Leon Vance

Leon Robert Vance, Jr.
Lt. Col Leon Vance, Medal of Honor recipient
Nickname(s)	"Bob", "Philo"
Born	(1916-08-11)August 11, 1916 Enid, Oklahoma
Died	July 26, 1944(1944-07-26) (aged 27) Between Iceland and Newfoundland
Memorial – Wall of the Missing	Cambridge American Cemetery and Memorial Cambridge, England
Allegiance	United States of America
Service/branch	United States Army Air Forces
Years of service	1939–1944
Rank	Lieutenant Colonel
Unit	489th Bombardment Group
Battles/wars	World War II
Awards	Medal of Honor Purple Heart

Leon Robert "Bob" Vance, Jr. (August 11, 1916 – July 26, 1944) was a Medal of Honor recipient who served in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II.

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 the University of Oklahoma 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.