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Nicole Summers, MMFN
to remember
Acree, Lloyd Edgar, AOM3c.
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Casualty Info
Home Town Beggs, OK
Last Address Tulsa, OK
Casualty Date Oct 12, 1942
Cause KIA-Died of Wounds
Reason Multiple Fragmentation Wounds
Location Pacific Ocean
Conflict World War II
Official Badges
Unofficial Badges
Additional Information
Last Known Activity:
Following the American Invasion of Guadalcanal 7 August 1942, Acree participated in the grim struggle for control of the Solomons. During the night of 11 to 12 October, 1946, an American cruiser-destroyer force under Rear Admiral Norman Scott intercepted a cruiser-destroyer bombardment group off Cape Esperance and repulsed the enemy after a furious night battle. Early in the action an enemy shell burst close aboard to starboard and sprayed the cruiser with shell fragments. Acree, who was holding a 5-inch shell loading into No. 3 gun, fell to the deck, seriously wounded in the abdomen. Although in intense pain, he gallantly clung to the shell to prevent its explosion. He died a short time later while undergoing emergency surgery. For his great courage and outstanding devotion to duty, Acree was awarded the Navy Cross posthumously.
Although he was buried at sea, a memorial marker was erected at Memroial Park Cemetery in Tulsa, OK.
Comments/Citation:
Service number: 3563872
Navy Cross
Awarded for actions during World War II
Service: Navy
Division: U.S.S. Salt Lake City (CA-25)
General Orders: Letter (February 26, 1943), P15/(02): Serial 0319
Citation: The President of the United States of America takes pride in presenting the Navy Cross (Posthumously) to Aviation Ordnanceman Third Class Lloyd Edgar Acree (NSN: 3563872), United States Navy, for extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty while serving on board the Heavy Cruiser U.S.S. SALT LAKE CITY (CA-25), during action against enemy Japanese naval forces off Savo Island during the Battle of Cape Esperance on the night of 11 - 12 October 1942. On that date Task Group 64.2, of which the U.S.S. SALT LAKE CITY was a unit, engaged a Japanese force of cruisers and destroyers. Aviation Ordnanceman Third Class Acree was a relief fuse pot loader on five-inch gun #1. During the action, he was struck by shell fragments in the arm and abdomen, causing him to fall to the deck. Despite his injuries, he continued to hold the shell and to protect the base and primer with his hand. Both the main arm and 5-inch batteries of the ship were firing at the same time, and a shell rolling loose on the deck would have constituted a serious hazard to personnel and might well have hampered the effectiveness of the forward five-inch battery. During the next lull, he was given first aid, but died shortly thereafter. His conduct throughout was in keeping with the highest traditions of the Navy of the United States. He gallantly gave his life for his country.
Pacific Air Offensive (1942-45)/Doolittle B-25 Attack on Tokyo
From Month/Year
April / 1942
To Month/Year
April / 1942
Description The Doolittle Raid, also known as the Tokyo Raid, on 18 April 1942, was an air raid by the United States on the Japanese capital Tokyo and other places on Honshu island during World War II, the first air raid to strike the Japanese Home Islands. It demonstrated that Japan itself was vulnerable to American air attack, served as retaliation for the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, and provided an important boost to U.S. morale while damaging Japanese morale. The raid was planned and led by Lieutenant Colonel James "Jimmy" Doolittle, U.S. Army Air Forces.
Sixteen U.S. Army Air Forces B-25B Mitchell medium bombers were launched without fighter escort from the U.S. Navy's aircraft carrier USS Hornet deep in the Western Pacific Ocean, each with a crew of five men. The plan called for them to bomb military targets in Japan, and to continue westward to land in China—landing a medium bomber on Hornet was impossible. Fifteen of the aircraft reached China, and the other one landed in the Soviet Union. All but three of the crew survived, but all the aircraft were lost. Eight crewmen were captured by the Japanese Army in China; three of these were executed. The B-25 that landed in the Soviet Union at Vladivostok was confiscated and its crew interned for more than a year. Fourteen crews, except for one crewman, returned either to the United States or to American forces.
After the raid, the Japanese Imperial Army conducted a massive sweep through the eastern coastal provinces of China, in an operation now known as the Zhejiang-Jiangxi Campaign, searching for the surviving American airmen and applying retribution on the Chinese who aided them, in an effort to prevent this part of China from being used again for an attack on Japan. An estimated 250,000 Chinese civilians were killed by the Japanese during this operation.
The raid caused negligible material damage to Japan, but it succeeded in its goal of raising American morale and casting doubt in Japan on the ability of its military leaders to defend their home islands. It also caused Japan to withdraw its powerful aircraft carrier force from the Indian Ocean to defend their Home Islands, and the raid contributed to Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto's decision to attack Midway Island in the Central Pacific—an attack that turned into a decisive strategic defeat of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) by the U.S. Navy in the Battle of Midway. Doolittle, who initially believed that loss of all his aircraft would lead to his being court-martialled, received the Medal of Honor and was promoted two steps to Brigadier General.
