Shields centered his life on his niece and nephew, his mother said, and went out of his way to help everyone. "If he saw people coming down the street with packages, he would help them in the house," she recalled. He loved the Jersey shore, and drove there on weekends in his car, which he had nicknamed "Baby," until he enlisted in the Navy in September 1965. The 22-year-old Dobbins Vocational High School graduate, an aviation structural mechanic third class, was assigned to Fighter Squadron 11 and worked on mechanical and hydraulic systems. He died on July 29, 1967, as the result of a fire and explosions aboard the giant aircraft carrier USS Forrestal in the Gulf of Tonkin. Wayne H. Ott, another Philadelphia veteran, also died in the accident, which took 10 lives. Shields' survivors included his mother.