Ervin David "Molly" Shaw was born on September 13, 1894 in Alcolu, South Carolina. In 1917, Shaw enlisted in the U.S. Army, where he received some pilot training. Because the U.S. military did not have an Air Force at the time, Shaw requested to be honorably discharged in 1918 so that he could commission as a 1st Lieutenant in the Signal Reserve Corps, Royal Canadian Air Service. During World War I, 1LT Shaw was attached to the 48th Squadron, RAF. He was killed on July 9, 1918 near Grandcourt when three enemy aircraft attacked his Bristol F.2B while he was returning from a reconnaissance mission. Lt. Shaw downed one of his attackers before he was killed. Being the first person from Sumter County, South Carolina to be killed in the Great War and the only Sumter aviator to die in combat, Ervin Shaw became the namesake of Shaw Air Force Base in Sumter County, SC, when the base was established in June 1941.