Floyd W. Shepard was born in Kenyon, Minnesota in April 1890 or 1891. In 1917 he was living in Minneapolis, employed as a grain merchant at Shepard Grain Company.

He enlisted in August in the Army Enlisted Reserve Corps at Ft. Snelling, Minnesota. In December he attended the School of Military Aeronautics at the University of Texas at Austin, then was sent to Camp Dick in Dallas, Texas in February 1918. In May he was appointed a second lieutenant in the Signal Officers' Reserve Corps, Aviation Section. He was assigned to both Camp Dick and Love Field in Dallas as part of a detached service. In June he was sent briefly to Call Field in Wichita Falls, Texas, then to Wilbur Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio. In July he went to the School for Aerial Observers at Langley Field in Hampton, Virginia, then returned to Texas in August when he was sent to the School of Aerial Gunnery at Taliaferro Field in Fort Worth.

In September 1918, Shepard was ordered to the Port of Embarkation in Hoboken, New Jersey, and arrived in France in October. He received further training at the 3rd Aviation Instruction Center in Issoudun. The armistice was signed in November before Shepard could see combat service, but he remained in France ferrying aircraft between stations for the occupational forces. He was briefly assigned to the 1101st Aero Replacement Squadron, then to the 135th Aero Squadron as an observation pilot, and in February 1919 to the 85th Aero Squadron. He returned home in July 1919 and was honorably discharged upon his arrival at Mitchell Field, Long Island, New York.

After the war Shepard returned briefly to the grain industry. In 1922 he relocated to Canada and started a wholesale business with Bert Thompson. Shepard married Evelyn Blanche Miller in 1926. They relocated to the Pacific Northwest, where Shepard worked for Emil Sick at his brewing plants in Seattle (Washington), Salem and Portland (Oregon). He retired in Seattle in 1955. Shepard died October 1966 in Brentwood, California.



Sources and further reading:

Service history is derived from military documents in the collection.

George M. Shepard. Notes on Genealogy: Branches of Thrall, Shepard, and Related Families. St. Paul: St. Paul Associated Letter Co., 1968.