Herbert Lloyd Wilkerson was born on a farm in Obine County, Tennessee in October 1919, the oldest and only son of two children in the family. It was their parents' intention for both children to graduate college. Wilkerson drove a horse and buggy to high school. His father contracted Huntington's disease and committed suicide right after Wilkerson celebrated his 14th birthday. His attempt at an appointment to West Point failed because he was asthmatic, but upon graduating high school in Troy, Tennessee, Wilkerson's minister and two local businessmen offered him an interest-free loan for a college education at Erskine College in Due West, South Carolina. In 1937 he began classes, and worked in a printing office in order to pay off the loan. He was elected editor-in-chief of the weekly college newspaper, and had his funding cut short by publishing an April Fools' Day farce that his sponsors found objectionable. He continued college at night at the University of South Carolina, and went to work for a retail credit company. The morning after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Wilkerson went to the enlistment office and joined the Marines. His boss offered to get Wilkerson a deferment, to which Wilkerson replied, "You don't understand. My family, since the Revolutionary War, has had a soldier protecting this country, and it's my duty to go." Wilkerson made a career of the Marine Corps.

H. Lloyd Wilkerson was hosting business acquaintances at a hotel in Charleston, South Carolina when he heard a radio announcement that Pearl Harbor had been attacked and his life changed. Wilkerson knew that his father, a veteran of the Great War [Annotator's Note: World War 1], would not have wanted him to serve in the Army. He never thought he would get the chance to join the Marine Corps until World War 2 presented the opportunity. The day after the Pearl Harbor attack, Wilkerson went to the Marine Corps office and was told to get his affairs in order. In January [Annotator's Note: January 1942], he was sent to Parris Island [Annotator's Note: Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island, Parris, Island, South Carolina] for five hectic weeks of boot camp, including two weeks at the rifle range, two weeks of orientation and drill, and one week of mess duty. The camp was still under construction, and the recruits slept in tents. After graduation he was among 200 Marines who went by train to Camp Lejeune, and within three weeks he was part of the first regiment sent overseas. Wilkerson was assigned to the 1st Division as an orderly and driver for the regimental commander of the 7th Marines. [Annotator's Note: Wilkerson joined the 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division.] He had never seen a Navy ship, but succeeded in loading the colonel's vehicle into the hold of the USS Heywood (APA-6), and sailed in a convoy from Norfolk, Virginia to the Panama Canal in dreadful weather. The enlisted men did not know where the ship was bound until they were about half way to their British Samoan destination. The Americans wanted to interrupt the supply lines from Australia and New Zealand to a Japanese airfield that was under construction in preparation for their attack at Guadalcanal. But the Japanese never came, and it wasn't until mid-September [Annotator's Note: September 1942] that Wilkerson's unit joined the fighting on Guadalcanal.

Four days after arriving at Guadalcanal, H. Lloyd Wilkerson put his commanding officer on an evacuation flight out of the area with four other colonels, some of whom were being relieved of duty. Colonel Leroy Simms was promoted to command the regiment [Annotator's Note: 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division], and Wilkerson was reassigned as a rifleman in Chester Puller's battalion [Annotator's Note: later US Marine Corps Lieutenant General Lewis B. "Chesty" Puller commanded the 1st Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division at this time]. Wilkerson's new platoon leader and Chesty's favorite lieutenant, Andrew F. Cook, Jr., was killed right in front of his men. Wilkerson said serving under Chesty Puller was a lesson in leadership and fearlessness for anybody that wanted to pay attention. Wilkerson remembers the only time Puller was wounded and sent to the regimental hospital, after which he got in the chow line stripped to the waist to show his men that he wasn't badly hurt. Combat with the 1st Battalion was pretty brutal, and the third Battle of the Lunga River was the fiercest in which Wilkerson was involved. Puller put 1,700 men on the line for the battle, after which Wilkerson's platoon was relieved. A fellow Marine won the Medal of Honor for that encounter. Coming out of Guadalcanal, Wilkerson had a chill, and was sent to the Fourth Army General Hospital [Annotator's Note: US Army's 4th General Hospital] in Melbourne, Australia. He helped organize a new floor of the hospital before another malaria attack hit with high fever and chills, and Wilkerson underwent intensive treatment for 60 days. He was cured, and never had a relapse, but was never allowed to return to the jungle again. He was taken to the Balboa Naval Hospital in San Diego, California for observation, and then given a 30 day leave. After he got a clean bill of health, he was sent to Pocatello, Idaho and assigned a clerical position keeping records of Marines with malaria and elephantiasis.

