Lloyd Guillory was born in Berwick, Louisiana in 1925 and lived there until 1935. He had three older sisters. In 1935, his family moved to Morgan City. There was a high school in Morgan City, unlike Berwick. The family home in Berwick had flooded in the Great Flood of 1927. Guillory had fallen off the front porch of the family home into the flood waters. He was saved by a man of color who was an assistant to a family friend. Guillory has never had a problem with diversity of individuals as a result. His earliest memories go back to 1928 or 1929, when his father went to work for the Mayo Brothers from Rochester. The brothers were famous doctors. [Annotator's Note: Will and Charlie Mayo along with other doctors who shared their medical practice established the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. The Mayo Clinic is widely regarded as one of the premier hospitals in the world.] His father was a first class engine mechanic. A 120 foot yacht called the North Star was owned by the Mayo brothers. During the winter months, the yacht would be sent south and the brothers would ride a train to join up with it. When the yacht broke down on one trip, it was sent to Berwick for repairs. Guillory's father was selected to fix the vessel. After the repair was completed, Guillory's father was hired as the Chief Mechanic on the North Star and was on the Mayo brothers' payroll from 1929 to 1932. He made 300 dollars per month, ten times that of the average worker. People looked upon them as being affluent. They, in fact, were well off compared to others. Guillory had a toy car acquired for him while there were people literally starving in the community. The Guillory family often went to Minnesota to spend the summers. They stayed in Wabasha, where the yacht was stored. The work with the Mayo brothers terminated in 1931 after the yacht was sold because of the impact of the Depression. The family moved to Morgan City in 1935. Morgan City was a nice town but not a lot of things of interest occurred there. There were large shipyards and dry-docks there. Those places brought Morgan City out of the Depression. Guillory graduated from high school in 1941. He worked after school as a bell hop at a hotel owned by a family friend while in high school. After high school graduation, he worked in a grocery store but was not satisfied with that so he went to work in the shipyard. When war was declared in 1941, Guillory was only 16 years old. The draft age at that time was 21 years of age. Guillory told a coworker that he did not think he would get in the war because he thought the conflict would end before he reached draft age. He was wrong. When a supervisor overheard that Guillory was only 16 years old, he was told he was not old enough to work in the shipyard. He walked next door to the Navy Department who hired him as a Junior Inspector of Construction. He had never inspected anything before, but that was the way wartime industry worked. He stayed at that job until he almost reached 18 years old. Guillory had always had the flying bug. When he was 16 years old, he had attempted to join the RCAF, Royal Canadian Air Force, but was not accepted. He was told to wait until he was 18 years old. Guillory received a secondary appointment to Annapolis, but the individual with the primary appointment had to flunk out before Guillory could replace him. Since Guillory was nearing the age of 18 where he would be draft eligible, he went to Lafayette to investigate naval air corps entry. Guillory wanted to be an aircraft carrier pilot. After being tested for color acuity, the recruiter determined that Guillory had a strange case of color perception. He could not be accepted for the pilot training, in fact the Navy would not accept him. Guillory then attempted to enter the United States Army Air Corps. He went to New Orleans to get his physical. While waiting for his examination, he met an individual that remained his friend throughout his life. His name was Philip W. Hopeman [Annotator's Note: unsure of spelling]. Guillory's new acquaintance was a graduate aeronautical engineer. The new friend's father was an Air Force general. As they talked, Guillory revealed his color perception problems and his new friend disclosed that he could not read the eye chart. They both agreed to memorize the correct answers to relay to the other. They succeeded in passing the tests and getting into the Air Force by way of their memorizing and disclosing the correct answers to their new friend. Guillory never had any problems with colors for the rest of his life. Guillory opines that he may not have survived the war had he become a carrier pilot. The Navy was introducing pilots into the carriers as fast as they could get them trained, but the Air Force had so many pilots that they did not have room for them. Hopeman and Guillory kept their friendships through shared training period together. The two men were separated after they went overseas, but they were reunited on the return trip to the United States after the war. Guillory's friend became chief test pilot for McDonnell on the F-4 Phantom program. The two men were friends until the day Hopeman died.

