Val Dysert Sheafer, Jr. (1922-1945)

Val Sheafer was born March 4, 1922 in Carlisle, Pennsylvania and entered the local Dickinson College with the class of 1943 in September 1939. He was a member of Phi Kappa Psi and a senior mathematics major when he left Dickinson in April 1943 to enlist in the Army Air Corps. With credit assigned from his Army training, he was qualified to graduate at Dickinson's commencement in late May 1943, and his father received his diploma on his behalf.

Sheafer trained at Montgomery, Alabama and at gunnery school in Florida before completing bombardier school in Texas. He received his commission and his wings in April 1944. He was assigned to England on February 11, 1945 as the bombardier on a B-24 Liberator. Sheafer was killed five weeks later when his aircraft crashed during a training flight. He had just reached his twenty-third birthday.

More information about other Dickinson war casualties can be found through the online project "In Remembrance" (see link for related entries below).