The Mountain Eagle
WHITESBURG WEATHER

Seven brothers served in military




The Shepherds are a family with a history of military service, says The Dayton Daily News.

The seven brothers in the family each was in the military — four during World War II.

The Letcher County natives all volunteered for service and none were drafted, Charles ‘Ray’ Shepherd told the Dayton newspaper. “In that era it was almost a transition, if you weren’t going to college, as a way of gaining experience and maturing.

His brother Billy said, “We came from the mountains in eastern Kentucky. It was an opportunity; the area was poverty stricken. My father only had a thirdgrade education. My mother was a schoolteacher and my dad was a sharecropper until he purchased a farm.

The four surviving brothers are:

• Billy Shepherd, who was in the Marines during World War II. He served in China and was discharged in 1945. He now lives in Miami Township, Ohio.

• Charles ‘Ray’ Shepherd, who served in the Army about three years. He lives in Lexington.

• Jack Shepherd, who was in the Army about three years. He lives in Versailles.

• George Shepherd, who served in the Marines 23 years, retiring as a major. He served in World War II.

Their three brothers were:

• Hubert Shepherd, who was in the Army about three years. He was a guard at the German war trials after World War II. He lived in California.

• James Shepherd, who served in the Army about five years during World War II. He died about 15 years ago.

• Benny Shepherd, who was in the Air Force about two years. He was killed in a plane crash at age 21 as he traveled from Eglin Air Force Base to Wright- Patterson Air Force Base.

The grandparents of the brothers were the late Dishman and Sarah Hogg of Kingscreek, Roxana, and the late Bill and Matilda Shepherd of Mill Branch, Roxana.



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