Millard F "Bud" Sloan was born in Oakdale,Tennessee on 25 May 1922. Bud joined the Army on 20 Aug 1940 and was sent to Camp Lee Virginia as a drill instructor. After World War II broke out, he transferred to the Air Corps and was sent to the China-Burma-India Theater as a member of the 5330th Air Cargo Resupply Squadron.

As a crewman on C-47s, Bud participated in low level supply drops to Allied units, such as Merrill’s Marauders and Wingate’s Chindits, on deep penetration campaigns behind enemy lines. His plane was one of the first to land supplies at Myitkyina’s , which had just recently shortly captured by Allied forces. For his service in the CBI, Bud was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross with three oak leaf clusters and the Air Medal with a silver oak leaf cluster.

Returning to the United States in May, 1945 Bud was discharged from the Army Air Corps in July. He married and returned to Tennessee where he worked in the Y-12 plant of the Oak Ridge Facility, part of the Manhattan Project. Later he moved his family to his wife Frances’ hometown of Waxhaw, North Carolina where he earned his private pilot’s license.

Called home on 5 March 2011, Bud left a legacy as a devoted husband, father and outstanding servant to his community. During his tenure in the Army Air Corps, Bud helped prove the theory of supplying troops entirely from the air by the use of low level parachute drops, a technique still in use today. With his service to family, community, and country, Bud is an outstanding example of a true American Patriot.