Lloyd Guillory joined the Air Force and was shipped to Sheppard Field in Texas. It was a hell hole for Guillory. There were 100,000 men there. The facility was used to test the men to see who could handle the training. They were awake at four o'clock in the morning. The first two hours were not used for anything productive. The streets were black top between two story dormitories. The dormitories were everywhere. The men would sleep on the curb until chow time. The food was terrible. He lived on chocolate milk from the PX [Annotator's Note: post exchange]. His mother had told him that he would enjoy the food in the Army. She was wrong. Guillory spent six weeks at Sheppard Field. He had a miserable drill instructor who made soldiers out of them. After Sheppard, Guillory was sent to Kent State College which became famous for a shooting there. [Annotator's Note: Kent State College, in Kent, Ohio, was the site of a Vietnam War era anti-war demonstration where Ohio National Guardsmen opened fire on unarmed college students.] The town of Kent was a beautiful town. There were no military establishments there. There was only a College Training Detachment, CTD, there. The local populace would invite the young trainees into their home for meals because they reminded them of their own boys off in the service. There was six weeks of class, PT [Annotator's Note: physical training], metrology, and navigation training. Some of the training courses that he took would later be used as credits when he received his college degree from Louisiana State University. Guillory soloed in Piper Cubs [Annotator's Note: Piper J-3 Cub light trainer aircraft] during that time. He did ten hours of solo flight. That was the first time he had flown. He vomited on his first flight. Most of the trainees did so, too. The novices learned that they could not do so after that initial flight and succeed in the training. That was the last time Guillory ever vomited. From the training center in Kent, Guillory and other aviation students went to San Antonio, Texas to Randolph Field. The field was known as the West Point of the Air. The trainees were given multiple complex tests. Following the tests, the cadets were sent across the street to Kelley Field. On Saturday morning, there were inspirational parades with 10,000 cadets. Afterward, the cadets were released to go into town. It was the only time the trainees could go into San Antonio. The cadets were required to perform extensive PT exercises. It included doing 104 sit ups. It made the stomach very sore the next day. The men had to do 24 pull ups and really get in shape. After San Antonio, the trainees were sent to Coleman, Texas and then on to Brady, Texas. Brady was an interesting town where locals wore six shooters on their hips. It was an old Wild West town. The instructors were civilians. Mr. Tate was a memorable civilian instructor for Guillory while he was at Brady. In Coleman, Guillory flew PT-19 [Annotator's Note: Fairchild PT-19 primary trainer aircraft] low wing, 200 horsepower monoplane trainer aircraft with fixed landing gear. It was not a very exciting airplane. He saw snow for the first time in Coleman that January [Annotator's Note: January 1944]. In south Louisiana, Guillory had never seen a snowfall. The townspeople of Coleman were very nice. In basic training, Guillory flew BT-13 or BT-15 airplanes [Annotator's Note: Vultee BT-13 and BT-15 Valiant basic trainer aircraft] dependant on which engine was installed. The two were basically the same aircraft. That was when Mr. Tate aided Guillory in his early flying experience. When Guillory was flying with Tate at night, Guillory observed the flames from the engine area and thought they were on fire. Tate laughed and reassured him that it was only the engine exhaust the young man was observing. From Brady, the trainees went to advanced training to determine whether the new pilots would be fighter or bomber pilots. Guillory wanted to be a fighter pilot. He wanted to shoot down enemy planes. He proceeded to advanced training at Eagle Pass, Texas. Eagle Pass was an ugly place on the Rio Grande River in southern Texas. The pilots flew AT-6 [Annotator's Note: North American AT-6 Texan advanced trainer aircraft] aircraft there. At one time, the AT-6 had been a fighter aircraft with a .30 caliber machine gun in each wing. It had adjustable propellers and retractable landing gear. The men started cross country navigation and acrobatics. Guillory loved the acrobatics and maneuvers. The final test was in acrobatics and Guillory was complimented on his performance. It was decided that he would go on to fighter training. On 4 August 1944, Guillory got his wings in Eagle Pass, Texas. Not one of his family members were there to witness the ceremony, but a pretty young girl offered to pin his wings on him. She did so and kissed him on his cheek and walked out of his life forever. Guillory was touched by her generosity. He became a commissioned officer at that point. He could now eat in the Eagle Pass officer club overlooking the Rio Grande. The town was not much to see. After two trips into town, he had seen all there was to see.

