Pfc. Billie Clifford Loomis

July 19, 1936-June 3. 1968

Oroville

Billie Loomis was born in Gridley and grew up in Palermo.

In 1953, at age 17. he joined the Army and served a four-year stint.

Loomis left the Army and moved to Susanville, where he worked in a lumber mill for a number of years.

In the mid-1960s, he re-joined the Army and was trained as a cook. In May 1968, he was sent to Vietnam as a replacement infantryman.

“He was killed in one of them swamps.” said a close relative, “He wrote one letter, and before we got his second, he was killed.”

Courtesy Chico News & Review