Page 22 - Senior Link Magazine Fall 2018- Online Magazine
P. 22
Loyd Pierce
From Covered Wagon to Atomic
Bombs: A Navy Veteran’s Story
by Loyd Pierce as told to Dorinda Pierce
The following is a first-person account of the still
vivid memories of a Navy veteran from WWII:
full days and nights, never issued another P-Coat the
working four hours on rest of my service, and I almost
and four hours off, to froze to death.
load all the cargo.
“I was transferred to a Troop
“After the airplanes Transport APA 106 to invade
were loaded, we sailed Iwo Jima among 600 other ships
to Honolulu, Hawaii, surrounding the island. We lost
anchoring in the Fiji approximately 7,000 men during
Islands, where our first this battle, and about 20,000 more
invasion occurred at were wounded.
Guadalcanal, Saipan.
The Cruiser Atlanta “Okinawa was our fifth invasion.
came in from battle The first day, 300 Japanese
with a Japanese shell airplanes were shot down.
that had been shot
completely through “After the war ended, a few of us
the ship but never went to Nagasaki, which was the
exploded. target of the second atom bomb
dropped by the U.S. Walking
“Tarawa Islands through the damage, I noticed
was our second everything was melted except the
“ n 1923, my folks came to West invasion. More than factory smoke stacks which were
Texas in a covered wagon. I 1,200 American Marines were made of concrete.
Iwas born September 2, 1923, slaughtered because the tide was
in a brand-new barn, located in out, and the boats went aground! “On my birthday, September 2,
Draw, Texas, and was given the That was a hard lesson learned 1945, the war ended. I had the
name of Loyd Earl Pierce. about making sure the tide was honor of witnessing the signing
in before invading an island! of the Peace Treaty with Japan.
“I enlisted in the Navy June All the sailors had to man the
27, 1942. After leaving Dallas, “The Battle of Attu was where rails of the USS Hanford in dress
where I was sworn in, I had we dodged a torpedo from white uniforms. The signing
to board a train to San Diego, a Japanese took place on the USS Missouri.
California, to submarine. The I traveled all over the world –
endure six weeks American Naval from China to Nova Scotia. I was
of boot camp. planes sank the discharged from the Navy in
Then I was sent submarine the Newport, Rhode Island on May
to Bremington, next morning. The 18, 1948. During my service, I
Washington Naval Army soldiers went one complete year without
Base. The Navy were sent to Attu setting foot on land!”
commissioned without proper
the USS Nassau warm clothing Loyd married Ruth Bass in
Aircraft Carrier and began getting 1949, and daughter Yolanda
CVE No. 16 to hyperthermia. was born in 1957. He farmed in
transport bombs, One soldier didn’t Draw, Texas until 1963, when
fuel, ammunition even have a coat, they moved to Tahoka. After
and airplanes. so I gave him my the marriage ended in 1974, he
It took three P-Coat. I was married Reba Kahl who had a
son Kent. The couple moved
22 Lubbock Senior Link
