Full military honors will be conducted in Dallas Wednesday for Capt. Loyd Meredith Willson, 27, who was killed in Vietnam February 22.
   Funeral services will be held at 2 p. m. Thursday in Highland Park Methodist Church, with burial following in the military section of Restland Memorial Park. Maj. Elmer Dymmell, Air Force chaplain assigned to Howard Air Force Base in Panama, will conduct the services, assisted by the Rev. William H. Dickinson, pastor of Highland Park Church.
   Capt. Willson lost his life February 22 when the unit he commanded, Company A of the 16th Infantry, 1st Division, was engaged by a hostile force on a combat operation.
   Captain Willson was a career Army officer. He received his regular Army commission as a second lieutenant soon after graduation from the University of Kansas in 1962 as an honor military student. He was first assigned to Ft. Benning, Georgia, where he completed orientation, Ranger, and Airborne Schools. His first unit was the 101st Airborne Division at Ft. Campbell, Kentucky. He also spent a summer as an instructor at the U. S. Military Academy, West Point, New York before he was assigned to the 508th Airborne Battalion in Panama. It was during his duty in Panama that Capt. Willson received his Master parachutist rating and met Maj. Dymmell, protestant chaplain at Howard AFB. The 508th has its quarters at the base and Capt. Willson, who had studied music at the university, had conducted the chapel choir.
   Capt. Willson was sent to Vietnam last August, assigned to headquarters of the 3rd Brigade, 1st Division. During his staff service, he had volunteered for armed helicopter missions against the enemy and received the Air Medal for flying 25 such missions.
   At his own request, he was transferred to a combat unit in December and was assigned to Company A. Capt. Harry Nieuwboer, the officer who escorted Capt. Willson's body to Dallas, is also an Army friend from Capt. Willson's early military career. Capt. Nieuwboer was detached from his unit near the Demilitarized Zone in Vietnam for the escort duty.
   Capt. Willson, who was named for his uncle, the widely known composer-author Meredith Willson of Los Angeles, was born in Houston, spent his early years there and attended high school and college in Kansas.
   He is survived by his wife, and daughter, Wendy, both of Dallas; father, Cedric Willson of Dallas; and mother, Mrs. Myrle S. Willson of Lawrence, Kansas.

[Dallas News, transcribed by Carol Moore 03-06-1968]

(courtesy of "TLH")

Grave marker for Capt Loyd M. Willson in Field of Honor, Restland Memorial Park, Dallas (Dallas county), Texas.

Capt Willson served with the 508th in Panama.