Morton Sher was born on December 14, 1920, in Baltimore, City of Baltimore, Maryland. He was the son of David Harry Sher and Celia Robinson Sher. He graduated from Greenville High School in 1938, where he was an early member of the school’s Air Force ROTC program, already showing a strong passion for aviation. Sher continued his studies at the University of Alabama, joining ROTC and enrolling in a Civil Aeronautics Administration pilot-training program designed to prepare civilian aviators for military service. He enlisted as an aviation cadet on June 2, 1941, completed advanced flight training with the Army Air Corps, and earned his wings in early 1942. After initial assignment defending the Panama Canal, he was deployed to China with the 76th Fighter Squadron, 23rd Fighter Group, successors to the famed Flying Tigers, where he flew combat missions against Japanese forces.

On August 20, 1943, 1Lt Sher took off from Hengyang Airfield in Hunan Province, China, piloting his Curtiss P-40 Warhawk on a combat mission during World War II as part of the U.S. Army Air Forces’ 76th Fighter Squadron, 23rd Fighter Group, 14th Air Force. That day, Sher and his squadron were tasked with intercepting an Imperial Japanese aircraft reported to be en route to attack the strategic city of Hengyang, where Allied air units were based, in support of operations against Japanese forces. During the aerial engagement over Hengshan County, Sher’s fighter was hit by enemy fire; he was unable to bail out before the aircraft crashed into a rice paddy and burned, killing him in action. Although the site was located after the war, his remains were not recovered at the time.

1Lt Sher's name is memorialized in the Tablets of the Missing in the Manila American Cemetery. After remaining unrecovered for more than eight decades, the remains of 1st Lt. Morton Sher were ultimately found through renewed investigative work by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency and was officially accounted for on June 11, 2025. He is now buried in the Beth Israel Cemetery, Greenville, Greenville County, South Carolina, USA.

Source of information: www.foxcarolina.com, dpaa-mil.sites.crmforce.mil