Dr. Sharon Estill Taylor was born in March 1945 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. When she was born, her father [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces First Lieutenant Shannon E. Estill, a Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighter pilot serving with the 428th Fighter Squadron, 474th Fighter Group, 9th Air Force] was away serving during World War 2. Her grandparents on both sides lived nearby and helped to raise her. Her mother was working for a doctor and studying to be a nurse. They lived in an apartment with Taylor's mother's mother, whom Taylor calls Nana Nell, and her Uncle Jack, a highly functioning schizophrenic. Taylor's mother was remarried when she was about four years old, and they were living in Minneapolis [Annotator's Note: Minneapolis, Minnesota]. She no longer had to work, because her stepfather owned a Woolworth's store. Taylor and her mother spent all day together then. Her mother would play wartime records all the time, and Taylor was convinced she was thinking about her deceased husband. Taylor's grandparents wanted her to remember her father once he was killed in the war and often talked to her about him. Her mother did not speak of him often. Her parents had met in high school and began writing to each other. Taylor has thousands of their letters to this day [Annotator's Note: at the time of the interview]. There was no proof that her father died for a long time, he was simply classified as missing in action. There was always some doubt as to whether he was really dead or not. Taylor's father's parents were not happy that her mother remarried. They wanted her to remarry Taylor's father's brother, but her mother would not even consider it. His parents spoke about him to Taylor constantly. They kept his military uniforms and jewelry. He had been an immaculate dresser, and was particular about what he wore.

Dr. Sharon Estill Taylor only once mentioned to her adoptive father that she was thinking about trying to find out more about her biological father [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces First Lieutenant Shannon E. Estill, a Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighter pilot serving with the 428th Fighter Squadron, 474th Fighter Group, 9th Air Force was killed in action on 13 April 1945 over Germany]. He pulled over the car and said that he was her father, and that was that. She realized it was hurtful to him and did not mention it again. She learned to love her stepfather, but it took a long time. Her stepfather also served during World War 2, a First Lieutenant with Patton's [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.] Army and was very proud of it. He glorified the war. He had no patience for fighter pilots or the Air Corps, which Taylor suspects is because of her father. Taylor's adoptive father was wounded by shrapnel when his jeep hit a mine and his driver was killed. When Taylor was about five yeas old, the Korean War [Annotator's Note: Korean War, 25 June 1950 to 27 July 1953] began and her adoptive father was called back into service. There was terror in the house about the possibility of him leaving, and possibly being killed like her biological father. Ultimately, he was not deployed. He was seen as a hero for marrying Taylor's mother, since she already had a child and had already been married. There was stigma at the time. They moved from Cedar Rapids, Iowa to Minneapolis [Annotator's Note: Minneapolis, Minnesota]. Taylor and her mother never celebrated her father's birthday or death day, 13 April 1945, because her adoptive father would not have stood for it.

Dr. Sharon Estill Taylor's [Annotator's Note: whose father, US Army Air Forces First Lieutenant Shannon E. Estill, was a Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighter pilot serving with the 428th Fighter Squadron, 474th Fighter Group, 9th Air Force; killed in action 13 April 1945 over Germany] parents' relationship was perfect. They had been together since their junior year of high school and wrote each other love letters. They became engaged after high school. They had planned out their future, but then Pearl Harbor happened [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941] around when they graduated from high school. Taylor received all of their love letters when she was in her 20s, given to her by her paternal grandmother. Some of them had never been opened. She read the letters as if she was seeking advice, and felt that she was parented by the content of the letters. She also had a scrapbook. When the Berlin Wall went down, [Annotator's Note: 9 November 1989; Berlin, Germany] Taylor finally had the opportunity to learn what had happened to her father. She had already been requesting his military records, but they had been burned in St. Louis [Annotator’s Note: National Personnel Records Center fire in St. Louis, Missouri; 12 July 1973], but she did receive replacements for his medal citations. Taylor began reading the letters for clues of who she could contact to ask for help. She began by contacting her father's crew chief who was still living. He responded and informed her that her father's squadron still got together for reunions. Some of the veterans then began contacting her. Her mission in meeting these men was to find out what happened the day her father was killed. She transcribed all of the letters and had both the originals and the transcriptions copied. She began the search for what happened to her father in earnest. She and her husband attended a reunion in Florida and was overwhelmed by how welcoming the men were to her. Several of them had flown with her father the day he died, and talked about seeing his plane being hit. The protocol was to leave. They still seemed devastated about it all those years later.

Dr. Sharon Estill Taylor [Annotator's Note: who decided to search for her father's remains; he was US Army Air Forces First Lieutenant Shannon E. Estill, a Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighter pilot serving with the 428th Fighter Squadron, 474th Fighter Group, 9th Air Force when he was killed in action on 13 April 1945 over Germany] thinks her mother would have loved meeting her father's squadron mates. She would also have loved to join Taylor on the trip for excavation to dig up whatever they could find of her father's plane. Taylor and her sister, Christine, were 11 years apart in age. When Christine read the letters, she did not recognize her mother, saying she seemed much more distant than she seemed in the letters. Taylor continued searching for information. She was living in Arizona at the time, and wrote to Senator McCain's [Annotator’s Note: John Sidney McCain III, US Navy Captain and United States Senator from Arizona from 1987 to 2018] office asking for help. She quickly received all the documents she could have hoped for, including his induction papers, physical exam, etc. She also found out more information about where his plane may have gone down. The men in the squadron connected Taylor with researchers in Europe to help locate the crash site. She decided to make the work of locating her father her doctoral project and dissertation. She went back and forth to Germany and did eventually find the crash site with the help of a German team including Hans-Guenther Ploes who worked with Taylor for five years before they found the site. She traveled to Germany several times a year. On one trip, while staying in Torgau, Ploes brought Taylor an object, which he said he believed to be the aileron stabilizer from her father's plane because the numbers on the part matched the numbers on a parts list. They went out to a field whose location lined up with witnesses who saw a plane crash and burn for two or three days in April 1945. They found the parts in a rapeseed field. They also found what looked like bones, which were sent to Landstuhl [Annotator's Note: Landstuhl, Germany]. Taylor then had to convince the United States government and the Joint MIA-POW Command in Hawaii that the site should be excavated. She called nearly every day. Finally, it was approved. She became close with a local woman whose father was killed by the Russians during the war. They saw each other as sisters even though they did not speak the same language.