Lloyd Guillory and the other new pilots were told that they would initially train in P-40s [Annotator's Note: Curtiss P-40 Warhawk fighter aircraft] but would be sent overseas in the P-51 [Annotator's Note: North American P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft]. He thought he had died and gone to heaven when he heard that news. The P-51 was the most advanced propeller aircraft of World War 2. The P-40 was flown by the American Volunteers. [Annotator's Note: The 1st American Volunteer Group, also known as the Flying Tigers, was a cadre of pilots under the command of then Colonel Claire Lee Chennault fighting for the Chinese Nationalist Army prior to the entry of the United States in World War 2 and immediately thereafter.] When Guillory first flew the P-40, there was no instructor. He was in the cockpit alone. Before he was allowed to fly the fighter, he was given a few hours to study the cockpit and its equipment and gauges. He was then blindfolded and asked to explain the internals of the cockpit. Once he accomplished that successfully, the instructor told him to go ahead and fly. He was ready to go. On the occasion of his first landing, he ground looped. The air controller likely had a good laugh at the young lieutenant and his landing. [Annotator's Note: While landing or taxiing an airplane, one wing tip may rise above the opposite side wing tip resulting in the lower tip touching or grinding into the soft earth.] Guillory learned how to handle the aircraft after that. He had ten hours of training in P-40s. Next, Guillory and the other new pilots were told that they were going to Florida for overseas training for combat. Instead, they went to Harding Field in Baton Rouge. Although it had barracks, it was not a military field. They did nothing there. From Harding, they were sent to Columbus, Mississippi. They lost three months in this process of killing time. Otherwise, Guillory might have had more combat stories to tell. The new pilots were allowed to fly enough so they would qualify for flying pay. Flying pay was 50 percent higher than base pay. Flying pay was sacred for pilots. Florida was reached only in January 1945. They had lost three months of potential combat missions. Combat was actually what the new pilots longed for. They reached Winter Haven, Florida. The airfield there was Bartow Field. The men were assigned P-51s to fly. The orange blossoms were in bloom at the time and could be smelled from above while the pilots flew over them. Winter Haven was a beautiful resort town nearby. It was an enjoyable stay in Bartow. The new pilots were officers who could enter the officers club. They were flying P-51s which was a dream come true. They could go see the mermaids at the Cyprus Gardens resort. The pilots got very confident in their abilities. So much so, that Guillory nearly tore the wings off of his fighter. He could physically feel the controls of his aircraft. It is different from today where a pilot flies with the use of computers. They learned how to land with a tactical approach. A tactical approach is used to expedite landing of aircraft during an emergency. The plane approaches the landing at 150 miles per hour but instead of landing, the aircraft makes a circle for a second approach to touch down. They learned to fly by the seat of their pants. The men also studied aerial gunnery. One ship would carry a sleeve for the other aircraft to fire at. The pilots took turns carrying the sleeve behind their airplane on cables. Each plane fired different colored rounds to determine who was firing accurately. Flying at 36,000 feet over Bartow, Guillory was able to see the Gulf of Mexico on one side of the Florida peninsula and the Atlantic Ocean on the other side. At that altitude, it was very hard to hit the target because of the mushing effect in the thin air. That effect on the airplanes threw them off their target. In combat, fights were generally below 6,000 feet so that would not be a problem. Nevertheless, the pilots became very proficient in the P-51s. During one night flying action, Guillory nearly killed himself. He decided to turn over his airplane at 20,000 feet and see what it could do. While descending, he reached speeds of 600 miles per hour and the plane started buffeting. The buffeting effect can occur when the airplane hits high speeds near the speed of sound. Guillory had reached the point of being afraid of tearing the wings off the plane. When he pulled out of the descent, he blacked out for a few seconds. The blood flow had left his brain. The event had scared him. The pilots left Bartow in May [Annotator's Note: May 1945]. After rumors spread of multiple potential destinations from India to Alaska to Louisiana and others, the men finally learned that they would be shipped to the West Coast by train for ultimate assignment to New Guinea. There was no air conditioning so the pilots rode a troop train with open windows from Florida to San Francisco. The smoke from the steam locomotive blackened their faces. After cleaning up, they flew to Hawaii in LB-30 aircraft [Annotator's Note: the Consolidated LB-30 Liberator was a cargo carrier variant of the B-24 Liberator heavy bomber]. As a second lieutenant at 19 years old, he attempted to enter a bar in San Francisco but was refused. It was his first touch of insult as an officer.

