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<em>Lloyd Ernst Mielenz </em>was born on 31 March 1896 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the son of Ernst A. and Anna M. Mielenz. He attended public schools in Milwaukee through his graduation from North Division High School in 1914, and entered West Point the following year.</p>
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Congressman William H. Stafford of the 5th District, Wisconsin, offered Lloyd an appointment to either the U. S. Military Academy or to the U. S. Naval Academy. Lloyd was a successful candidate to both academies, but received the USMA acceptance first, chose West Point, and was admitted as a cadet on 15 June 1915. It was a most unusual event when he missed his first meal at West Point along with the entire group of Plebes on the 4th floor of the 21st Division. The absence of those eight plebes was never discovered by the "Beast’’ detail, but there was much seating confusion later, when they did show up for the evening meal.</p>
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As a cadet, Lloyd’s classmates found him to be quiet and unassuming but reliable and steady, always generous in doing a favor for a fellow cadet, a willing worker, and an optimistic friend. He had only one roommate, Leo Kreber, during his entire stay at West Point, but elected to move to "runt” companies in order to stay with him. Their longstanding friendship, born during cadet days, lasted up to the time of Lloyd’s death. He graduated 28th in a class of 137. He never had a “slug” and spent only a moderate amount of time on the Area. He was on the basketball squad during his cadet days and was also active in both swimming and tenuis. The Howitzer shows him as Sergeant 2, 1: Basketball 4, 3. 2; Choir 4, 3, 2, 1; Glee Club 2, 1. He did not crave the public eye but did what had to be done from a sense of duty rather than from a desire for personal gain. With his easy-going and not readily perturbed nature, his military career was bound to be successful.</p>
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Upon graduation on 12 June 1918, Lloyd was commissioned to the Corps of Engineers as a second lieutenant, first lieutenant, and captain (temporary), all effective on the date of graduation. His subsequent 36 years of military service included a wide variety of Engineer assignments all requiring outstanding ability as an officer.</p>
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His first assignment was with the 3d Engineer Training Regiment at Camp A. A. Humphreys, Virginia, and he left from there to attend the Engineer Officers’ Training School at Camp Lee, Virginia. From Virginia, Lloyd joined the 209th Engineers at Camp Forrest, Georgia, and from there went to Camp Sheridan, Alabama, preparatory to movement overseas, but with the signing of the Armistice in November 1918, he was ordered back to Camp Humphreys to the Army Engineer School for further graduate work in civil, mechanical, and electrical engineering. On 30 June 1919 he was sent with a group of other Engineer officers to France, Belgium, Germany, and England for an extended tour of the European combat and ogistic areas. Returning on 10 September 1919 he was enrolled in the engineering course and completed it in January 1921 finishing well up in the class.</p>
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Following his extended schooling at the Army Engineer School, Lloyd served with the 6th Engineers at Camp Pike, Arkansas, and at Fort Lewis, Washington. While in this latter assignment, he was chosen, as an outstanding marksman, to represent his regiment at Fort Des Moines, Iowa, and at Camp Perry, Ohio. He went as a member of the Engineer-Cavalry Rifle Team. In the summer of 1923 he was detached for duty with the Military Surrey of Coast Defenses of Puget Sound.</p>
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He spent the next three years at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, with the 3d Engineer Combat Regiment, serving as transportation officer, topographical and intelligence officer, and company commander.</p>
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From Hawaii, he returned to Rock Island, Illinois, for duty as assistant to the district engineer, where, in addition to being in charge of C.M.T.C. enrollment, and serving as executive officer of Organized Reserves, he was instructor of Army Correspondence Schools for Industrial Procurement of the Corps of Engineers. Lloyd also rendered especially important service in the compilation of flood control reports for the Rock Island District and was in charge of construction on the Mississippi River.</p>
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The Army drew on Lloyd’s outstanding engirneer talent next when he was assigned to the Corps of Engineers' Map Reproduction Plant in Washington, D.C. There he contributed greatly to the intensive map production program undertaken during the period 1928-1932.</p>
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For the four years 1932-36, Lloyd served with distinction as PMS&T in charge of the Engineer ROTC unit at Penn State College, University Park, Pennsylvania. Next, during the threat of a major Mississippi River flood, Lloyd was assigned to the Memphis Engineer District, which supervised the key central area of that river system. Lloyd was placed in command of the Rescue Fleet during the worst flood on record in the Mississippi River, and had authority to commandeer all river boats needed for emergency rescue work. Once again, in a position of major importance, his service was outstanding. It was during the flood that a major floodway was first used to save a river city. Cairo, Illinois, was saved by blowing the fuse-plug levee in the Rirds Point-New Madrid floodway. This was the first real test of the main-line levee system which had been built by the Corps of Engineers after the disastrous flood of 1927, and was declared to be a big success.</p>