While in Idaho, H. Lloyd Wilkerson completed his bachelor's degree through Idaho State University. At a Sunday afternoon USO [Annotator's Note: United Service Organizations] musical performance in Pocatello, Idaho, he met the mistress of ceremonies; she was the woman with whom he would spend 69 years of marriage. He was sent again to Camp Lejeune and served in the Honor Guard when President Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: President Franklin Delano Roosevelt] visited. Wilkerson was in the front row when the president passed by in a car, and even then had no idea that the president was disabled. The same Honor Guard went to Washington when Roosevelt died, and Wilkerson was among the troops that received the president's body and stood guard while he was buried. Wilkerson thought it a rare honor. On 25 April 1945, Wilkerson was commissioned a second lieutenant and sent to Parris Island [Annotator's Note: Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island, Parris Island, South Carolina] again for orientation in a new Marine Corps personnel system.

H. Lloyd Wilkerson was sent back to the Pacific, and served with the Sixth Marine Division on Guam before being loaded onto an LST [Annotator's Note: Landing Ship, Tank] and shipped to Tsingtao, China, where he served as a staff officer in division headquarters for four months. Wilkerson requested a regular commission, and during his review it was found that he had enough points to rotate back to the United States. He was asked whether he wanted to stay on active duty, and he continued service in San Francisco at MarPac [Annotator's Note: MarPac was a U.S. Marine Corps ground training and administrative command for the Pacific] Headquarters as a personnel officer. Six or eight months before that tour was up Wilkerson was promoted to first lieutenant, and made Exchange Officer. After three years, he went back to FLeet Marine Force on Guam with the 5th Marines [Annotator's Note: 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Provisional Marine Brigade] as a Battalion Intelligence Officer and lead practice maneuvers with recoilless rifles at Pagan Island. When the installation was blown away by Typhoon Allen in 1950, the Marines took their troops back to the United States. Wilkerson ended up at Camp Pendleton in the reorganized 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines as the Executive Officer of Company H.

At Camp Pendleton, Company H [Annotator's Note: Company H, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment] was assigned to work with 20th Century Fox on a movie [Annotator's Note: "Halls of Montezuma" was filmed in 1950 with Richard Widmark in the starring role as Lt. Anderson], and H. Lloyd Wilkerson remembers several weeks of landing and re-landing to satisfy the scene directors. Then North Korea attacked, and Wilkerson was activated into the 1st Provisional Brigade, and moved directly into the Pusan Perimeter as a staff officer for a regimental commander. Though his unit [Annotator's Note: 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Provisional Marine Brigade] was not on the front lines, he did get into the vicinity of the Reservoir. Wilkerson also remembers landing in Wonsan after the mine fields were cleared, and expecting combat, but instead being entertained by Bob Hope because the Capital Division of the Korean Army had already cleared the territory. He stayed north of Hungnam until Christmas, when the whole regiment evacuated out in one ship [Annotator's Note: this operation was code-named Christmas Cargo]. Wilkerson helped his commanding officer complete the fitness and after-action reports, then went back to the United States. Wilkerson was also involved in the Vietnam War, commanding the 1st Regiment [Annotator's Note: 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division] south of Da Nang for six months, which was the usual tour of duty at the time, then serving as G-3 [Annotator's Note: operations officer] of the 3rd MEF [Annotator's Note: III Marine Expeditionary Force] for another six months. Wilkerson commented that compared to World War 2 and the Korean War, Vietnam was not very fierce. But to the rifleman, he said, it's all the same: get them or they'll get you.

H. Lloyd Wilkerson became Chief of Staff of Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, which he called a real change of pace. He worked in that capacity for two years under two generals, then took command of the camp himself as Brigadier General. The promotion frustrated his wife, who said she lost control of her kitchen and her house, because they had four houseboys working full-time in their home. Then, as a Major General, Wilkerson was made Deputy Chief of Staff for Research and Development working for the Assistant Secretary of the Navy where he takes credit for saving the LCAC [Annotator’s Note: Landing Craft Air Cushioned] program. Wilkerson was promoted to Commanding General of the 3rd Marine Division and retired as Director of Personnel at Marine Corps Headquarters in Washington, D.C. Unmentioned until this point, Wilkerson revealed that he had a three-year tour in military intelligence in Hawaii, and taught at Duke University for two years.

Had he not joined the Marine Corps, H. Lloyd Wilkerson might have become a journalist. He has lately embarked on a book project. He said World War 2 diverted him into a career that he had looked forward to as a youngster, and committed to continue after he got his commission. He feels it important that we have The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, and that we continue to teach children about the events of the war. He feels too much of today's population has never been exposed to military life, and do not know the hardships, exposure, and sacrifices military personnel and their families undertake. Too many do not even know the purpose of having an armed force. Wilkerson observes that the national culture has changed, and the nature of warfare has changed. Today's wars are being waged by unorganized and unsponsored nationalist groups, and it is hard to know how to do it. Wilkerson's advice to future generations: never let people run over our country.