David Kevin Eiffe was born July 5, 1943 in Utica, the oldest of seven children of George and Eileen Fitzgerald Eiffe. He attended Horatio Seymour school in North Utica for grades K-8, graduating in 1956. He then moved on to UCA for high school graduating in 1960. As a boy he was involved in the North Utica Little League, was a news carrier for the Utica Observer Dispatch and was a Boy Scout and Explorer Scout. He was a parishioner at St. Peter's Church in North Utica and served as an altar server there. He studied dilligently the Latin which was a necessary qualification to be an altar server in the pre-Vatican II church. He was a good student and was selected to attend Boys' State during the summer of 1959. His best friend was classmate Tony Lazzaro. While in high school he considered the possibility that he might have a vocation to the priesthood but, that was evidently not in God's plan. As a high school student he became interested in "ham radio" and earned his operator's license under the call sign K2HEP. It was that avocation which led him to enlist in the US Navy immediately upon graduation from High School. He was assigned to basic training at Great Lakes Naval Training Center where he did very well. He was selected as Recruit Chief Petty Officer. After basic training, he was assigned to Patrol Squaadron #42 out of North Island Naval Air Station in San Diego, CA. He was a crew member on a Navy P5M Marlin aircraft flying anti-submarine patrol over the Pacific, attained the rank of Aviation Technician 2nd Class and served as the radio operator for the crew. On December 26, 1962, David's aircraft disappeared over the Pacific while on a routine patrol about 300 miles southwest of San Diego. David and 12 other crewmates were declared "Lost at Sea". There were no survivors and no bodies were found.