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| Staff Sergeant Donald Shelton served with the 34th Infantry Division in North Africa and Italy. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/169757568/donald-r-shelton "The 34th Infantry Division: Louisiana to Pisa" |
Donald R. Shelton never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.
He was born on June 11, 1918 in Iowa. Donald was most likely an only child to parents Ron and Pearl. In high school the 6'2" Donald was a three sports athlete. He was captain of the basketball team and an all-state center, an all-conference football player, and an award winning pitcher who once tried out for the Pittsburg Pirates. By 1940 Donald was playing semi-pro baseball.
He enlisted in the army on February 10, 1941 when his national guard unit was called up. He became a staff sergeant in Company E, 2nd Battalion, 133rd Infantry Regiment, 34th Infantry Division. It was sent to North Ireland in mid-1942 and prepared for the invasion of North Africa. Sgt. Shelton landed in Algiers where the 34th ID defeated the Vichy troops in Oran, Algeria. He fought through the full campaign in Tunisia and then in Italy, beginning in September 1943.
In March 1944 Sgt. Shelton's actions resulted in a Bronze Star. Unfortunately, I don't know the details. Three months later he was wounded near Lanuvio and sent to hospital. He was back with his unit by September and was killed in action when his company attacked the Germans defending Terenza in Tuscany on September 15, 1944.
His grave is at Graceland Cemetery, Webster City, Iowa.
Last year on this date I profiled twins Edwin and Erwin Steege. You can read about the Steege brothers here.
On behalf of the fallen, if you would like to see more people become aware of this project to honor the WW2 fallen, be sure to share with others on Twitter, Facebook, etc. Thanks for your interest!
I created this video to explain why I started this project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXt8QA481lY.
Please consider joining the public Facebook group to increase the exposure of this project. Go to: WW2 Fallen 100
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