Leon Vance

55

Leon Vance : biography

August 11, 1916 – July 26, 1944

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.

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."{} p. 215 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.

Early life and family

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

Vance was considered an above-average student and a great athlete. 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. He averaged a 94 percent in mathematics.

Vance attended Oklahoma University for two years, becoming a member of Phi Delta Theta. After his sophomore year, Vance entered the United States Military Academy on July 1, 1935, as a member of the Class of 1939. A 1999 article in U.S. News and 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. 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.

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. p. 144