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Lloyd was in the Philippines in 1939 and had an active part in the construction of the only two underground air-conditioned Navy radio stations, both on Corregidor. One was the intercept station which broke the Japanese code before Pearl Harbor; the other was a transmitting station which kept Corregidor in contact with Hawaii during the Japanese siege of the island and until its surrender on 6 May 1942. Lloyd’s service as executive officcr to the Department Engineer in Manila and subsequently on Corregidor during the critical days of late 1941 and early 1942 was particularly outstanding. Facing untold difficulties and shortages, Lloyd directed much of the engineer logistic effort in the preparation for and subsequent defense of the Philippines until the day thev fell.</p>
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For the next three long years, Lloyd was a prisoner of war of the Japanese. He had made the Death March from Corregidor. His rugged resistance and his strong determination and will power carried him through, but his health was impaired nonetheless. General Wainwright was one of the 22 West Pointers out of approximately 125 American officers with Lloyd’s prisoner group.</p>
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After liberation, and when he had regained his strength, Lloyd served for a time as assistant district engineer in Baltimore, Maryland. He was then assigned as Chief of the Historical Division prior to his appointment as Chief, Legal Division, Office of the Chief of Engineers. While in this latter assignment, he was named U.S. representative at the council meeting of the Permanent International Navigation Congress in Brussels, Belgium, in 1951.</p>
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His next assignment was with Headquarters, U.S. Army in Europe, Communications Zone, with station in Orleans, Franco. Phil Gallagher, a classmate, was the Commanding General, Communications Zone at the time, and the two established a warm friendship and a close and cherished association that continued up to the time of Lloyd’s death. Lloyd was the contracting officer for the Communications Zone and dealt with the French agencies which were doing work for the U.S. Army. It was a difficult assignment and he handled it superbly. Lloyd left France in early July 1954 and retired from Walter Reed Hospital on 31 August 1954. He then began a life of happy retirement in his beautiful home in Macon, Georgia.</p>
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Before his first trip to Europe in 1919, Lloyd married Miss Penelope S. Pendergrass in Washington, D.C. on 16 April 1919. After ten years of a very happy marriage, Penelope died in Walter Reed Hospital on 12 May 1929, leaving two wonderful children. Their home was known to all for its genial hospitality and for its warmth and comfort. Daughter Penelope Anne is married to Colonel Harold E. Bisbert, CE, a graduate of Drexel Institute of Technology, who retired in 1962. The couple lives in Atlanta with their two sons and two daughters. Son Lloyd E. Jr., USMA ’50, a major and an artilleryman, is married and is the father of a son and two daughters.</p>
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On 21 June 1930, Lloyd was married to Maurinc G. Ricker in Macon, Georgia. His friends were particularly pleased when he captured the heart of Maurine, a college roommate of his first wife. Their 35 years of marriage were most happy, and full of love, warmth, affection, and loyalty. Lloyd was responsive to Maurine’s devotion and faith in him, and she, in turn, shared the rich full years of his active duty carccr and his retirement years. Maurine survives him, and lives in, Macon, Georgia. Maurine’s daughter (by a previous marriage) Maurine Louise, married C. Roberts Pendleton, a 1947 graduate of Ceorgia Tech, who served as a pilot in the southwest Pacific during World War II. They have two daughters and live in Macon, Georgia, where Mr. Pendleton is a heavy equipment design engineer.</p>
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Not satisfied to remain idle in retirement, Lloyd elected to study law, but this worthy enterprise was interrupted by a detached retina in his left eye, a condition which led to hospitalization and surgery at Walter Reed Hospital.</p>
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Lloyd’s great love for his family and many friends never diminished, and he and Maurine traveled extensively—to Milwaukee, Europe, West Point, Washington and elsewhere-maintaining close contact with them.</p>
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Lloyd always especially enjoyed his West Point class reunions, the Founders Day gatherings, and the class luncheons. He was keenly interested in all class news, and was himself an avid correspondent. He was a member of the Elks and of the Kiwanis Club and was an active participant in the civic and social activities of Macon. His sudden death from a heart attack, while driving alone on a highway near Roberta, Georgia, came as a severe shock and brought deep sorrow to his family and to his many friends.</p>
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Those of us who had the privilege of knowing him have lost a warm and engaging friend. He was a courageous and hardworking leader. His family bears the loss of a most loving and devoted husband and father.</p>
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Now that his work is done and his "course on earth is run,” it can be said; “Well done, Lloyd. Be thou at peace.”</p>
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<em>—C.F.B. and H.J.C.</em></p>
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<em>June 1918</em><br />
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