Lloyd Wilson Coartney was born on August 20, 1919, in Ashmore, Coles County, Illinois. He was the son of Charles Wilson Coartney and Mary Alice Ellington Coartney. He was first married to Ellen Jane Peabody Coartney and later to Mary Louise Sager Nater. He completed his education at Westfield High School in 1937, Blackburn College in 1939, and the University of Illinois in 1941, where he earned an honors bachelor’s degree in agriculture. He served as a lead navigator aboard a B-17 Flying Fortress with the 418th Bomber Squadron, 100th Bomber Group, Heavy, Eighth Air Force. Stationed at Thorpe Abbotts near Norwich, England, he flew 29 combat missions in 1944, including D-Day, and attained the rank of Captain.

On July 14, 1944, Bastille Day, the United States Army Air Forces carried out Operation Cadillac, one of the largest Allied aerial resupply missions of World War II, delivering urgently needed weapons, ammunition, and supplies to the French Resistance. Hundreds of B-17 Flying Fortress bombers, escorted by fighter aircraft, flew from England to drop thousands of containers over designated Resistance zones, including Moustoulat in Corrèze.

Coartney took part in that mission, and in 1994, he returned to France with fellow members of the 100th Bomb Group at the invitation of the French Resistance to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Bastille Day operation that supplied Resistance forces near Tulle. In 1947, he started a 16-year career with the International Harvester Company in Peoria. In 1963, he entered into a partnership with Blair Doubet to form the Doubet-Coartney Company, an International Harvester farm equipment dealership in Edelstein. Following Doubet’s retirement, the firm continued operating as Coartney International Inc. until 1989. He was also a member of the Scottish Rite for more than 50 years. Coartney died on January 21, 2010, and is now buried in the Old Stonington Cemetery, Stonington, Christian County, Illinois, USA.

Source of information: www.findagrave.com, resistancefrancaise.blogspot.com