Harry A. Sheppard (1917-2003) was an Air Force colonel, World War II fighter pilot, and one of the first African Americans accepted for aircraft maintenance training in the Army Air Corps, assigned to the 99th Pursuit Squadron. He served as a pilot with the famed Tuskegee Airmen, the first African American flying unit in the U.S. military who fought in World War II. Sheppard flew 123 combat missions, and he was awarded the Legion of Merit, the Distinguished Service Medal, and the Air Medal with 13 oak leaf clusters for his service.

The son of immigrant parents from the West Indies, Col. Sheppard was born in the Jamaica neighborhood of Queens on October 24, 1917. He studied electrical engineering at the City College of New York for three years, and he enlisted in the Army Air Corps on April 1, 1941. After being trained as an engine and aircraft mechanic, he completed flight training at the Tuskegee Army Airfield in Alabama and eventually flew combat missions over North Africa and Europe. After returning from the war, he was married in 1947. Together with his wife, Amy, the couple raised four daughters.

Continuing his 33-year military career, he was later assigned to air traffic control and communications, and he directed flight facilities at bases in Alaska and Oklahoma, attending both the University of Alaska and the University of Oklahoma. He also served as a liaison to the Federal Aviation Administration, eventually retiring in 1974. He then served as a manager and consultant for Evaluation Technologies, Inc., and he volunteered for Arlington-Alexandria Coalition for the Homeless and the Arlington Community Center.

Sheppard was a frequent lecturer on the history of the Tuskegee Airmen, also speaking on behalf of the Tuskegee Airmen’s Association to help raise scholarship funds for young people aspiring to aerospace and aviation careers. He was a charter member of the East Coast Chapter of Tuskegee Airmen, where he served as Chapter President and also as Eastern Region President.

Sheppard died of cancer at his home in Arlington, Virginia, on January 22, 2003. He was survived at the time by his wife, his daughters and their husbands, and six grandchildren. He is buried with his wife, Amy, in Arlington National Cemetery. The southeast corner of Tuskegee Airmen Way and 150th Street in Jamaica was named in his honor in 2014 as 2nd Lt. Harry A. Sheppard Corner.