Pennsylvania to Welcome Home Fallen WWII Soldier 81 Years Later

FORT KNOX, KENTUCKY, UNITED STATES

09.18.2025

Story by William Costello 

U.S. Army Human Resources Command

FORT KNOX, Ky. – The remains of U.S. Army Air Forces 2nd Lt. Donald W. Sheppick, 26, a native of Roscoe, Pennsylvania, killed during the World War II, will be interred Sept. 25, in Howe Cemetery in Coal Center, Pennsylvania. Ferguson Funeral Home and Crematory will coordinate graveside services preceding the interment.

Sheppick was assigned to the 320th Bombardment Squadron, 90th Bombardment Group, 5th Air Force and deployed in present day Papua New Guinea. On March 11, 1944, Sheppick, the navigator onboard a B-24D Liberator bomber departed Papua New Guinea as part of a bombing mission against enemy positions at Boram Airfield and Awar Point, Hansa Bay, located along the northern coast of New Guinea. Suspected anti-aircraft fire hit the plane, causing un-dropped ordnance to explode. Several aircraft circled the crash site in hopes of locating any possible survivors, but none could be seen.

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency accounted for Sheppick on Sept. 20, 2024.

For more information on DPAA’s efforts to locate and identify 2nd Lt. Sheppick’s remains, please visit: https://www.dpaa.mil/News-Stories/ID-Announcements/Article/4190130/airman-accounted-for-from-world-war-ii-sheppick-d/

U.S. Army Human Resources Command’s Past Conflict Repatriations Branch plays a vital role in the process of identifying, locating and contacting subsequent generation family members of Soldiers missing or killed in action during WWII and the Korean War to positively identify previously undiscovered or unknown remains.

Media interested in covering and/or obtaining more information about the funeral and interment should contact Ferguson Funeral Home and Crematory, 724-929-5300.

• Date Taken: 09.18.2025
• Date Posted: 09.18.2025 08:20
• Story ID: 548503
• Location: FORT KNOX, KENTUCKY, US
• Hometown: ROSCOE, PENNSYLVANIA, US