Lloyd was born on August 21, 1919, in South

Dakota, one of five children.  He married

Luverne Nelson on June 28, 1942, and then

headed off to fight in World War II.  He served

as flight officer and copilot of  the Rum Boogie. His squadron flew missions out of Grafton Underwood, Andrews Field

and Snetterton Heath in England.

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During bombing missions, the B17 bombers

flew in formations during daylight hours

and were at the mercy of German fighter

planes and intense ground fire because

supporting Allied fighters could not fly the

long distances to German targets.  Lloyd and

the Rum Boogie Crew participated in the famous two part bombing raid to Regensburg, where a German airplane factory was destroyed, then continued on to North Africa (see Mission #21 on this website).  His 25th and final raid was over Bordeaux France, a tiring 11 1/2 hour flight, and the longest he had made.  He said the return to base was one of the happiest days of his life.  He felt fortunate to complete 25 missions when so many others did not (the mortality rate of crew members on B17's in 1943 was about one in five), but also said he felt terrible that so many innocent civilians were killed in the bombing raids.  The 96th Bomb Group received two Presidential Unit Citations, and Lloyd was awarded the Air Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters, a Distinguished Flying Cross, and commissioned a Lieutenant.

 

Lloyd returned to Webster in 1943, where he received a hometown hero’s reception, and then joined his family in California.  In 1944, he was deployed as a flight instructor in the states.  Later that year, he was sent to Tinian Island in the Pacific as an assistant operations manager where he watched the Enola Gay leave for Japan with the atomic bomb aboard.  He was then assigned to fly to Guam where he picked up a top-secret package that contained the medals and citations for Enola Gay crew members.

 

After the war, Lloyd moved back to Webster where he worked many different jobs including owner/operator of a gas station.  While his son John was in high school, Lloyd was the Bay County Sheriff, from 1960 to 1964.  John told me his father was a very understanding person and pretty forgiving.  Lloyd also served in the South Dakota National Guard for over 20 years and retired from it as a Lieutenant Colonel. 

 

Later on, one of Lloyd's uncles, who had been in a prison camp during the war, opened up a hardware store in Garden City, Kansas.  At that time Lloyd was burned out on his job as sheriff, and when offered a job in the hardware store, he accepted.  He worked there until retirement.  Lloyd battled colon cancer but survived six more years, eventually dying of kidney failure.