Lloyd Guillory flew aboard an LB-30 [Annotator's Note: the Consolidated LB-30 Liberator cargo aircraft was a variant of the B-24 Liberator heavy bomber] aircraft from San Francisco to Hickam Field near Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Not able to see Hawaii at all, Guillory was then flown to the Marshall Islands and Tarawa. Tarawa was a hot spot in the war, but by that time there were chocolate shakes at the PX [Annotator's Note: post exchange]. The first landing in the area was at Biak which was a small island near New Guinea. It was a wild place. It was north of Australia. The Australians during the war were a wild bunch of people. This was true especially of the Australian pilots. They had access to ice and soft drink machines. They even managed to get 150 proof alcohol. They told Guillory to mix it with Coca Cola. It got him drunk. Guillory woke him up in the middle of that night for a flight. He had to have a vomit container between his legs because of being sick from the drink. New Guinea was wild, too. It had head hunters on it. The natives even ate a famous Rockefeller son who was lost there. [Annotator's Note: An inconclusive theory has been presented that Michael Clark Rockefeller, the son of former New York governor Nelson Rockefeller, died due to cannibalism in this region.] Rain was a so heavy in the camp that one night the men even watched a movie with ponchos over them. The 100 percent wool Army blankets would stink as they got wet. The food was not good. The chicken that was served was very tough meat to eat. The religious service for mass that was held outdoors was under very primitive conditions. It was a miserable life there. When Guillory learned he was leaving, he was tickled to death.

Lloyd Guillory made one flight against Rabaul. Rabaul was a Japanese airfield that was a very hot spot. It was bypassed because it was too difficult to capture. The airmen were told that they were headed to the Philippines. They landed on Leyte which had been bypassed at that time. It was a shock to Guillory when he saw an old Filipino grandmother waiting with a bucket to pick through the residue left by the Americans so that she could eat. The Japanese tore up the island terribly. Manila had been completely destroyed. They slept at Clark Field one night and then were told that they were headed to Ie-Shima [Annotator's Note: Ie-Shima is a small island off of Okinawa]. There were three airstrips on Ie-Shima and the Air Force wanted to get hold of it. The formation of the island made it favorable for aircraft operations. Only two miles wide and five miles long, its geography benefited take offs. It was like flying off an aircraft carrier. Plus, the close proximity of only 450 miles from the major home islands of Japan made flight from there so easy that maps were not needed to navigate to the targets. A pilot merely followed the chain of islands north to his destination. The islands were like stepping stones to Kyushu [Annotator's Note: Kyushu is the southernmost of the major Japanese home islands]. Maps were not needed once the pilot had a mental picture of the home islands. Ie-Shima had just been conquered. One of the first things Guillory saw was a Japanese soldier who had been decapitated. The famous war correspondent, Ernie Pyle, had just been shot through the head a few days before. Guillory saw his burial place. Guillory had one month with nine missions in combat flying off of Ie-Shima. Once the atomic bombs were dropped, hostilities ceased. Missions were flown but they were not combat missions. On his first combat mission, Guillory flew to the Japanese homeland. The enemy antiaircraft fire was very accurate. As he approached the enemy coast at 20,000 feet, he saw the puffs of smoke which indicated antiaircraft fire. The flight leader told his squadron to break up and head for the clouds. Guillory made it to a cloud bank but could not see anything in it. When he left the clouds, he could not see anyone around him. He was frightened. Most every day, there was antiaircraft fire over Japan. Only one time did a Zero [Annotator's Note: Mitsubishi A6M fighter aircraft, known as the Zero or Zeke] fire at him.

