William Stroud Obituary

STROUD, JR., William William Paul Stroud Jr. passed away on 11 Feb. 2009, following a long illness. He will be interred at Arlington National Cemetery on 16 April at 11 a.m., along with his wife, the former Reuben Kirkland. Paul Jr., as he was known, was born on 8 April 1918 in Pensacola, Florida to William Paul Stroud, Sr. and Virginia Henson Stroud. Raised in Chester, SC, after graduating from Chester High School, he worked in his father's laundry until enlisting in the Army Air Corps in 1939. Turbulent times and the adventures of a lifetime lay ahead, including being stationed at Hickam Air Base, Hawaii on 7 Dec 1941. As a gunner on a B-17 bomber, he hadn't gone to war, but with the attack on Hickam and Pearl Harbor, the war had come to him. Longing to fly, within a year he was accepted into the Aviation Cadet program. As the nation prepared for what would become the greatest conflagration in the history of our country, he graduated with the silver wings of an Army Air Corps pilot and the gold bars of a Second Lieutenant, Paul Jr. trained in the B-24 Liberator, the most advanced bomber of the time. Shipped to the Solomon islands and the heart of the air war in the Pacific, he flew combat missions from 1943 to 1944, during which time his aircraft shot down ten Japanese fighters and he personally earned the Air Medal, the Distinguished Flying Cross and at the time the nation's second highest award for valor, the Silver Star. Despite all those awards, he considered his greatest achievement to be that despite countless missions flown with heavy damage to his aircraft, he never lost a single member of his crew. After his marriage in 1943 and being mustered out with so many others in 1945, it wasn't long before he longed to fly again. He came back into the Army Air Corps in 1947, which by order of President Harry Truman became the United States Air Force. Paul Jr's twenty four years in the Air Force took him and his family to Air Bases across the county and around the world, including Korea and Japan. He amassed thousands of hours of flying time in a career that took him from biplanes to the jet age and from Army green to Air Force blue. His final station was Selfridge AFB, Michigan where he retired. For forty years, he and his wife lived in Clinton Township. They moved to Charleston in 1998. Paul Jr. is survived by his two sons, Lt. Col. William Stroud III. USAF, Ret. and Lawton Kirkland Stroud, their wives and five grandchildren; a sister, Libby Loder of Huntsville, AL. In lieu of flowers, please send donations to the United Service Organizations at www.uso.org. Arrangements by J. HENRY STUHR, INC., WEST ASHLEY CHAPEL. A memorial message may be written to the family by visiting our website at www.jhenrystuhr.com. Visit our guestbook at www.charleston.net/deaths.