It was under unusual circumstances that Cameron Park’s Jim Lloyd wound up flying with several foreign air forces.

Those were in addition to his domestic service branch, the U.S. Navy’s air wing.

But Lloyd, 85, is an unusual person. One can tell because he did unusual things in two different careers – his second one was as a U.S. Congressman – and he fixes to repeat in his third career, that of traveling public speaker. He travels, that’s right, by air, to destinations that have included Mexico City, and will soon include Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and the University of Kentucky at Lexington.

Lloyd kept on taking military aircraft into the air long after he left the naval air force to serve as a U.S. Congressman, between 1975 and 1981.

“I flew with (Great Britain’s) Royal Air Force, in Wales, as a member of the House Armed Services Committee, which was looking into the particular aircraft type I flew,” Lloyd said. “Our State Department was not too thrilled with that – they threatened to take my passport.”

Much the same thing happened again, with the Israeli Air Force, and with the French Air Force.

“With the Israelis, I flew the Mirage,” Lloyd said. “I rolled it, looped it. On the ground, they immediately dumped water over my head, and said, ‘You’re initiated as a member of the Israeli Air Force.’”

Even the start of Lloyd’s flying career, during World War II, was marked by irregularity.

“I volunteered for the U.S. Air Force, but they didn’t take me, because I couldn’t find my birth certificate,” Lloyd said.

Trying next to get into the naval air force, Lloyd lucked into meeting a crafty chief petty officer in Klamath Falls, Ore. The CPO covered his own behind while getting an eager young volunteer into the U.S. Armed Forces in time of war.

“He handed me someone else’s birth certificate,” Lloyd said. “Then, he said, ‘Give it back to me,’ and I did. He said, ‘What did you just give me?’ and I said, ‘A birth certificate.’ He said, ‘That’s right. You tell anyone who asks that you gave a birth certificate to the CPO in Klamath Falls. It’s the truth.’”

Lloyd flew a total of 153 separate aircraft types during a total of 15,000 flight hours logged.

“I was in the right place at the right time,” he said. “I had the opportunity. There were guys who were infinitely better flyers.”

Well, yes, but the book says “bail out” when your plane goes into a tailspin, according to Lloyd. Lloyd unofficially created his own section of the training manual for that type of midair crisis.

“All pilots should be able to spin an aircraft,” Lloyd said. “As an instructor, I taught them how to spin and recover. You have to recover, bail out or be dead. I had different policies.”

Lloyd figures he parlayed a briefing-officer stint into his Congressional seat as “a conservative Democrat.” In the naval air force, he acquired a reputation for ability to spot a particular aircraft type most suitable for a given combat objective. Then, he was sent to the U.S.’s now-controversial Guantanamo base on the island of Cuba – during what is known as the Cuban missile crisis of the early 1960s.

“I handled all (public) relations, “ he said. “I had members of Congress coming in. I dealt with all of them. I was so knowledgeable that Tip O’Neill said, ‘Get in here (Congress), and vote, because people want to follow what you do.’”

In an upcoming speaking job at the University of Kentucky, Lloyd said, he plans to take the now-unusual stance of urging young people to seek careers in Washington DC. He’ll also preach the redrawing of all the states’ Congressional districts. To top it off, he said, he’ll call on educators to work for the teaching of a mandatory two years of civics in public schools.

“The American public does not understand the structure of their own government,” Lloyd said.

Lloyd was fairly instrumental in getting the country’s air forces to adopt the T-45 trainer aircraft, he said.

At nearby Beale Air Force Base, Sgt. Zachary Wilson said no T-45s flew out of Beale, but that they’re still in use, flying out of the main U.S. Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Fla.

The Telegraph’s Roger Phelps can be reached at rogerp@goldcountrymedia.com, or post a comment at folsomtelegraph.com