New Commander Coming To Vance Air Force Base

ENID, Okla. (AP) _ Vance Air Force Base will get a new commander in September. <br/><br/>Col. Richard Klumpp Jr. will come to the northwest Oklahoma base from Scott Air Force Base in Illinois. He will

Saturday, July 29th 2006, 1:37 pm

By: News On 6

ENID, Okla. (AP) _ Vance Air Force Base will get a new commander in September.

Col. Richard Klumpp Jr. will come to the northwest Oklahoma base from Scott Air Force Base in Illinois. He will replace Col. Bryan Benson as the new head of the 71st Flying Training Wing in a change of command ceremony on Sept. 15.

Under Benson, Vance opened the first phase of new enlisted housing and came through the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure process unscathed. A new aircraft, the T-6A Texan II, joined Vance's training fleet while Benson was in charge and a $15 million consolidated logistics center opened in March on the base near Enid.

Benson, who has been Vance's commander since February 2005, will become executive officer to the commander of Air Mobility Command at Scott Air Force Base.

Klumpp, who is the vice commander of the 375th Airlift Wing at Scott, will become the 32nd commander of the 71st Flying Training Wing. Since October 1991, the wing commander has also assumed the duties of base commander.

Klumpp has more than 2,800 flying hours and has served as military aide to vice presidents Al Gore and Dick Cheney and chief of airlift operations for the United Nations department of peacekeeping operations. He served as an instructor pilot, flight commander and assistant operations officer of the 26th Flying Training Squadron at Vance from September 1988 to April 1992. The squadron was deactivated in October 1992.