Pvt Donald James Shingleton (ASN 35754377) was born on February 8, 1924 in Mannington, Marion, West Virginia. His father, Albert Shingleton, and his mother, Bessie Brice Schrader, were both born and raised in West Virginia. His father worked a variety of jobs with his last one being in the oilfield. Donald was the eighth of his parent’s ten children. He had five older brothers, two older sisters, and two younger brothers.

Donald was born and raised in Marion County, West Virginia. His father died in January 1938 when Donald was 13 years old. The following month, his older brother, Robert, was killed in an automobile accident. In November 1938 his mother remarried and moved with her new husband to Hancock County about 100 miles away. Donald lived with his older brothers in Marion County and he graduated from Wilson High School in 1942. He was working at the Weirton Steel mill in Weirton, West Virginia when he received his draft card in July 1942. In May 1943 he received his induction notice and on May 12, 1943 he enlisted in the Army in Clarksburg, West Virginia.

Donald was one of the many people drafted in 1943 in preparation for the invasion of Europe. He was assigned to Company K of the 16th Infantry Regiment in the 1st Infantry Division. He did his basic and infantry mostly at Fort George G. Meade in Maryland. In October 1943, the 16th Infantry had completed its assignment in Sicily and were locating to England. Donald joined the rest of the 16th Regiment in November 1943. Together, they would carry out seven months of grueling training in preparation for the Allied invasion of Normandy.

The plan for D-Day was that Company K (Donald’s unit) would be the reserve for Companies I and L of the 16th Regiment’s 3rd Battalion who were leading the first wave of attack on the Fox Green sector of Omaha Beach near Colleville-sur-Mer. The lead companies were scheduled to hit the beach at 06:31, followed 30 minutes later by Company K from the 16th Infantry Regiment (IR). The ambitious objectives for the 16th IR were to exit the beach, capture the villages of Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer and Colleville-sur-Mer, and head south to meet with British units from Gold Beach. On June 1, 1944 the 16th Infantry Regiment departed Dorchester for the port of Weymouth. Troops from the 3rd Battalion of the 16th IR boarded the HMS Empire Anvil and late in the afternoon on June 5, 1944 they left Weymouth with the rest of the invasion fleet.

At 03:30 troops from Company K started loading into their LCAs (Landing Craft Assault). As the K Company LCAs approached the beach at their designated time, they learned that Company L had just landed and that Company I had not landed, so Company K were ordered to take over I Company’s mission. The six LCAs of K Company had reached the beach safely, but as they were offloading, machine gun and sniper fire was sweeping the beach. Mortar and artillery fire had zeroed in on the “K” troops as they were departing the LCAs and inflicted 53 casualties before hitting the beach. Once on the beach, the commander of K Company was killed and the rest of the troops were pinned down and unable to move. The commander of the 16th IR, Col. George A. Taylor, landed at 08:15 and took charge by announcing, “Two kinds of people are staying on this beach, the dead and those who are going to die–now let’s get the hell out of here.” One of the Company K casualties that morning was Pvt. Donald James Shingleton, who was likely killed in action by one of the several direct hits from mortar fire. His body was never found and was initially declared MIA.

Later, he was declared dead and his status was officially listed as FOD (Finding of Death). In 1956, the name of Pvt. Donald James Shingleton was one of the 1,557 service members whose names are on the Wall of the Missing at the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial at Colleville-sur-Mer, Normandy, France. At the time of his death, he was survived by his mother and eight of his siblings. Four of his brothers also served in the Army during WWII.

Sources:

1930 United States Federal Census
1940 United States Federal Census
U.S., World War II Young American Patriots, 1941-1945
U.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947
U.S., World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946
U.S., World War II Military Personnel Missing In Action or Lost At Sea, 1941-1946
U.S., Rosters of World War II Dead, 1939-1945
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/56649937/donald-j-shingleton
https://www.dday-overlord.com/en/d-day/beaches/omaha-beach/landing-table
https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/2020/04/10/d-day-battle-for-easy-red-fox-green-beaches/
http://www.americandday.org/D-Day/1st_Infantry_Division-Order_of_battle.html
https://www.historynet.com/d-day-us-armys-1st-infantry-divisions-desperate-hours-on-omaha-beach.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/16th_Infantry_Regiment_(United_States
https://www.abmc.gov/normandy
https://www.honorstates.org/index.php?id=128022

This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (see www.storiesbehindthestars.org). This is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 400,000+ of the US WWII fallen here on Fold3. Can you help write these stories? Related to this, there will be a smart phone app that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery, scan the fallen's name and read his/her story.

Donald J Shingleton