Lloyd Leslie Radcliffe
October 12, 1925 – December 31, 2005
Class: 45-B-SE
Graduation date: 4/15/1945
Rank at time of graduation: 2nd Lt
Unit: 99th Fighter Squadron
Service # 0842584
From: New Haven CT
Lloyd L. Radcliffe was born in New Haven, CT, the youngest of 8. He joined the US Army Air Forces specifically to become a pilot and a Tuskegee Airman. After completing his pilot training, he was stationed in Europe but was never engaged in any air battles. After his return to the US and honorable discharge, he returned to New Haven, where he gained employed as a mechanical engineer, married Evelyn Lanier, and they had 8 children. Lloyd maintained his pilot’s license and treated many of his and neighbor children to their first flight experience with him at control in the cockpit of a Cessna aircraft that he would fly out of the local Tweed New Haven airport.
Lloyd L Radcliffe was one of 3 New Haven born Tuskegee Airmen (George Sheats & Robert Whyte). His story is one of those a part of ‘The Tuskegee Airmen – Their Untold Stories’ exhibit at the New England Air Museum and was also a part of a local exhibit at the Stetson Library in New Haven, CT.
He was also interviewed by Judith Brown of the Tuskegee Airmen Oral History Project – National Park Service) with the interview recordings and transcripts stored in the archives of the Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site.
Radcliffe is third from the left, bottom row
Sources:
Daughter, Leslie Radcliffe
New York Times
