If the young gamers in Cherokee County are anything like Gregory Lloyd, there may be great things in their futures.
“My son was a gamer,” Brenda Allen Lloyd said with a laugh, “but I know my son, and I’m not surprised. I think he was surprised, but I wasn’t.”
Gregory Lloyd is in the U.S. Navy, serving as first class petty officer and logistics lead for the famous Blue Angels flight demonstration squadron. Formed in 1946, it’s the second-oldest flight aerobatic team in the world.
“As a kid, I was just a gamer,” he said. “I thought I wanted to go to medical school, but two classes in and I realized I’m not a body fluid kind of guy.”
But Lloyd did like money.
“So I went into a career that manages money,” he said.
As logistics lead, Lloyd oversees a $109 million budget.
“Anything that needs to move or has a dollar amount attached, I manage,” Lloyd said.
Making it more interesting, he almost didn’t join the Navy.
“I put my information into a recruiting database in the 10th grade,” Lloyd said. “I didn’t get a call until five years later.”
He served his first few years in Navy at a Fleet Logistics Center in Japan.
“At my six-year mark, they told me they wanted my skills here,” Lloyd said.
Here refers to the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Fla. He recently reached his 10-year mark in the Navy and plans to stay.
Lloyd finds his work with the team inspirational.
“The best part of the [Blue Angels] team is the social interaction with the American public,” he said. “In the military, you get the ‘thank you for your service,’ but you don’t get to see cancer patients at St. Jude’s Hospital sit in a Blue Angel cockpit.”
The most challenging part of his job is the fund allocation.
“I’m in charge of deciding where the money needs to go. I have a budget of $82,000 for an East Coast show and my job is to figure out how everybody gets paid,” Lloyd said. “There are only so many dollars for fuel, support equipment or aircraft parts.”
Lloyd likes the challenge of meeting the budget.
“I’m the most popular guy on the team,” he said with a laugh. “I’m the guy that gets you the new boots.”
Lloyd applied what he learned in the military to his own life.
“I learned how to manage my own money,” he said. “I set budgets for meal or entertainment. Before that, I was young. I’d go out and not think about the money on the back end.”
Lloyd’s acuity and service caught the attention of his superiors. He is about leave the Blue Angels for a promotion at Fort Bragg near Fayetteville.
“I am taking on an advisory role for an admiral,” he said. “I’ll be among top dogs in the Navy making decisions.”
For young people in Cherokee County who are still uncertain of their future, Lloyd offered some guidance.
“Don’t be afraid to take a risk,” he said. “I joined the Navy totally blind. I knew nothing, and it paid dividends in my career.”