Don Shepperd was born on September 14, 1940, in Texas. He entered the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1958 and was commissioned a 2Lt in the Air Force on June 6, 1962. He next entered Undergraduate Pilot Training and was awarded his pilot wings at Williams AFB, Arizona, in October 1963. After completing F-100 Super Sabre combat crew training, Lt Shepperd was assigned to the 81st Tactical Fighter Squadron at Hahn AB, West Germany, from July 1964 to October 1966, and then as an air liaison officer with the 24th Infantry Division, also in West Germany, from October 1966 to October 1967. Lt Shepperd began flying combat missions in Southeast Asia in October 1967 with the 90th Tactical Fighter Squadron at Bien Hoa Air Base in the Republic of Vietnam. He then transferred to Phu Cat Air Base where he flew combat missions as a Misty Fast FAC from December 1967 to April 1968. His final time in Vietnam was spent as an instructor pilot with the 90th TFS from April to October 1968. Shepperd next served as an A-37 Dragonfly instructor pilot with the 4532nd Tactical Fighter Squadron at England AFB, Louisiana, from October 1968 to October 1969. Capt Shepperd was then assigned as an O-2 Milirole forward air control pilot with the 103rd Tactical Air Support Squadron at Willow Grove Naval Air Station, Pennsylvania, from May 1970 to August 1973. He left the Air Force and joined the Arizona Air National Guard in August 1974, serving until January 1987 when he transferred to the Massachusetts Air National Guard. From July 1989 to January 1994, Gen Shepperd served as the deputy director for the Air National Guard at the Pentagon, followed by a tour as the director of the Air National Guard from January 1994 until his retirement from the Air Force on September 14, 2000. Gen Shepperd is a Command Pilot and accumulated over 5,000 flying hours during his Air Force career, with 247 combat missions during the Vietnam War. He was Misty 34.