U.S. Air Force Gen. Roger A. Brady visits his old base in Enid
Commander oversees activities in Europe, other continents

BY BRYAN PAINTER Comments 0
Published: November 3, 2009

ENID — The man who has made a career in the air and by leading U.S. Air Force efforts at home and abroad stood on familiar ground Monday at Vance Air Force Base in Enid.

Gen. Roger A. Brady Commander U.S. Air Forces in Europe talks to the media on Monday, Nov. 2, 2009, at Vance Air Force Base in Enid, Okla. Brady, who grew up in Midwest City, is responsible for Air Force activities in a theater spanning three continents covering more than 20 million square mile, 92 countries and territories, and possessing one-fourth of the worlds population. Photo by Chris Landsberger, The Oklahoman

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U.S. Air Force Gen. Roger A. Brady, commander of U.S. Air Forces in Europe, is responsible for an Air Force activities area that spans three continents which includes about one-eighth of the world’s population.

But Sunday he drove past a boyhood home in Enid and on Monday afternoon he met with members of the media, talking primarily about what hasn’t changed since he was a student in undergraduate pilot training at Vance from July 1972 to October 1973.

"It’s always been a very high-class base for us,” the four-star general said. "Enid has always been an extraordinary community. I’ll never forget when I was a student here you always get an in-brief about how to behave yourself when you come off base. And one of the things they always told us was how good the relationship was with Enid and to not do anything to mess it up.”

He talked about what hasn’t changed on the training level. Overall, he said he spent about nine years of his career either as a student or instructor "doing what they do here at Vance.”

"So I have a great affinity for it. Nobody cares who your dad was or where you came from or how much money you’ve got or where you went to school or any of those things. It’s a great opportunity for our young people and they can do as much as they want to do here. It’s just a great microcosm, I think, of the very best of America.”

Home to Oklahoma

In addition to visiting Vance Air Force Base, he spoke Monday evening to the Enid Air Force Association Chapter 214 Community Partners Dinner at the Cherokee Strip Conference Center in Enid.

Brady, whose current home is Ramstein Air Base, Germany, had returned home, not only to Enid, but Oklahoma as a whole. He graduated from Midwest City High School and earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Oklahoma in 1968. At OU he was part of the ROTC program, which led to him being commissioned as an Air Force officer in 1969. Then he returned to Enid for the undergraduate pilot training at Vance. But even the end of that stay, held certain memories.

Referred to as the Oct. 11, 1973, Enid flood, the rain actually began the previous evening and continued into the morning hours. It is still the most rainfall in one day in Oklahoma — 15.68 inches at Enid.

"It was just days or a couple of weeks or so before our graduation,” he said. "We had a couple of guys in the class that didn’t come to graduation because they didn’t have a uniform. In fact, I was one of two captains in the class, and the guy in the other section, the captain, was one of the guys that did not come to graduation because he did not have anything to wear.”

Duties in Europe

"Our primary mission in Europe, as U.S. Air Forces Europe, is to feed forces to Afghanistan and Iraq,” he said. "As part of global force management our units rotate into Afghanistan, Iraq and other places at the same rate that units in the continental U.S. do.

U.S. Air Forces in Europe consists of seven bases along with 70 geographically separate locations. More than 39,000 active-duty, Reserve, Air National Guard and civilian employees are assigned to U.S. Air Forces in Europe.

Brady also spoke about a respect he has seen shown in Europe to Americans that has historical ties.

"The blood of a lot of Americans is in the soil of Europe and the Europeans have not forgotten that,” he said. "So regardless of what the politics may or may not be from one nation to another people receive us very gladly.”