Lloyd Duncan was born in 1926 in Coffeyville, Kansas. His father worked for the Sinclair Refinery. Duncan had one brother and two sisters but he is the only one who served in the military. Duncan's father was able to remain employed throughout the depression years so life was not bad for their family. They also had a cow and would provide milk to families who needed it. When Duncan was not in school he was working. Duncan was in Osage City, Kansas visiting an uncle when he learned about the attack on Pearl Harbor. His uncle was in a CCC [Annotator's Note: Civilian Conservation Corps]. Duncan was anxious to get home because he worked for the newspaper and knew that an extra edition would be going out. Duncan did not think the war would last more than two or three years and believed that it would not affect him.

Lloyd Duncan enlisted in the Navy. He had chosen the Navy because he wanted to fly. He was sent to Memphis, Tennessee for radio school then down to Miami, Florida for gunnery training. He was trained to be an aviation radioman and gunner. After training he was assigned to an operational unit. While serving with a holding unit, Duncan flew the Great Lakes patrols. They were looking for Japanese submarines that were supposedly sneaking in. They flew the patrols in an Avenger [Annotator's Note: Grumman TBF Avenger torpedo bomber] torpedo bomber. The Avenger was a sturdy plane but in combat the air crews had a life expectancy of about 70 seconds. Duncan was based at Grosse Ile, Michigan near Detroit when he was flying the Great Lakes patrols. After two months at Grosse Ile, Duncan was assigned to Torpedo Squadron 3, VT-3. At the time Duncan was assigned to VT-3 the squadron was based in Oceana, Virginia.

From Oceana, Virginia, Lloyd Duncan and VT-3 [Annotator's Note: Torpedo Squadron 3] flew patrols looking for German submarines [Annotator's Note: German u-boats] up and down the Eastern Seaboard and down to the Caribbean. On one occasion they spotted a German u-boat. The pilot told Duncan to shoot it with the blinker to see if the submarine returned the correct recognition signal. The pilot then told Duncan to break radio silence and notify the base of their location. After Duncan made the broadcast the pilot went into his dive. As he did so, lights came on all over the enemy vessel. It turned out to be two American submarines towing a German u-boat that had been captured off the coast of South America. The patrols they flew usually lasted three to four hours. When an entire flight went down over the Atlantic, Duncan's squadron took part in the search for wreckage and survivors. He could pick up a tin can on the radar but no debris was ever located. The entire flight of torpedo bombers just disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle [Annotator's Note: Duncan is likely referring to the five Grumman TBF Avenger torpedo bombers of Navy Flight 19 which disappeared without a trace on 5 December 1945]. Duncan did not have any real close calls during his time in the service. They were slated to go to the South China Sea and were waiting for the Kearsarge [Annotator's Note: USS Kearsarge (CV-33)] to come out of the Philadelphia dry dock. It was a new carrier. Before they went aboard the carrier the atomic bombs were dropped and the war ended.

Lloyd Duncan was quartered in Oceana, Virginia. They reported in every day and flew missions when ordered to. Three planes usually patrolled at the same time. Each plane went in a different direction so they could cover more area. They would fly down the coast, across Florida, then back again. They usually flew at altitudes between 2,000 and 20,000 feet and could see sharks in the water below them. They would practice diving from 20,000 feet. They would go down to about 600 feet then climb back up. Duncan always flew with the same pilot and gunner. He and the gunner had been paired up when they were in gunnery school. All three of the crewmen on Duncan's plane were from Missouri and Kansas. They followed the war in the Pacific very close. They were set to go to the China Sea aboard a carrier that they were waiting to come out of the dry dock at the Philadelphia Navy Yard [Annotator's Note: see segment titled Looking for U-Boats and Flight 19]. By the time the carrier came out of dry dock Duncan was out of the Navy. Duncan knew when the atomic bombs were dropped on Japan that he would not have to go to the Pacific. VT-3 [Annotator's Note: Torpedo Squadron 3 (VT-3)], Duncan's squadron, had already flown bombing missions over Japan but that was before he joined the squadron. They had also flown at Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Duncan's group had joined the squadron as replacements for the air crews who had already served overseas and were lost or transferred.

Lloyd Duncan remained in the service for 90 days after the war ended. He continued flying every day. He was one of only three radiomen left in the air group. On patrols they would carry 500 pound bombs, 1,000 pound bombs or torpedoes. They could also carry 20 - 100 pound bombs. They could carry a 1,000 pound bomb load. Duncan was discharged in 1946 from Camp Shelton, Virginia. After being discharged he returned to Coffeyville [Annotator's Note: Coffeyville, Kansas].

Lloyd Duncan had a few exciting experiences. After a flight out over the Atlantic the pilot lost manifold pressure and was unable to gain altitude. The pilot was forced to dodge trees during the run in to base. He was a good pilot who was very accurate. The gunner was accurate as well. They never dropped real bombs, only practice bombs. Duncan's pilot could usually score eight out of ten hits on a target. The skipper [Annotator's Note: the squadron commander] could hit ten out of ten. He was from Topeka and even though all three of the crewmen on Duncan's plane were from Kansas they did not really share a common background with their skipper.

After he was discharged, Lloyd Duncan returned to Coffeyville, Kansas and went to junior college on the GI Bill. He later got his bachelor's and master's degrees in Pittsburgh and his doctorate at OU [Annotator's Note: University of Oklahoma]. Duncan went into the education field as a principal and administrator at various levels of the education system in Wichita. He had also taught in Coffeyville and Laredo. Duncan did not have any trouble adjusting back to civilian life. Many of his friends were veterans. Some of them had gone in after he had and later joined the reserve. Many of them were called back to duty later on. Duncan had joined the inactive reserve. He received a letter from the Navy asking what his dependant status was [Annotator's Note: at the beginning of the conflict in Korea the US Navy suffered from a shortage of qualified radio operators and was forced to recall many veterans who had served during World War 2]. All of the radiomen in the reserve unit in Olathe were called up. Duncan's wife was upset when he got the letter from the Navy and thought he was being recalled. Duncan was tickled when he read it and realized that the Navy was only asking his dependant status. The guys recalled to active duty who served in infantry units had a difficult time. One of Duncan's friends who had served as a sergeant in the Marine Corps during World War 2 was recalled for Korea. He was immediately commissioned a second lieutenant.

Lloyd Duncan feels that the veterans of World War 2 and Korea received the respect and appreciation they deserved. Those who served during the Vietnam War were not treated kindly. Duncan sees that as a sin. Those troops were not over there because they wanted to be. Duncan believes that World War 2 leveled America out. There had not been much class distinction before the war. Many people were educated as a result of the war because of the GI Bill. Duncan believes that the GI Bill was the greatest thing that ever happened to America. Everyone Duncan knew went to school. It was unusual to find someone who had been in the service that did not go to school. One of Duncan's friends became a lawyer after the war. Both of their fathers had worked in a refinery. Duncan was proud to serve and is proud that he volunteered.