Lyon Elkin Agee, Jr. was born on September 25, 1923, in Hurley, Virginia. His family lived in Randolph, Cumberland County, Virginia, and Magnolia, Mingo County, West Virginia, before moving to his final home, Johnson City, Washington County, Tennessee. He graduated from Science Hill High School, Class of 1940, and attended the State Teachers College, now East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, for two years before entering service. While at the State Teachers College, Lyon learned to fly as a member of the Civilian Pilot Training Program conducted by the school at the Regional Airport. Lyon enlisted on May 29, 1942, in Knoxville, Tennessee, as an Aviation Cadet in the United States Army Air Forces. He was then sent to the Army Air Forces Classification Center at the Nashville Army Air Center in Nashville, Tennessee, where he was selected as a pilot trainee.
After pre-flight training, Lyon was selected to become a fighter pilot and earned his wings at Napier Field, Alabama, on August 30, 1943. Also, upon graduation, Lyon was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant. He was assigned to the 512th Fighter Squadron (FS), 406th Fighter Group (FG) and continued to hone his skills in several fighter/bomber aircraft with them at Key Field in Meridian, Mississippi, Dale Mabry Field near Tallahassee, Florida, and their home base at Congaree Army Airfield near Columbia, South Carolina. Lyon entered into a competition in 1943 with the 14th Fighter Squadron (FS), 53rd Fighter Group (FG), and took away their Highest Aerial Gunnery Medal.
Lyon's assigned aircraft was a P-47D Thunderbolt #42-75345/L3-G, commonly known as a JUG with a standing Puppy Dog painted on the nose. On June 22, 1944, his five-man flight, Blue Flight, Lyon was flying as Blue 4 were assigned to do the low-level bombing and strafing runs on German units in the Cherbourg area of France on the Normandy coastline. At 1350 hours, Lyon called his wingman, Blue 3, and reported he had been hit and needed assistance. Blue 3, First Lieutenant Creighton Smith acknowledged and then took a hit by a 37mm round in his engine, so he now had his own problems. Blue 3 last reported seeing Blue 4 flying at about 500 feet, heading in a northerly direction over the English Channel for England with his engine smoking badly. Lyon never made it to England, nor was he ever seen again. He went down somewhere in the English Channel. Two days later, on June 24, Lyon was promoted to First Lieutenant and declared dead on June 23, 1945. 1Lt Agee is memorialized at the Tablets of the Missing, Cambridge American Cemetery, Cambridge, United Kingdom.
Source of information: www.findagrave.com, www.abmc.gov