Loyd Z. Voiles

Upon the outbreak of war in Europe in September 1939, the USS Reuben James joined the Neutrality Patrol, and guarded the Atlantic and Caribbean approaches to the American coast.

In March 1941, the Reuben James joined the convoy escort force established to promote the safe arrival of war materials to Britain. This escort force guarded convoys as far as Iceland, where they became the responsibility of British escorts. Based at Hvalfjordur, Iceland, she sailed from Argentia, Newfoundland, 23 October 1941, with four other destroyers to escort eastbound convoy HX-156. While escorting that convoy, at about 0525 on 31 October 1941, Reuben James was torpedoed by German submarine U-562. Her magazine exploded, and she sank quickly. Of the crew, 44 survived and 115 died.

The Chattanooga Daily Times, November 5, 1941
The Navy department announced officially yesterday the death of two Chattanoogans in the recent torpedoing of the destroyer Reuben James in the North Atlantic. Victims of the submarine attack were Loyd Zean Voiles, 18-year-old son of Mrs. Mellie Voiles, of Pineville, and James Walter Rogers, 24, son of Mr. and Mrs. W.G. Rogers, of 118 Lavonia Avenue, Red Bank. Voiles, with less than a year’s service in the Navy, was advanced to the rating of Seaman First Class, only a few days before he lost his life. Rogers, a gunner’s mate, had been in the service almost two years. Rear Admiral C.W. Nimitz, chief of the bureau of navigation, made the official announcement in identical telegrams received here yesterday morning. Ninety-three other telegrams containing ill tidings went to parents and nearest of kin of the missing crew members. The telegram to Mrs. Voiles read as follows: “It is with deep regret that the Navy department notifies you that from latest available information it appears that your son, Loyd Z. Voiles, seaman, second class, United States navy, lost his life in line of duty and in the service of his country when the U.S.S. Reuben James was torpedoed and sunk.”