Lloyd Birdsong:  

Hi, all. After graduation I joined the army and married Nancy Albertson. I was gassed in a training exercise do to a faulty gas mask. My profile was changed from A to C and I was out of the infantry and was sent to cook school. After the school I was sent to Albuquerque N.M. Sandia Base to join my outfit. We were then sent to Fort Bliss, Texas to pick up the rest of the Special Weapons Support Battalion for more training. I was hospitalized and subsequently diagnosed with schizophrenia and I was then discharged. My wife and I moved to Darling-ton Indiana. I went to work at a Raybestos factory running a press, making gears. Winter came and my wife and I wanted to get back to good old Chula Vista. I went to work at Rohr and was put in a tooling training program. I was to serve my apprenticeship in each of the tooling trades and attend night school at San Diego State majoring in Aeronautical Engineering. My wife gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. The light of my life. My marriage began to fall apart so we divorced. I got custody of our 16 mo. old daughter and could not continue night school, so I could no longer continue the tooling program and I chose to work as a plaster pattern maker. I ended up marring my baby sitter a year later. We left Chula Vista, and moved to Wichita, Kansas and I went to work for Cessna Aircraft as a tool maker. Cessna lost the contract and I was laid-off. We moved to Newport, Arkansas and bought a cafe. It was hard work but a good business. After 3 years we sold th...Expand for more