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thedrifter
08-24-09, 07:48 AM
Enid native Vance to be inducted into military hall of fame
Staff Reports

The Enid native and Medal of Honor recipient for whom Vance Air Force Base was named will be posthumously inducted into the Oklahoma Military Hall of Fame Nov. 11.

Lt. Col. Leon R. “Bob” Vance will be among nine inductees to the hall of fame.

The ceremony will begin at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 11 at Gaylord Center at Oklahoma Christian University in Edmond.

Vance was born in Enid in 1916. He graduated from Enid High School and attended the University of Oklahoma, where he participated in the school’s ROTC program.

He applied for the United States Military Academy and was accepted. He graduated from West Point in 1939 as an infantry lieutenant.

Vance asked to go to flying school and was accepted into the Army Air Corps, which became the Army Air Forces during World War II.

Then he went to Goodfellow Air Force Base, Texas, and commanded the 49th Squadron. He rose from second lieutenant to lieutenant colonel in less than five years.

He was assigned to a B-24 Liberator group stationed in England prior to D-Day.

Vance earned his Medal of Honor on June 5, 1944, his second and final combat mission. It was the day before the D-Day invasion and B-24 Liberators attacked German positions on the coast of France. Vance was the command pilot.

The B-24s were hit by anti-aircraft artillery. The plane Vance was in was hit by flak, which damaged the engines and wounded members of the crew, including Vance.

Vance’s foot was caught behind the co-pilot’s seat.

He and the co-pilot guided the aircraft toward England. He ordered the crew to bail out while continuing to fly the plane, thinking there was one other wounded man aboard who could not be moved.

Vance flew the B-24 from the floor of the cockpit. He ditched it in the ocean but was pinned by the upper turret and by his foot, which still was caught behind the co-pilot’s seat. When the plane hit the ocean, an explosion blew him out of the aircraft. He could not find the other wounded man. Vance then swam toward the coast and was picked up by an air-sea rescue plane. Following surgery in England, he was put on a plane for evacuation to the United States. The plane disappeared between Iceland and Newfoundland and was never found.

Vance was awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously in 1946. On July 9, 1949, Enid Air Force Base was renamed in honor of Vance.

The others to be inducted into the Oklahoma Military Hall of Fame are:

• Sgt. 1st Class D.C. Brewer, born in Avery. He served in four wars — World War II, Korea, Vietnam and the Dominican Republic. He participated in the invasion of Normandy with the 193rd Glider Regiment. He died in 2007.

• Army Spec. Dennis W. Drullinger lives in Tulsa. He received the Silver Star for his heroic actions on Jan 8, 1968, in Vietnam.

• Brig. Gen. George M. Donovan was born in Ardmore and served with Oklahoma’s 45th Infantry Division in World War II and the Korean War. He was awarded the Silver Star for his actions in Rome, Italy and awarded a battlefield commission. He was captured by the German Army in 1944 and remained a captive in Poland until escaping in 1945. He later would command the Oklahoma National Guard’s 45th Infantry Brigade. He died in 2002.

• Lt. Gen. William E. Potts was born in Heavener and graduated from the Oklahoma Military Academy in 1941. He enlisted in the U.S. Army and was in the Normandy invasion. He was later wounded in France. After World War II, he commanded the 72nd Tank Battalion in combat during the Korean War and the 14th armored Cavalry Regiment during peace time in Germany. He served nearly five years in Vietnam as head of combined military intelligences. He died in 2005.

• Col. Richard “Rick” Rescorla was born in Hayle, Cornwall, England. He died in 2001 after saving more than 2,700 lives in the World Trade Center. He served in the Oklahoma National Guard while receiving his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Oklahoma and his law degree from Oklahoma City University. As a soldier, Rescorla served in the 2nd Battalion of the 7th Cavalry of the 1st Air Cavalry Division in Vietnam in the Ia Drang Valley battle of 1965, which became a book, “We Were Soldiers Once and Young,” and later a movie. On Sept. 11, 2001, he was security director of Dean Witter, which had offices in the World Trade Center. He had trained employees on evacuating the buildings in the event of an emergency. That resulted in his saving more than 2,700 employees that day. He was killed going back into the building to look for more employees.

• Maj. Gen. Teddy Hollis Sanford was born in Pawnee and enlisted in the Army National Guard’s 45th Division in 1923. In 1942, he was transferred to the 82nd Infantry Division and assigned to the 325th Glider Infantry Regiment. He participated in the invasion of Sicily, Italy, Normandy, the Ardennes and the crossing of the Elbe River into Germany. After World War II, his assignments included Battalion Commander of the 504th Airborne Infantry, commander of the 504th Airborne Infantry Regiment, assistant Division Commander of the 1st Cavalry Division, Commander of the 7th Infantry Division in Korea and Commanding General, XIX Corps. He died in 1992.

• Cmdr. Ernest Evans was born in Pawnee. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1931. During World War II, he commanded the Alden and later the USS Johnston in a battle against the Japanese off Samar in the Leyte Gulf on Oct. 25, 1944. Evans was the first to lay a smokescreen and open fire on a Japanese Task Force superior in number to the American forces. He was killed in that battle and was awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously for his actions that contributed to a decisive victory over the Japanese in the Leyte Gulf.

• Pfc. Albert Earnest Schwab was born in Washington, D.C., but his family moved to Tulsa, where he was raised. He entered the Marine Corps May 12, 1944. He earned his Medal of Honor on May 7, 1945, while fighting Japanese forces on Okinawa. While his unit was pinned down by enemy machine-gun fire coming from a ridge, Schwab, a flame-thrower operator, advanced on the Japanese and demolished the gun position, enabling his company to occupy the ridge. A second Japanese machine gun began firing on Marines and Schwab continued his one-man assault on the enemy, despite a diminished supply of fuel for his flame thrower. Before he was fatally wounded, he destroyed that second Japanese position.

Also during the ceremony, Lt. Gen. Harry M. Wyatt III, former Oklahoma Adjutant General and now director, Air National Guard, will be presented the Distinguished Service Award given by the Oklahoma Military Heritage Foundation.

Wyatt will receive the Maj. Gen. Douglas O. Dollar Distinguished Service Award. Dollar, a member of the Oklahoma Military Hall of Fame, is a Vietnam veteran who served in the U.S. Army Reserve after Vietnam service.

Wyatt, a Stillwater native, was an Air Force pilot who obtained more than 3,000 hours in various aircraft.

Ellie