Lloyd "Chuck" Pickard - USMC 1942-45

Lloyd A. “Chuck” Pickard was a Veteran of the Pacific Theater of Operations, 15 December 1942 – 7 December 1945. Stationed in various Pacific U.S. held islands with his USMC heavy artillery group Chuck and the 17th Air Defense Battery Group were finally stationed at Tinian Island to protect the all-important B-29 bombers and their air strips. “After the air strips were finished and in flying condition, they brought in the B-29s. They took a portion of our 17th group and swore them to secrecy, and they disappeared down on the docks at Tenian where the heavy cruiser Indianapolis came in with the parts for the first atomic bomb. Due to the secrecy of the whole thing they kept those guys separate, they unloaded the parts of the bomb and trucked them to one corner of the base that was fenced in. They had to modify a couple of those B-29s to carry the atomic bomb. Had to open the bomb bays and refit them. Finally, unbeknown to everybody, the Enola Gay took off from right down below us and dropped the bomb. And then the other B-29 followed suit and dropped the other one. Yeah. Felt pretty good just like you saw in the news reels everybody running and jumping around going crazy. It felt pretty good and of course from the fighting branch we should be very proud of those that lost their lives in doing it and accomplishing that.” - Chuck Pickard (Vero Beach,FL. Historical Society / Interview”

USAWS is proud to showcase our WWII veterans during this 80th Anniversary year of them winning the war. We hold all our veterans’ stories in the highest regard and especially our WWII veterans. We were fortunate and honored to have met and been allowed to capture Chucks WWII story. We regret to have been informed that Chuck passed away soon after our interview. We honor him for his service to the country and are privileged to be able to be sharing his story.