Lloyd Guillory had two eventful missions he would never forget. On a mission before he reached Ie-Shima, Guillory flew into a flight of Zeros [Annotator's Note: Mitsubishi A6M fighter aircraft, known as the Zero or Zeke]. The Japanese knew the end of the war was near. Some of the best planes and pilots were being saved to defend the home islands. Guillory had a dogfight with a Zero. They were flying toward each other at a combined closing speed of 600 miles per hour. They fired on each other and Guillory could see his tracers going into the enemy plane. Guillory knew the enemy airplane could turn faster than his P-51 [Annotator's Note: North American P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft]. That would allow the Zero to get on Guillory's tail for a shot at him. He was concerned about the amount of fuel in his fuel tanks. Test pilots found out and informed pilots that with too much fuel in the main fuselage tank, a P-51 was subject to instability during a violent maneuvers. [Annotator's Note: Guillory uses a model of a P-51 Mustang to illustrate the different fuel tanks on the aircraft.] Even though Guillory had not bled his fuselage tank down, he pulled his Mustang around the Zero. In doing so, his fighter stalled and began a flat spin descent at 1,500 feet. He was over a Japanese airfield while this dogfight was happening. The course of events took anywhere from five to ten seconds before he realized he could not recover from the spin being experienced. He made his mind up that he was going to die. He had two options. He could bail out over the Japanese airfield and likely be killed, decapitated, and maybe even eaten. They loved to eat pilots and loved to eat the liver of the pilots. The book Flyboy tells about cannibalism on the island of Chichi-jima. President George H.W. Bush was the sole survivor of this incident. A submarine picked him up while four of the downed airmen were eaten by the Japanese on the island. [Annotator's Note: Flyboys: A True Story of Courage was written by James Bradley and tells the story of ten airmen shot down during raids over Japan. Nine of the ten were captured with some of the victims eaten partially by their captors. The tenth man was Bush. He was rescued by the submarine USS Finback (SS-230). Bush would go on to be the 43rd President of the United States of America.] The other option for Guillory in his out of control Mustang was to go down with the plane and die a gallant death. He thought about the two options. Then he remembered his mother. She would have a rough time getting over his death. He decided to attempt a spin recovery by kicking everything in the cockpit. After he did so, he noticed that the controls began to tighten up. He felt that he could get the airplane back under his control. He got the plane righted and survived. Meanwhile, the pursuing enemy Zero was chased and downed by a squadron mate of Guillory [Annotator's Note: Guillory was a member of the 340th Fighter Squadron, 348th Fighter Group]. Guillory may have had an assist on the downing of the aggressor, but he made no claim on it because his gun camera film did not come back that day so he felt he had no justification for making a claim. This all took place on the one day when Guillory thought he was going to die. The other very eventful day was when Guillory flew to Kyushu [Annotator's Note: Kyushu is the southernmost of the major Japanese home islands]. The mission took him to the northeast coast where Beppu Bay was located. He had a briefing in the morning by the intelligence force. After returning, the pilots would be debriefed by the same intelligence men. The morning briefing indicated to the pilots where they were going plus the type of opposition and weather to expect. For the Beppu Bay mission, the pilots were told to leave the two Japanese carriers at the dock alone. There would be a railroad marshalling yard for them to attack. They were to leave the passenger cars alone but go after the locomotives. They flew the mission and left the carriers alone but attacked the locomotives. While going after the locomotives, they spotted civilians spilling out of the train. When asked if he ever killed Japanese, Guillory responded that he did not know nor did he want to know if he did. On the return trip to base, the pilots were to fire on targets of opportunity including offshore fishing boats. The boats might be fishing but they might also be military observation boats. After landing, the pilots began their critique of the mission. That was where it got interesting. The pilots reported that the sky was all red. The next day, President Truman [Annotator's Note: President Harry S. Truman] announced the dropping of the atomic bomb. It turned out that the mission on Beppu