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Epperson William Sherman

Name:
William Sherman Epperson
Rank:
Lieutenant
Serial Number:
Unit:
Date of Death:
1943-07-30
State:
Utah
Cemetery:
Kaysville City Cemetery, Kaysville, Utah
Plot:
16
Row:
2
Grave:
D-6
Decoration:
Comments:

William Sherman Epperson was born on July 13, 1916 in Kaysville, Davis County, Utah. He was graduated from Davis high school and from University of Colorado at Boulder. Prior to his induction he was an employee of the Inland Printing Co., Kaysville. William received his basic training at Fort Lewis, Wash. In November he was transferred to the air corps and trained at various fields in Texas and later received his commission at Foster Field, Victoria, Texas. He later took advanced training in Florida. He had been out of the states more than a year before his death, serving in the Panama canal zone and South America. In the spring of 1943, he was sent to North Africa, then India and finally to China.

William served in the US Air Corps as a Lieutenant. He was killed in action in Hunan province, China, July 30, 1943, while he and other U. S. fighter pilots were attacking a greatly superior enemy force. On July 29, the day before his death, Lieutenant Epperson in a flight of four ships tackled 53 Jap planes to prevent bombing of an advanced U. S. air base in Hunan province. The American pilots forced the enemy bombers to jettison their bombs before reaching the target. The next day 63 Japanese fighter planes tried a second attack and Lieutenant Epperson was in the group of American fighters which met them and again forced them away from the target. It was during this assault that Lieutenant Epperson was killed.

Lt. Epperson is now buried in the Kaysville City Cemetery, Kaysville, Davis County, Utah, USA. He was one of over 2000 Americans who lost their lives defending China from their Japanese invaders from 1941-1945. He is commemorated on the The Monument to the Aviation Martyrs in the War of Resistance Against Japan in Nanjing, China.

Source of information: www.findagrave.com