At the age of 17, Lloyd Larson decided to serve his country and enlisted in the Navy in 1964.
“I joined the Navy because I’m an American and I firmly believe in serving in the military to do my part for the country that I live in,” he said.
He said he joined the Navy because it ran in the family and his stepfather was in the U.S. Coast Guard.
Larson spent the first four months of his service at basic training in San Diego, where he learned small arms training, how to contain and put out a fire and was exposed to nerve agent gasses.
Larson started hunting when he was 7-years-old and had always shot with his rifle on his left shoulder, but found that was not the way to do it when he started basic training.