Dr. Sharon Estill Taylor [Annotator's Note: who worked for years to find the crash site and remains of her father, US Army Air Forces First Lieutenant Shannon E. Estill, who was a Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighter pilot serving with the 428th Fighter Squadron, 474th Fighter Group, 9th Air Force and was killed in action 13 April 1945 near Torgau, Germany] worked with members of the military during the excavation of the crash site. They could not use heavy machinery to dig, but instead used shovels, trowels, and brushes. They began sifting through the dirt and found literal tons of parts, eventually finding the landing gear and what remained of the cockpit. Finding the data plate was particularly exciting, but they never found her father's dog tags, teeth, or anything like that. They did, however, find a bone, a piece of the femur, that they were able to do DNA testing on which identified him without a doubt. Two men, brothers and local farmers who owned part of the land, did not want the excavation to continue and retracted their permission after a few days. Taylor decided to write him a letter which she had translated into German. The translator read it to the brothers at a meeting, and they responded that Taylor should be a diplomat of the United States, and gave permission to proceed. After that, they came to the field every day with beer for the team. There were not many remains. Taylor could hold all of them in her two hands. They were taken back to Hawaii and tested right away, confirming they were Taylor's father's remains. There was a ceremony for his repatriation.

Dr. Sharon Estill Taylor [Annotator's Note: who worked for years to locate the crash site and remains of her father, US Army Air Forces First Lieutenant Shannon E. Estill, who was a Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighter pilot serving with the 428th Fighter Squadron, 474th Fighter Group, Ninth Air Force and was killed in action 13 April 1945 near Torgau, Germany] had been in Germany for a week when she headed for Hawaii. She was accompanied by a documentary crew of Spiegel TV [Annotator's Note: a German production company]. The transport cases were removed slowly with great care. There were several veterans there to honor him. The remains were taken to the lab and eventually returned to Taylor. The remains were transported by one of the military members of the excavation team from Hawaii to Taylor's home. She then began organizing the burial in Arlington [Annotator's Note: Arlington National Cemetery, a US military cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia]. She buried an antique piece called a psychopomp [Annotator's Note: in Greek mythology, a psychopomp is a guide of souls to the place of the dead], with her father's remains. The funeral took place in October [Annotator's Note: 10 October 2006]. Taylor stayed until the burial was complete.

When Dr. Sharon Estill Taylor [Annotator’s Note: who worked for years to locate the crash site and remains of her father, First Lieutenant Shannon E. Estill, who was a Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighter pilot serving with the 428th Fighter Squadron, 474th Fighter Group, Ninth Air Force and was killed in action 13 April 1945 near Torgau, Germany; he was repatriated and buried in Arlington National Cemetery in October 2006] went to meet Hans-Guenther [Annotator’s Note: Hans-Guenther Ploes who aided Taylor in locating the crash site], he said he wanted to take her to the American Cemetery in Margraten, Holland [Annotator’s Note: Netherlands American Cemetery and Memorial]. There she saw her father’s name on a wall [Annotator’s Note: called the Tablets of the Missing, which list the names of hundreds of missing American military personnel]. A few of the names had copper or brass rosettes next to them, which she learned indicated they have been found. She told Hans-Guenther that she wanted one of those next to her father’s name. She eventually did get to place the rosette next to his name during a ceremony attended by many important people. She is grateful for the War Orphans Network [Annotator’s Note: the American World War II War Orphans Network] started by Ann Mix because that was the true beginning of Taylor’s feeling she had permission to search for her father’s remains. Through the network she met someone who succeeded in finding her father’s remains inside his plane in a tree. It showed her what was possible, which she would not have known otherwise. The term “war orphan” is controversial, but she thinks it is a good term. There is a dark side to the end of the war for those whose loved ones did not come home. Taylor’s mother continued writing to her father for nine months after she learned that he had been declared missing in action. She was in denial that he was not coming home.

As a child, Dr. Sharon Estill Taylor [Annotator's Note: who worked for years to locate the crash site and remains of her father, US Army Air Forces First Lieutenant Shannon E. Estill, who was a Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighter pilot serving with the 428th Fighter Squadron, 474th Fighter Group, 9th Air Force and was killed in action 13 April 1945 near Torgau, Germany; he was repatriated and buried in Arlington National Cemetery in October 2006] would wait for the garbage men to come and would tell them that her father died in the war. She was starving for attention. In kindergarten, she would draw things about her father and the atomic bomb [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945] which caused some concern among her family that there was something wrong with her. She has kept pieces of his jewelry, his Purple Heart [Annotator's Note: the Purple Heart Medal is an award bestowed upon a United States service member who has been wounded as a result of combat actions against an armed enemy], and his flight wings which she wears on a bracelet. She also has his uniform jackets. Many of his items are here [Annotator's Note: in the collection of The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana]. She has worked with the Museum for many years, including as a trustee. It is a gathering place for people like her and for veterans and their families.