The base is named after local World War II hero and Medal of Honor recipient, Lieutenant Colonel Leon Robert Vance Jr.

United States Army Air Corps project officer, Major Henry W. Dorr supervised the construction and developed the basic pilot training base.

In 1941, for the sum of $1 a year, this land was leased from the city of Enid to the federal government as a site for a pilot training field, and on November 21 the base was officially activated.

The mission of the school was to train aviation cadets to become aircraft pilots and commissioned officers in the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF).

[2] In 1946, Alva, Oklahoma native Floyd E. Welsh, the War Surplus Property Officer in Washington, D.C., had pigeonholed the Enid AAF folder when it crossed his desk for disposal action.

The United States Air Force (USAF), realizing a need for training facilities, asked Welsh if any World War II airfields remained in inventory.

Following the establishment of the United States Air Force as a separate service in September 1947, Enid AFB-turned-Vance AFB began conducting training in the AT-6 Texan and eventually the T-33 Shooting Star.

Joint training with the United States Navy (USN) and United States Marine Corps (USMC) began at Vance in 1996, with select USN and USMC strike jet student naval aviators obtaining all training at Vance in the T-37 and T-38 except for carrier qualification, which they subsequently complete in the T-45 Goshawk at Naval Air Station Meridian, Mississippi or NAS Kingsville, Texas.