Lloyd Martin
Era: World War II
Military Branch: Army
Lloyd A. Martin of Virginia, Minnesota enlisted in the Army on March 12, 1941.
He was a Private First Class and a truck driver with the 8th Field Artillery Observation Battalion in Normandy, southern France, Ardennes, Rhineland and Central Europe. He landed on Omaha Beach in Normandy on D-plus-10.
"While we were in Normandy, a colonel tried to get me to go out and get a transit the Germans had left behind when they retreated. I told him there were probably mines all around it. That transit sat there for three months and nobody touched it."
He remained in Frankfurt, Germany after the war as military policeman with occupation forces. Returned to continental United States, Fitzsimmons Army General Hospital in Denver. Here his wife-to-be, Jane Tieberg, was a WAC X-ray technician.
"We''d known each other a little before the war, but I stood right there in front of her and she didn''t recognize me. It wasn't until about three hours later when someone told her there was someone upstairs who had a picture of her next to his bed that we got reintroduced."
Mr. Martin received the: Good Conduct Medal, American Defense Service Medal, American Campaign Medal, European-African-Middle East Campaign Medal with a silver battle star (for five campaigns), Army of Occupation Service Medal (Germany) and three overseas service bars.
He was discharged Apr. 28, 1946 at Fort Sheridan, Ill.
Source: Hometown Heroes: The St. Louis County World War II Project. 193.
