England from his injuries for the next eight weeks. He wrote letters home describing to his wife and family the injuries he sustained, urging them not to worry, and that as soon as he was able, he would be on a medical flight home. 

His letters were initially filled with excitement and enthusiasm for Operation Overlord (the invasion of Europe), and he expressed pride for what his bombing crew had done in preparation for the landing.

His spirits lowered, however, when he left the hospital for the first time, hobbling on his crutches in the streets of London, and was met by a small boy who looked him over, saw his missing foot, and said, "Don't worry Yank, you won't miss it!" The emotional impact of realizing he would never fly again was enormous, and his depression increased when word came that his father had been killed in an aircraft accident.

The only thing that kept him going during his eight weeks of recovery was the knowledge that he would soon see his wife and small child. He made plans to leave England on a medical evacuation plane. Just before he left he discovered he had been nominated for the Medal of Honor for his heroic actions. On July 26, 1944, Vance joined other wounded soldiers as they boarded a transport plane for the trip back to America. His wife Georgette and Sharon both anxiously anticipated their loved one's arrival. 

Sharon, just over two years old, didn't understand much, but she could say, "Daddy's coming home!"

Bob Vance never made it. Somewhere between Newfoundland and Iceland, the plane went down. The plane has never been discovered, nor has Bob Vance's body ever been recovered. Georgette received this telegram, informing her that her husband was missing in action. The family was stricken with grief. Just weeks later, the government told Georgette that her husband had been bestowed the Medal of Honor. She requested that the official ceremony be delayed until her daughter, Sharon, was old enough to comprehend what her father had done.

Two years later, in 1946, Sharon Vance, Bob's four-year-old daughter, officially received on behalf of the Vance family the Medal of Honor which the U.S. government had bestowed upon her father, the highest recognition given to American soldiers. Later, the Army Air Base in Enid would be renamed Vance Air Force Base.

On this Memorial Day,  we all say "Thank You" to Bob Vance of Enid, Oklahoma, and other men and women who gave their lives so that we might read books in English.

UPDATE: Memorial Day, 2022. It could be that the missing plane of Lt. Col. "Bob" Vance has been found. More research is being conducted as well as talk of a potential recovery mission.