USS Lloyd (DE-209/APD-63), a of the United States Navy, was named in honor of Ensign William R. Lloyd (1916–1942). Namesake William Rees Lloyd was born on 23 September 1916 in Monticello, Florida. He enlisted in the United States Navy on 9 October 1940. He was appointed midshipman on 15 December 1940 and commissioned Ensign on 14 March 1941. He served briefly aboard , then reported to on 26 September 1941. He was killed in action on 6 May 1942 when Oahu was sunk at Corregidor at the close of the Battle of Corregidor. He was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross. Construction and commissioning Lloyd was laid down on 26 July 1943 by the Charleston Navy Yard, launched on 23 November 1943; sponsored by Mrs. Ella Lee Lloyd, mother of Ensign Lloyd; and commissioned on 11 February 1944. Service history World War II, 1944–1946 After shakedown off Bermuda, the new destroyer escort left Norfolk, Virginia on 12 May 1944 with 13 other destroyer escorts and a convoy of 100 transport ships bound for North Africa. The British relieved the escort ships at Bizerte, Tunisia, on 1 June; nine days later Lloyd and her sister ships departed to escort another convoy on the westward passage home. While en route, Lloyd was reclassified APD-63 on 5 July 1944 and ordered to report to the Philadelphia Navy Yard on 29 June for conversion to a . Three months later, after conversion and shakedown, Lloyd steamed for the Pacific War zones, touched Bora Bora, Society Islands, on 20 October, and arrived Hollandia, New Guinea, on 4 November. Soon thereafter she became the permanent flagship for Transport Division 103. Moving to Leyte on 23 November, for the next five months Lloyd transported invasion troops, as the Allies completed the Philippine liberation. In her first action on 7 December, the new transport ship landed troops at Ormoc on the western coast of Leyte. Ten days later he took part in the daring strike at Mindoro, the Japanese held island 500 miles northwest of Leyte. After Mindoro, she steamed via Lingayen to Hollandia to embark troops for the assault at Lingayen Gulf in northern Luzon. Departing New Guinea on 4 January 1945, she landed her troops at Lingayen a week later. That afternoon, the transport's guns knocked out an enemy shore battery. The next day Lloyd departed and fought her way back to Leyte, splashing four enemy suicide