Team Vance loses friend Published Jan. 11, 2007 By Public Affairs Public Affairs Vance Air Force Base, Okla. -- Team Vance lost a friend and alumnus Sunday with the passing of Enid Mayor Irv Honigsberg. Mayor Honigsberg died Sunday of complications from pulmonary fibrosis. The mayor's association with Vance Air Force Base went back to 1950 when he was a member of class 50E. Following training in the T-6, then 2nd Lt Honigsberg graduated from advanced multi-engine flight training on Sept. 15, 1950. Following service in Europe and Africa, the Silver Spring, Md. native settled in Enid in 1953. "Mayor Honigsberg certainly made my job much easier," said Bob Farrell, Vance AFB chief of community relations. "He always took the lead for the community in upgrading the quality of life for military personnel, both on and off base. Always quick to agree to whatever request was made of him, from reading to pre-schoolers during National Library Week about being a mayor, to attending meetings at the base on a number of issues, his gracious demeanor made everyone feel as though they had known him for a long time." The mayor was a familiar face at Vance AFB, showing his support and representing the city at such recent events as the groundbreaking for new housing, the opening of the T-1 hangar and the Oklahoma Area Six Special Olympics hosted by the base. (71 FTW Public Affairs)