Comments/Citation:
Seaman Second Class Lloyd Elden McLaughlin, #3166678
Vallborg Rasmuson immigrated from Denmark to the United States in 1910. She met and married Montie McLaughlin, a laborer in various odd jobs that could be found in Nora, Nuckels, Nebraska. During the 1920s, Vallborg worked in a creamery, a rarity for a woman to be employed outside her home in that time. From 1915-1924, the couple parented five sons and two daughters. Lloyd Elden McLaughlin, the third son, was born on September 6, 1921. Although his hometown is not known with certainty, census records noted the family lived in the Atkinson community shortly before his birth.
Two years earlier, World War I ended in 1918 with the Treaty of Versailles. Though the American war economy flourished, most wage earners experienced a downward trend post-armistice. Nebraska farmers were hit particularly hard. However, the decade became known for its progressive growth, industrialization and carefree living. Untroubled prosperity ended when Wall Street crashed in 1929.
American workers and families endured a decade of economic misery and destitution. The McLaughlin family did not escape the calamitous times in which 25% of the workforce found themselves unable to find employment.
As the Depression era weighed heavily on world nations, international events took form and shape. In Germany, political unrest fomented after World War I, providing the emerging Nazi party with fodder for its leader, Adolf Hitler. By 1934, he was in control of the country. In 1939, the Wehrmacht swept over Poland, igniting World War II. In less than a year, Hitler dominated Europe. America had little heart for another global war and its horrific casualties. The majority of the country maintain a staunch isolationist policy, regarding the Nazis as Europe’s problem.
Like millions of Americans, Lloyd McLaughlin was aware of ongoing war in Europe when he enlisted in the United States Navy in 1940. He finished his basic training before being stationed aboard the USS Oklahoma (BB-37) as a Seaman Second Class. The Oklahoma was a Nevada-class battleship built by the New York Shipbuilding Corporation, notable for being the first American class of oil-burning dreadnoughts. Commissioned in 1916, Oklahoma served in World War I, protecting Allied convoys on their way across the Atlantic. From 1927 to 1929, the Oklahoma was modernized. In 1936, she rescued American citizens and refugees from the Spanish Civil War. On returning to the West Coast in August of the same year, Oklahoma spent the rest of her service in the Pacific.
In East Asia, Japan’s aggressive actions paralleled those of Germany in regard to its desire to become a world power. In brazen invasions into China, Japan’s imperialist overreach grasped natural resources it lacked, particularly oil reserves. The Nanjing massacre and other barbaric actions turned world tide against Japan. Mid-1941, President Roosevelt imposed a full embargo and froze Japanese assets in the United States. In the fall of 1941, Americans tracked daily newspaper reports, though, international tensions were escalating as negotiations seesawed without resolution.
On December 6, President Roosevelt made a direct appeal to Emperor Hirohito, urging the aversion of war between their two nations. On that warm Saturday afternoon, the USS Oklahoma baseball team played a game on Ford Island. The day’s memories would be obliterated by the event that lay just hours away. As the country awaited the outcome of Roosevelt’s diplomatic petition, massive enemy naval and air forces were gathered in darkness less than 300 miles north of Oahu. Six Japanese carriers, with cruisers and destroyers were positioned to strike the Hawaiian harbor. The carriers held 420 attack aircraft, fueled and loaded with bombs and torpedoes.
The next morning, the ships’ crews began their duties. Chaplains readied for services. Mess cooks prepared the day’s meals. Sailors and officers gathered on decks for the coming 0800 hours morning colors. Over the surrounding mountains, scattered clouds were breezed and broken by a 10 knot wind. Cumulus puffs concealed the approaching Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service, moving in waves from the north toward the unsuspected fleet.
At 0755, planes bearing a red disc festooned with rays of the Rising Sun dove on American ships and their crews. Suddenly, shockingly, Pearl Harbor was under attack. The Fleet’s klaxons blared and across the harbor, ships' loudspeakers resounded, “General Quarters! This is not a Drill!”
At the onset of the 7 December 1941 attack, the battleship USS Oklahoma (BB-37), was moored at berth Fox 5 on “Battleship Row.” Just before 8 am, the Oklahoma was among the first of the ships struck in the attack, because of her position in the harbor. Nine torpedoes hit the Oklahoma, each on her port side. The torpedoes struck higher on the port side as she capsized. Heroic efforts were made to rescue the trapped men inside the hull. After 3 days, 32 men were rescued. After the Arizona, she was the largest loss of life, at 429 sailors and marines. The Oklahoma was salvaged in 1942, but it was determined she could not be repaired. In May of 1947, she was sold for scrap and while under tow to California, she sank in a storm. Her exact location remains unknown to this day.
S2C McLaughlin, 20, killed in action, was among those men who perished during the attack. Listed as missing in action, he was memorialized on the Tablets of the Missing, National Cemetery of the Pacific, Honolulu, Hawaii. Awarded the Purple Heart posthumously, Lloyd was mourned by his parents and siblings.
This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (see www.storiesbehindthestars.org). This is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 400,000+ of the US WWII fallen saved on Together We Served and Fold3. Can you help write these stories? Related to this, there will be a smartphone app that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery, scan the fallen serviceperson’s name and read his/her story.
Stories Behind the Stars Contributing Author: Pamela C. Baker
References:
Ancestryinstitutions.org. 1920 United States Federal Census.
Ancestryinstitutions.org. 1930 United States Federal Census.
http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/special/japan_1900_power.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_of_Japan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_Germany
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/79236976/donald-robert-mccloud
https://pearlharbor.org/history-uss-oklahoma/
https://www.history.navy.mil/our-collections/photography/wars-and-events/world-war-ii/pearl-harbor-raid/battleship-row-during-the-pearl-harbor-attack/uss-oklahoma-and-uss-maryland-during-the-pearl-harbor-attack.html
https://web.mst.edu/~rogersda/umrcourses/ge342/Salvage%20of%20USS%20Oklahoma.pdf
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/56125173/lloyd-e-mclaughlin
U.S., Find a Grave Index, 1600s-Current. Photograph, Marble Standard, Court of the Missing, Collection of Debbie Tetrault and Bruce Almeida.
U.S., World War II Navy, Marine and Coast Guard Casualties, 1941-1945.
U.S., World War II Navy Muster Rolls, 1938-1949.
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Pamela Baker (SBTS Writer)-Historian
to remember
McLaughlin, Lloyd, S2c.
