U.S. Army veteran Tom Lloyd recounts deployments, training and urges recruits to join "for the right reasons"

Tom Lloyd, a U.S. Army veteran who said he served from 2002 through 2017, told a recorded audience about his training, deployments and the personal toll of service, and warned young people against joining the military for benefits alone. "The events of 9/11 really solidified... I'm gonna do it," he said, describing why he enlisted at age 25.

Lloyd said he grew up in South Punta Gorda, graduated from Charlotte High School in 1994 and worked in local television before enlisting. He recounted basic training at Fort Sill, Okla., job-school delays, and jump school at Fort Benning, calling airborne training "very intense" and describing his first parachute jump as a shock that became routine through repeated jumps.

The veteran outlined his field role in artillery units, saying his work in the fire direction center involved plotting maps, using range-deflection tools and running the Automated Field Artillery Tactical Data System to compute firing solutions and factor in meteorological data. "We were the ones that we would tell our cannons where to shoot," he said.

Lloyd described deployments to Kuwait and Iraq in 2003, arriving in-theater with limited equipment and helping establish a compound near Fallujah. He said he was promoted in-country on Oct. 1 (to specialist/E-4) and later served with a Florida-based Guard unit that deployed to Qatar in 2013 to provide security for a compound, where conditions were markedly better than in Iraq.

He recounted a 2013 medical incident in Qatar when he blacked out during a fitness test and was hospitalized; doctors initially feared a heart attack but later discharged him after care. He also described the small, meaningful comforts service provided — hot showers, camaraderie and the chance to finish his education — while stressing that those benefits should not be the primary reason to join.

"Don't join just because you want them to pay for your education," Lloyd said. "Go in the military for the right reasons." He emphasized discipline, teamwork and the reality of combat: "When you're getting shot at as opposed to shooting back, we'll see how you're like." He concluded by urging listeners to learn the history and consider service seriously; he said he would "do it all over again in a heartbeat" if he could.

The statement did not propose any policy action or formal recommendations; it was a personal testimony about military service and its effects. Lloyd's remarks included specific details about units, training sites and deployments that may be of interest to local veteran support organizations and recruiters.