Loevsky was born on Long Island, New York. He was 1 of 3 children.His father worked in a bronze factory. He was a young man at the time and worked hard.His family is of Russian decent and immigrated to the United States before the Russian Revolution in 1917.His father worked in the metal business in casting and eventually went into business for himself manufacturing metal castings for lamps, lighting fixtures, and decorative figurines. His parents spoke Jewish and Russian. They taught him to speak Jewish. Loevsky never got into religion and still doesn't.His brother took violin lessons and became quite proficient. His parents had him take piano lessons but he wasn't proficient and asked his parents to let him stop.Loevsky was 21 years old when Pearl Harbor was bombed. After high school he went to work in the metal industry like his father. He would go to school until around noon and then he would go to work and put in about 8 hours. At the time Loevsky went into the service he was making 5 dollars a week. That was a lot of money at the time.On December 7, 1941 Loevsky was at a football game in New York. He went to enlist as soon as possible but was told by the recruiter to wait until after Christmas. On December 26, 1941 he enlisted in the service.

Loevsky's motivation for joining the service was that he felt that the treatment of the Jews in Europe, and by Hitler in general, meant that the US should stop Germany. He realized that if his parents had not left Russia he wouldn't be here. His family would have been wiped out.The recruiting sergeant allowed him to choose where he was trained. He chose the Gulf Coast. He wanted to be a pilot but was sent to aviation mechanic school. The government was paying him about the same as he made in civilian life. He attended his classes and when he got a pass, and sometime when he didn't, he would hitchhike from Biloxi, Mississippi to Florida for the weekend. He would usually go alone and would make friends wherever he went. Sometimes he would take a few friends with him.Loevsky was in aviation mechanic school and was sent north to Atlantic City where he was expected to teach physical training to new men.He was eventually sent to flight training but didn't make the grade and washed out of flight school. Despite his lack of education he made officer because his IQ was high enough.After the war Loevsky met a number men who were POWs (prisoners of war) in the same camp he was in, just in another compound. He became very friendly with these men. These guys would have a fundraiser in Detroit to raise funds to help young blacks to further their education so they could go into the Aerospace industry. Loevsky feels that those guys helped turn the government around because the American government had shit on the blacks.

Loevsky talks about segregation in the US military during World War II.He discusses his father working in a foundry and how his father enlarged his business from a basement operation to a large facility with several employees. He goes onto describe his postwar ownership of a foundry and how he started his own business.In his business Loevsky stressed safety and provided safety equipment for all of his workers.Loevsky company was staffed by whites, blacks, and Hispanics and was led by those same men. Racial prejudice was not a part of Loevsky's business.

Loevsky washed out as a pilot and went to Navigation school. He graduated from navigation school in Hondo, Texas in November of 1943. After graduation he was sent to the 466th Bombardment Group as part of the 8th Air Force stationed in England. His pilot was Bill Terry and his aircraft was named Terry and the Pirates [Annotator's note: Terry and the Pirates was a cartoon from the 1940's]. Glenn Smith was the bombardier on his crew. Loevsky talks about meeting the artist [Annotator's Note: Milton Caniff] who drew ‘Terry and the Pirates’ after the war at a show he attended with Smith and their families. The artist presented Loevsky with a sketch that he has donated to the Air Force Museum.On March 22, 1944 he flew his first mission to Berlin. The target was an aircraft engine plant on the outskirts of the city. He describes the flak over Berlin as being so thick that you could get out and walk on it. The flak knocked out two of the engines on his aircraft and as a result the aircraft collided with another and took the other aircraft's tail off. As a result of the spin only two men were able to get out of the doomed aircraft.According to the copilot of the aircraft they hit, the plane exploded and blew the copilot out of the aircraft.Five men were killed in his aircraft when it was hit and collided with the other B-24. The bombardier Glenn Smith was hit while in the nose turret. The bombardier was trapped in the turret but eventually freed by Loevsky. The nose turret was bashed in by the mid air collision so bail out from the nose was not an option. His aircraft was at 23-25,000 feet when the aircraft was hit.

When Loevsky opened the nose turret to free the bombardier, the bombardier attempted to put on his shoes; according to him the bombardier was in shock. As he got near the escape hatch he pushed the bombardier out of the aircraft. The bombardier landed on a building on the outskirts of Berlin and before he could collapse his chute, the bombardier fell off the roof. The bombardier got into the building he was hanging from feet first and was arrested by the Germans immediately.When Loevsky was about to jump he witnessed the pilot making adjustments to the aircraft as they were going down. As the pilot left the aircraft, so did he. Loevsky bailed out of his aircraft and free fell towards the ground. He wanted to free fall for quite a ways in case the Germans passed too close to his parachute and collapsed his chute. Loevsky thought about his ID card with the letter "H" on it denoting his Hebrew religion. He thought of getting rid of his dog tags, but feared that if captured without dog tags he would be shot as a spy.He landed in the tree and knocked himself out. When he came to a German home guard soldier had a gun stuck in his ribs. Two German Army soldiers came and took him prisoner while he was still hanging in the tree. Three SS men came and demanded that the Army deliver Loevsky over to them but the army soldiers refused to hand him over to the SS.

Loevsky was taken to a German headquarters and was marched through the streets of Berlin past angry crowds. He could hear in perfect English, the German civilians screaming, "String him up! Lynch him!" The guards aimed their weapons at the civilians and that's the only way he figures he made it to the headquarters alive. Loevsky figures that he was very lucky in that the civilians didn't kill him, and that the SS didn't get him either.He was strip searched by the Germans and was interrogated several times. His pilot, Bill Terry, was killed after bailing out. He assumes that Terry was killed by angry civilians upon landing in Germany.After interrogation he was sent to Stalag Luft III immediately after the Great Escape.Loevsky describes the living conditions in Stalag Luft III. He says that bedding was nonexistent and he did little projects to pass the time.

The Germans issued blankets to the POWs that were threadbare and worthless. Loevsky states that when the Germans knew that the Red Cross was coming, thick blankets were issued and when the Red Cross left the camp, the thin blankets were returned to the men. The barracks were heated but not well. Coal was issued to burn in the stove but it didn't provide much heat.Loevsky used to read the German newspapers, even though he couldn't read German. He would save the pictures of Hitler from the newspapers and use them to wipe himself after a bowel movement. He devised a watering system for the prison garden. He used to like to try and catch bees that were pollinating the garden by putting sugar on his finger tips. As he said he did things like this to keep himself busy.The prisoners were given short notice that they were to be moved away from the oncoming Russian army. They were marched day and night towards their destination, which they did not know. He describes the German guards as being pleasant on their journey. He feels that they were happy to be getting away from the Russians.

Loevsky's destination during his long march was Stalag VIIA in Moosburg, Germany. Along the way to Moosburg they was transported in box cars. He says that the conditions in the box car were very tight and cramped. He spent nearly four months in Moosburg before he was liberated by General Patton's Third Army. He remembers seeing Patton as the camp was liberated. He says that the liberation was "very pleasant".Loevsky says that the Germans blamed the lack of food on the American "Luft Gangsters" [Annotator's note: Air Gangsters]. He describes how the prisoners would take turns slicing the German black bread that they were given to eat. Rations were very meager. No one got into fights, everyone got along as best they could.