PFC Chester Raymond Sheets

PFC Chester Raymond Sheets was born 24 Dec 1919 in Newberry, Pennsylvania. He was the only child of Alvin Samuel and Anna Mary (Morrison) Sheets. His father was his mother's 2nd husband and she had 6 children with her first husband. The family lived in Williamsport, Pennsylvania and Chester's father worked in a steel mill and a tannery to support the family reportedly earning $1300 in 1939. Chester found work as a farm hand.

Chester was doing farm work when he was drafted in February 1942. After his basic military training he was sent to England and assigned to C Company 116th Infantry. He trained with the company for the amphibious landing that was to be part of the invasion and liberation of occupied France. PFC Sheets took part in the landings on 6 Jun 1944 and fought with the unit as the regiment attempted to consolidate the beachhead and move inland through the bocage country. He was wounded on 13 Jun 1944 and evacuated to a field hospital where he died later that same day.

Initially buried in the temporary cemetery near the beaches, PFC Sheets was repatriated in December 1947 and on 14 Dec 1947 he was re-interred in the Montoursville Cemetery in Montoursville, Pennsylvania.

2 of Chester's half-brothers served in WW1. Charles Samuel Heim was serving in the National Guard when the war began. George William Heim served in B Company 107th Machine Gun Battalion, rose to the rank of CPL and was wounded in the Meuse-Argonne campaign. He died in 1942 of complications arising from his wound(s).