Bay was 75 miles from Hiroshima. The atomic bomb was dropped while Guillory was strafing the trains. Critics of the dropping of the bomb talk about the 80,000 people killed, but they never talk about the nights of 10 and 11 March and the Tokyo firebombing by 300 bombers. The B-29 [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-29 Superfortress very heavy bomber] bombers killed 100,000 people at that time. Even after Hiroshima, the Japanese would not surrender so three days later; another bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. The Japanese military controlled the country's direction during this time. The Emperor was a wimp. He followed Tojo's direction. When the Japanese were told that more atomic bombs were coming, they surrendered. The Japanese had never heard the Emperor speak, but he did so to make his people understand the necessity of surrender. Looking back at Chichi-jima, it was a perfect location for a radio station. The Japanese officers would order their men to kill downed Allied airmen and extract the liver for consumption. It was a gory situation.

Lloyd Guillory was sent to Japan near Kanagawa two weeks after the war ended. Things were disorganized. The squadron [Annotator's Note: 340th Fighter Squadron, 348th Fighter Group] had no kitchen facilities, so the men resorted to buying food on the black market or stealing it from the local population. Improvements came when the squadron was billeted in a luxury hotel. A buddy even found race horses for them to use. When asked how he requisitioned the animals, the friend said that he signed his name as Errol Flynn [Annotator's Note: Errol Flynn was a popular matinee idol during this period.] There were even Japanese girls who would clean the airmen's rooms. The good life in the luxury hotel did not last long. An infantry colonel with more service tenure than the airmens' commanding colonel relocated the squadron out of the hotel so the Army could take it over. The airmen initially went into tents but eventually relocated to a large dormitory. Not knowing what to expect in Japan, the Americans were surprised with the local population being very docile. If they had bad feelings, they hid it. Americans did not treat them badly as they had been told they would. A buddy of Guillory had been a hotel administration management major in college. He was now a P-51 [Annotator's Note: North American P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft] pilot, but he became a manager for the hotel. There was a Japanese girl who helped the airmen named Ishi [Annotator's Note: there is no specific spelling given for the girl's name]. She requested a can of Pet milk from Guillory for a friend who was pregnant. Guillory gave her a case of milk instead of just a can. That is the way Americans are. Each serviceman needed 35 points before they could return home. While in Japan, Guillory would fly missions over Korea. This was before the onset of the Korean War. The capital of Korea at this time was called Keijo, not Seoul. While on a mission flying to Korea, Guillory found he had to relieve himself. There is a method of doing so in a fighter that allows urination without backflow into the aircraft. In using the device on this flight, however, the urine flow was pushed back into the plane rather than being suctioned to the exterior of the plane. When Guillory returned to his base, he was aggravated with his crew chief. The chief explained that the urination tube had been put into position in the opposite direction as was intended. Guillory and the chief moved passed the issue. [Annotator's Note: Guillory laughs over the incident.] Things in Japan were very lax during the postwar period. There was ample opportunity for officers to tour the country by requisitioning a jeep for a weekend day. Guillory visited several cities and had firsthand experience with them. He saw their temples and architecture. At that point, Guillory became interested in architectural designs. Prior to arriving in Japan, Guillory had no idea about becoming an architect. He fell in love with Japanese architecture with its woodwork and temples. In the spring of 1946, Guillory was still flying his P-51 in Japan, waiting to reach his 35 point threshold to return home. The flyers got the word that from thence forward, the pilots would have to maintain their aircraft since the crew chiefs were going home. The pilots refused to take the responsibility. They were given L-5 observations aircraft to maintain their flight hours. The P-51s had been flown over Japan after the war just to provide an observable presence of the American armed forces. Finally, the flyers reached the goal of 35 points and were told they were going home. They were all transported on the same ship.

