As the demand for pilots decreased with the end of the war in Europe, the Enid Army Flying Field began ramping down pilot production and deactivated on 31 January 1947, by which time 9,895 Army Air Force pilots had earned wings there. 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. Two years later the Soviet Union blockaded Berlin, Germany, and President Harry S. Truman ordered an airlift to resupply the city. The U.S. Air Force, realizing a need for training facilities, asked Welsh if any World War II airfields remained in inventory. He exhumed the Enid AAF folder, and the base was reactivated on August 1, 1948, as Enid Air Force Base. On July 9, 1949, the base was renamed for Lieutenant Colonel Leon R. Vance, USAAF, an Enid native who was awarded the Medal of Honor in World War II.