Lloyd A. King, Jr. was born in the rural town of Batavia in western New York State. Lloyd graduated high school in Sweetwater, Texas and attended college at Philadelphia College of Art in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania majoring in Industrial Design with a minor in Fine Arts.
Lloyd's many aspirations were put on hold in 1967 during the Vietnam War when he was drafted into the U.S. Army. Lloyd served as a non-commissioned officer in the infantry with the 101st Airborne Division-Airmobile during 1968 and 1969, the two worst years of the war.
Following Vietnam, Lloyd worked in the Oil and Gas Industry for over twenty-five years retiring as a Director of Safety and Training. Lloyd and his wife reside in Lafayette, Louisiana, which Lloyd refers to as his adoptive Cajun hometown.
Lloyd began delving into the world of creative writing as a combat infantry soldier in 1968. He penned his emotions, experiences, and the sights and sound of war in the form of poetic vignettes while in the jungles of South Vietnam describing the things he couldn't tell his family back home.
Thirty years after surviving Vietnam, Lloyd decided to tell his family about his experiences, but he couldn't verbalize events that still haunt him today like a fierce thunderstorm. On July 28, 1998, he began a literary mission to tell others what the war was like...hoping that his family and friends would understand the war and better understand Lloyd as well.
Lloyd is a highly decorated soldier having received the Silver Star...our nation's fourth highest medal for gallantry in action...the Bronze Star, two Purple Hearts for combat wounds, two Air Medals, and nearly a dozen other medals and ribbons including the highest individual medal awarded by the Republic of South Vietnam, the RVN Gallantry Cross with Gold Star.
Lloyd's first book, entitled "From 'Nam With Love", is a compilation of profound words complimented by powerful artwork that together tell a very unique story of the day-to-day human conflict that only a person who has experienced war could possibly describe. "From 'Nam With Love", and Lloyd's incredibly moving artwork can be viewed and purchased on his website, www.FromNamWithLove.com.
Lloyd's second book, soon to be published, describes his day-to-day life and his experiences with his infantry squad and the other soldiers he served with. In Lloyd's second book, yet untitled, he reveals a different and sensitive perspective of his struggle as a person and as a soldier in the rugged, monsoon-soaked, jungle-covered mountains, and in the leech and mosquito-infested rice paddies, rivers, and streams during his combat tour of duty in the Republic of South Vietnam.