Lloyd Guillory returned to the United States on a Matson cruise ship. There were 800 officers and nurses as passengers. They left Tokyo on a northern route near the Aleutian Islands en route to Seattle, Washington. Upon landing, there was a fine reception for the returning servicemen. A yacht met the ship with an orchestra aboard. The musicians played a song titled To Each his Own. [Annotator's Note: The song was released in 1946 and performed by the Ink Spots.] It was the first time Guillory had heard the song, and he fell in love with it. Each returnee was given a carton of milk. That pleased Guillory tremendously since he always loved milk. He returned home after going through the separation center at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. He heard the name of his high school principal while at the separation center. The former principal was a major and being discharged too. The major offered Guillory a ride home and they returned via automobile. With his military career over, Guillory still wanted to fly. He stayed in the active reserves, but the only aircraft he had to fly was an AT-6 [Annotator's Note: North American AT-6 Texan advanced trainer aircraft]. Compared to a P-51 [Annotator's Note: North American P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft], that was not very exciting. The active reserve unit was out of New Orleans. The long drive from Morgan City to New Orleans and the lack of an exciting aircraft to fly made the active reserve duty less than attractive. Later, when Guillory flew with the Civil Air Patrol, he would fly even less sophisticated planes. He did so because he had nothing better to do. He had to consider what he was going to do with the rest of his life. He looked into the G.I. Bill opportunity for college attendance. Luckily, it had passed only by one vote after a congressman from Florida had to be flown to Washington for the vote. The members of Congress thought that the bill would make things too easy for the returning servicemen. Now, the G.I. Bill along with the Homestead Act of 1862 is considered the two best pieces of legislation passed by the Congress. No matter what the background of the serviceman, he was entitled to the G.I. Bill. It educated a large portion of the generation that Guillory served with. The value of Guillory's G.I. Bill was 5,000 dollars plus a stipend for living expenses that totaled 65 dollars. The G.I. Bill income enabled Guillory to graduate from LSU, Louisiana State University, as an architect. He paid back the government's expenditure on him for his education several times over with the income taxes he paid into the system over the years of his career. It was a good investment for the taxpayers. Many lawyers, doctors and other professionals used the G.I. Bill. When Guillory first entered LSU in 1947, he was deterred by the long lines that he faced for registration. This was before the days of computers. He tried it for a year. Guillory decided to try his hand at a boating business with his father. When he became frustrated with the difficulty of that life, he returned to college. He attended LSU continuously after that point and graduated in the first architectural school class in 1952. He mainly attended engineering courses, but would go on to become a highly successful and financially secure businessman. His future clients would invest in furthering his education in architecture. Guillory desired to move out of the small city of Morgan City, because living there did not seem to offer much opportunity. Besides, Guillory had allergies that were inflamed when he was in south Louisiana. Guillory had been tested by the Army Air Forces for multiple allergies, but none could be identified. When he returned home, his allergy returned. It confirmed his suspicion that he was allergic to south Louisiana. This confirmed his intention to leave Morgan City. He had saved a considerable sum of money while he was receiving his lucrative overseas flight pay. He did not spend that money on wine, women or song but rather chose to save the bulk of the income. His intention was to take that saved money and go on a road trip to discover the country and determine where he wanted to work. Before he had the chance to do so, a town clerk from his hometown called him and offered to introduce him to the city council. There were several major projects needing the expertise of an architect. Guillory decided to take the work. Afterward, more jobs came in and he designed more and more projects as the years passed. He designed schools for the school board. This was a time of segregation. He would design separate but not equal facilities for the black schools. The area was deeply segregated. As a result, the materials and design for the non-white schools were not of the same quality or cost as the white schools. When integration came, some individuals retired rather than accept the changes that were being required. As a historical perspective, segregation was terrible but that was the way it was. It was not separate and equal facilities. They were separate but certainly not equal.

