Lloyd Sunfield “Shine” Fleming was the seventh of eight children of Oscar Hansford and Lois Ora Bush Fleming who were married on December 4th, 1904. Shine as he was known to all was born in Shelby County Texas on March, 12, 1918 and had five older brothers, Paul, Rowe, Graydon, Joel and Jeff, one older sister, Eula and a younger brother Bryan. They lived on Upper Arcadia Road where his Dad was a grocer.

He graduated from Center High School with the class of 1935 where he played football for the Roughriders. Shine was evidently a fairly good player as I am told he received a scholarship from Sul Ross State University in Alpine, Texas but it didn’t work out however as homesickness got the best of him.

The June 6th, 1940 edition of the Champion newspaper announced that the Fleming Cities Service Station at Parker Bros. Motor Company operated by “Shine” Fleming had completed its remodeling. The station was modern in every respect from the new arrangement of pumps for more customer convenience to the installation of new electric computing pumps.

He and Vivian Mildred Conner “Pat” were married on January 21st, 1939. The 1940 census showed they lived on Tenaha Street in Center with his occupation as a 22 year old filling station operator and hers as a 19 year old beauty parlor operator.

The attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese on December 7th, 1941 began World War II. The Fleming’s like countless other families across the nation stepped up to do their part. Brother Joel was a well-known Shelby County Deputy Sheriff who was running for the position of sheriff when his draft notice came in February, 1942. He answered the call with service in the US Army until his discharge in 1945. Brother Jeff joined the Coast Guard in 1943 and served until after wars end.

On November 17, 1942, ten pound son Scotty Lloyd was born to Shine and Pat at the Center Sanitarium. At the age of 25 with a wife and young child only a few months old Lloyd Fleming took the oath of enlistment and joined the US Army on April 22, 1943. He trained at Fort Wolters near Mineral Wells, Texas. Private Fleming was transferred to the 77th Field Artillery Service Battery at Fort D. A. Russell near Marfa, Texas and ended up in the infantry serving with the 152nd Infantry Regiment of the famed 38th Infantry Division.

The 38th Infantry Division arrived in Hawaii on January 17th, 1944. Among his scrapbook items that son Scotty shared with me was a printed Palm Sunday program, dated April 2, 1944 from the First Methodist Church in Honolulu. The division left Hawaii for New Guinea in July, 1944 and trained for combat there until November when it sailed for Leyte landing in December, 1944. Driving west the 38th destroyed an intricate maze of enemy fortifications in the rugged Zambales Mountains at the northern base of the Bataan peninsula which the Americans named “Zig-Zag Pass”. The 38th Infantry Division's rapid drive across the peninsula was critical to MacArthur's campaign plan by preventing a Japanese withdrawal into Bataan, thereby avoiding a costly siege operation. By August 14th, 1945, the 38th Infantry Division had completed an unbroken stretch of 198 consecutive days in combat, officially killing 26,469 enemy combatants, and taking 1411 Japanese prisoners. Although officially not "engaged in major combat" after August 14th, elements of the division continued to mop up Japanese stragglers in the Luzon area (who usually resisted to the death), until the signing of the VJ Day surrender documents on September 2nd, 1945. Even after VJ Day, the division's combat outposts continued to net prisoners until the division was officially relieved on October 5th, 1945. In the final tally, the 38th Infantry Division that Shine proudly served, fought against more than 80,000 Japanese, killing 26,732 and ultimately taking more than 13,000 prisoners. For its swift clearing of the Bataan peninsula in 19 days of bloody combat, division commander Major General William C. Chase, ordered that the division would be known as the "Avengers of Bataan”.

The 38th Infantry Division lost 270 men and had 420 wounded. Except for the 38th Division's brutal struggle at 'Zig-Zag Pass', the swift and easy recapture of the province of Zambales and the Bataan peninsula enabled the Americans full use of Manila Bay and its world-class deep-water port. This development subsequently allowed the easy resupply of US forces retaking Manila. (Wikipedia.org, Battle of Bataan, 1945 and Wikipedia, 38th Infantry Division).

In this fierce fighting Corporal Lloyd “Shine” Fleming, survived and was awarded the Bronze Star. On the evening of November 7th, 1945 at 6 o’clock he was part of “Operation Magic Carpet” that brought him back to the United States arriving in Los Angeles California aboard the troopship Mormacdove or Marine Cardinal (both carried elements of the 38th Division). He sent a telegram the next morning saying he had arrived safely and called his wife and young son about four am Center time.

After discharge Shine returned to Center still weak from the malaria he contacted in Bataan. It was several months before he could return to the filling station business that he operated before the war. Many may remember him for his many years with Farmers State Bank as a Senior Vice President and Loan Officer. He passed away in 1988 at the age of 70 and wife Pat passed in 1997. Both are buried in Oaklawn Memorial Park.

As a footnote, brothers Joel (1911-1969) and Jeff (1913-1999) also survived the war and returned home to lead productive lives as US Citizens. The Fleming’s were one of many American families who served our country in time of need during World War II. They were truly a “Band of Brothers” to who we owe a debt of gratitude that can never be paid. Three more sons of Shelby County to be proud of.

Sources (Wanda & Scotty Fleming, 06/2015; Champion Newspaper, 6/6/1940, 1/8/1942, 2/19/1942, 11/19/1942, and 1/21/1943; The Men & Women in WW II from Shelby County; Ancestry.com, 06/2015; wikipedia.org, & 38th Infantry Division, 06/2015).

Lloyd Fleming (1918)