Shepherd, Daniel Michael

Daniel Michael Shepherd

Elyria, Ohio

Feather Location: Row L, #09

Associated Press

His unit was due home in less than a month.

Shepherd enlisted in the Army after graduating from high school in 2000 and had been stationed at Fort Riley since December 2000. He was deployed in September 2003.

Shepherd was supposed to get out of the military soon and wanted to go to college, his grandmother, Celia Siek, said Monday.

After getting the news on Sunday, Shepherd’s parents traveled to Fort Riley, Kan., to be with their daughter-in-law, Kassie, and grandson, Daniel, Siek said. Shepherd’s son was born on St. Patrick’s Day, said Jo Ellen Horn, whose daughter was visiting Kassie when she got the news of her husband’s death. Daniel looked just like his father, Horn said.

Shepherd, who grew up in Elyria, southwest of Cleveland, played center and tight-end on the Columbia High School football team, Siek said. Shepherd met his wife in high school, said Kathy Banyasz, the mother of one of his former football teammates. “She missed him terribly and couldn’t wait for him to come home,” Banyasz said.

Jo Ellen Horn’s son, Chris Horn, said Shepherd used to give him rides to football practice during the summer. “He seemed like he knew what he wanted to do from the get-go,” Horn said. “He said he wanted to be in the military and then when he got out, he wanted to become a cop.”

Carver:  Alice Buell is from Vermilion Ohio and carves with the Carvers Den in Bellevue.

Wood:  Basswood