Lloyd Guillory had a very successful and lucrative career as an architect. It allowed him to enjoy ownership of multiple boats of varying sizes. He even owned a house boat. He loved boats of all kinds. He also enjoyed continuously adding on to his home. Eventually, he would have 7,000 feet under roof. Guillory maintained his love of flying. When he joined the Civil Air Patrol, he still carried the rank of lieutenant. He was promoted to the rank of captain during a promotion ceremony. Guillory flew drug interdiction flights because so many drugs were being smuggled into Morgan City [Annotator's Note: Morgan City, Louisiana]. He aided in capturing drug runners. The oil business bust in the 1980s caught up with Guillory. It helped him make the decision to move to Columbia, Missouri. He was close to his daughter and granddaughter in a nice home in Missouri. He enjoyed that location, but his wife wanted to move back to Louisiana. Guillory flew with the Civil Air Patrol in Missouri during his time there. The types of aircraft that he flew at that time were slow, sluggish, and not very exciting. Guillory and his wife stayed in Missouri from 1987 to 2000. After Missouri, they returned to Louisiana and made their home in Morgan City. Guillory worked until he was 75 years old. He did forensic architectural work for State Farm Insurance Company. He would assess claims being made against the insurance company. It was very lucrative work. He was even paid to travel from one location to another. He preferred to work by himself. He saved the company a lot of money when he identified bogus claims where insurance payment was not warranted. This was particularly the case when Guillory discovered Missouri substrata settlement was the initiator of cracking in a claimant's walls. Guillory came in contact with all types of people and situations. In one case, he was shocked at an extremely filthy restaurant. When Guillory wrote up the response to the claim, he highlighted the unsanitary conditions. The company not only dismissed the claim, but they dropped the coverage for the claimant. [Annotator.s Note: Guillory laughs at the memory of the incident.]

Lloyd Guillory's most notable recollection of the war occurred on the day when he thought he was going to die. His aircraft was spinning out of control before he managed to get it back under his control Annotator's Note: See clip titled Combat Missions and Close Calls]. Guillory's wartime service was a great experience, but he would never want to go back to it. After the atomic bombs were dropped, he naively felt that there would be no more wars. Instead, there was another war five years later [Annotator's Note: the Korean War]. There were friendships made that lasted a lifetime. One of his best friends was a fellow named Dave who owned a successful car dealership. Dave looked like Van Johnson with his blue eyes, blond hair and winning smile. [Annotator's Note: Van Johnson was a matinee idol during the 1940s and 1950s.] Dave now has dementia. The war changed Guillory because he was the baby of the family. His father discussed all his business deals with his mother. That was a mistake. His mother was very negative. They could have made more money in business than they did. After the war, Guillory became the decision maker for the family. His sisters had left home and Guillory became the authority in the home. His parents looked to him because his former officer rank gave him the respected position in the home. He did not remember being punished severely by either of his parents. Looking back, Guillory felt that the World War 2 generation was the greatest generation. It was a generation that was forged in fire. They experienced the Great Depression and the wartime rigors that made them who they were. Guillory does not have a positive attitude toward unions and, in particular, the current role of public unions today. The federal government should not interfere in public school education. Likewise, there is a questionable role for the Department of the Interior. Liberals and the government cause problems in today's world.