Leon Vance

Leon Robert Vance Jr. was born and raised in Enid, Oklahoma. Vance attended Enid schools from first grade through high school.[3] His father, Leon Robert Vance Sr., was a junior high school principal[1][3] and also a civil aviation flight instructor,[1][3] while his uncle had been an aviator in the Army Air Service who had been killed in France during World War I.[1]

Vance was considered an above-average student and a great athlete.[1][3] His father, as principal, thought of education as having great importance, and this spurred Vance Jr. to challenge himself by taking difficult courses in high school.[1] He averaged a 94 percent in mathematics.[1]

Vance attended the University of Oklahoma for two years,[1][3] becoming a member of Phi Delta Theta.[1][3] After his sophomore year, Vance entered the United States Military Academy on July 1, 1935, as a member of the Class of 1939.[1][3] A 1999 article in U.S. News & World Report called Vance and his West Point classmates the "Warrior Class" because they were destined to fight in World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War.[3] In his First Class (senior) year, Vance was selected as a cadet sergeant in Company A of the Corps of Cadets. He graduated June 12, 1939, ranked 318th in order of general merit in a class of 456, and was commissioned as a second lieutenant of Infantry.[5]

While training at Mitchel Field on Long Island, Vance met Garden City resident, Georgette Drury Brown. They married the day after his graduation from West Point and had a daughter, Sharon, born in 1942. Vance would later name his assigned aircraft The Sharon D. after his daughter.[6]

Vance requested pilot training and completed Basic School at the Spartan School of Aeronautics in Tulsa. On September 13, 1939, he was assigned to Randolph Field, Texas for Primary flight training, graduating the following March, and then to nearby Kelly Field for Advanced Flight School, where he graduated with Class 40C, earning his wings on June 21, 1940. Vance was also recommissioned as a first lieutenant, Air Corps.[1][7] He served as an instructor until February 1941, when he was transferred to Goodfellow Army Air Field in San Angelo, Texas, and assigned to command the 49th School Squadron. He was at Goodfellow when the United States entered World War II in December 1941, was promoted to captain on April 6 and major on July 17, and remained in command of his basic flight training squadron until reassigned to Strother AAF, Kansas, in December 1942 as Director of Flying. While at Goodfellow, Horace Carswell and Jack Mathis (then an enlisted clerk), both of whom would subsequently receive the Medal of Honor posthumously, served in Vance's squadron. Vance was promoted to lieutenant colonel in September 1943, after little more than four years' service.[8]

B-24H Liberator of the 489th Bomb Group on a hardstand at RAF Halesworth

After transition training to the Consolidated B-24 Liberator, Vance was assigned in December 1943 to the 489th Bombardment Group at Wendover AAF, Utah, as Deputy Group Commander. The group completed its training and prepared for overseas movement in April 1944, one of the last heavy bombardment groups to be assigned to the Eighth Air Force. The group was assigned to the 95th Combat Bombardment Wing of the 2nd Bomb Division and based at RAF Halesworth. Vance led the group on its first combat mission, bombing the Luftwaffe airfield at Oldenburg, Germany, on May 30, 1944.[8]

On June 5, 1944, Vance was assigned to lead the 489th BG on a diversionary attack against German coastal defenses near Wimereux, France, in the Pas-de-Calais, to support the anticipated D-Day landings. The group had lost six bombers on a mission to bomb Brétigny Airfield near Paris on June 2 (Vance did not participate), partly as a consequence of attempting to bomb visually in poor weather conditions.[9] As a result, the lead aircraft of the 489th's formation on June 5 was a Pathfinder Force (PFF) "Mickey" B-24 detached from the 44th Bomb Group's 66th Bomb Squadron to enable the group to bomb through overcast using "blind bombing" tactics.[10] Vance positioned himself on the bomber's flight deck, standing behind the aircraft commander and co-pilot.[11]

After an 0900 takeoff, the group assembled its formation and climbed to its assigned 22,500 ft (6,900 m) altitude for the short flight to the French coast. The group approached the target area from the south but the bombs of the lead aircraft failed to release, and as a result none of the group bombed. Vance decided to make a second pass over the target rather than jettison the bombs into the English Channel, but as the formation approached the target a second time, it came under intense anti-aircraft fire ("flak"). The lead B-24 immediately sustained heavy battle damage. It continued the bomb run, however, and toggled its ordnance, but was further damaged by multiple flak bursts. In all, four crewmen were wounded, three of the four engines were disabled, and fuel lines ruptured in the fuselage. In addition, one of the aircraft's bombs again failed to release. Immediately after bomb release, shrapnel from a final burst killed the aircraft commander and wounded Vance, nearly severing his right foot, which became wedged in cockpit framework behind the copilot's seat. In the chaos that followed, comments on the interphone led Vance to believe that the crew's radio operator, wounded in the legs, was too seriously injured to be evacuated.[12]

The B-24 lost altitude rapidly after the pilot was killed, but the wounded copilot regained controlled flight, preventing a stall by putting it into a steep glide to maintain airspeed. Despite shock from his own wound, Vance was able to assist the copilot in "feathering" the propellers, shutting down the over-strained fourth engine, and optimizing the glide of the crippled aircraft. The crew's "Mickey" operator, 2nd Lt. Bernard W. Bail, tried to dislodge Vance's pinned foot and applied a makeshift tourniquet.[13]

When the B-24 reached the English coast, it was too damaged to land safely. Vance ordered the crew to "bail out," and after most had complied, took the controls and turned the aircraft back over the channel, where the remainder parachuted into the sea. He decided to attempt a water landing in the belief that the injured radio operator was still on the aircraft, even though B-24s were notoriously ill-suited for "ditching."[14] From a semi-prone position over the power plant controls island between the crew seats, Vance flew the bomber mainly by use of ailerons and elevators, keeping a visual reference through the side window of the cockpit. Although the Liberator survived the ditching largely intact, its dorsal gun turret collapsed and pinned Vance inside the flooded cockpit as the bomber sank. An explosion blew him clear of the wreckage, however, and he was eventually able to inflate his Mae West. After searching for the radio operator, Vance swam towards shore. He was finally picked up by an RAF Air-Sea Rescue launch after fifty minutes.[8][15][16]

Nearly two months later, after receiving medical treatment in the United Kingdom, Vance was sent back to the United States on a C-54 Skymaster transport for further treatment and possible fitting of a prosthetic foot. The C-54 with all aboard disappeared on July 26, 1944, and was presumed to have crashed into the Atlantic Ocean between Iceland and Newfoundland.[8][17][18] The recommendation that he be awarded the Medal of Honor was confirmed in orders on January 4, 1945, but his widow requested that the awards ceremony be delayed until the medal could be presented to their daughter. On October 11, 1946, Major General James P. Hodges, commander of the 2nd Bomb Division when Vance was assigned to it, made the presentation to Sharon Vance, age 3½, at Enid Army Air Base.[7][19]

• List of Medal of Honor recipients

• Leon Vance at Find a Grave – cenotaph in Waukomis Cemetery, Oklahoma
• Leon Vance at Find a Grave – Name listing at the Cambridge American Cemetery and Memorial, England