Many people believe that Ent Credit Union’s name is an acronym. In fact, the credit
union bears the name Maj. Gen. Uzal Girard Ent, a distinguished Army Air Forces
officer and World War II flying ace who commanded the Second Air Force, headquartered
in Colorado Springs.
Born March 3, 1900, in Pennsylvania, Ent served in the infantry for two years during
World War I. He was released in 1919 to attend West Point. Subsequently, he graduated
from the Chemical Warfare School at Edgewood Arsenal in Maryland and completed a
series of advanced pilot training courses.
He graduated in 1936 with a “heavier than air” pilot rating from the Air Corps Advanced Flying School at Kelly Field, Texas. He then completed several tactical and command courses. During this period, he served in positions that included post adjutant, recruiting officer, chief engineering officer and chief inspector.
In 1939, Ent became military and air attaché for the American Embassy in Lima, Peru, serving there until he was appointed chief of staff for the U.S. Air Forces in the Middle East in 1942. On Aug. 1, 1943, he led more than 175 B-24 Liberators of the Ninth Air Force in a spectacular daylight attack that destroyed Nazi oil refineries and installations at Ploesti, Romania.
When he returned to the United States in September 1943, Ent was assigned to Headquarters Second Air Force in Colorado Springs, located in a former tuberculosis sanatorium on East Boulder Street (the current site of the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Training Center). During World War II, the mission of Second Air Force was to train Army Air Forces heavy bomber and fighter groups. Ent became chief of staff and then Commanding General.
Ent was promoted to major general in June 1944. At that time, the Air Force was rapidly moving to advance its part in the Manhattan Project, developing nuclear bombs in New Mexico. Ent’s role was to oversee development of an operational squadron and combat group to drop the weapons, and he selected Lt. Col. Paul Tibbets to organize the group.
On Oct. 10, 1944, Ent was flying a B-25 bomber that developed engine trouble during takeoff from Fort Worth Army Air Base, Texas. Ent was able to make a belly landing, but he was severely injured when a propeller tore off and sliced through the cockpit. He suffered a broken back and 10 fractured ribs.
Ent was paralyzed from the waist down and retired due to his disability in 1946. But in the last two years of his life, he took courses in law, experimented with materials to invent lightweight braces for paraplegics and participated in medical research leading to advancements in prosthetics that are still being used. He wrote a book, “What’s My Score?”, to help paralyzed people make the most of their lives. When he died on March 5, 1948, at Fitzsimons General Hospital in Aurora, he was working on a plan for a village in Colorado that would house people with handicaps and their families.
During his lifetime, Ent was well-liked and, at one point, was mentioned as a potential Republican candidate for U.S. president.
In 1951, the Air Force opened Ent Air Force Base on the site where Ent had commanded the Second Air Force. The base was the headquarters of NORAD from 1957 to 1963, when NORAD moved to the Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station. Thereafter, the base was known as the Ent Annex to the Cheyenne Mountain facility.
In 1957, about a dozen service members stationed at the base decided they wanted to start a credit union.
“It was a pretty simple thing to do back then,” says Matt Gendron, former chief engagement officer at Ent Credit Union. “They put together about $300 and went through the proper procedures” to obtain a federal charter.
“In March 1957, Ent Federal Credit Union was born,” Gendron says. “The founders named it after the general because they liked what his life embodied and the values of courage and service and resilience.”
After the base closed in 1976, its barracks became athlete housing, and the former NORAD building housed the U.S. Olympic Committee’s headquarters. The credit union grew to become Colorado’s largest, with more than half a million members and nearly $10 billion in assets as of December 2025.
Ent Credit Union’s name soon will change, after its merger with Wings Credit Union. But Ent’s legacy of service, education and resilience continues in the new entity, Gendron says.
The general’s name also lives on at the Ent Center for the Arts — the credit union was a major donor for its construction. A street at Peterson Space Force Base is called Ent Street, and the credit union took extraordinary measures to name the street that runs to its headquarters Ent Parkway. That name will remain, Gendron says.