received in email
From: Chuck Yeager
Sent: Fri, Jul 10, 2009 1:02 pm
Subject: Memorial Service:
We’re hearing a lot today about big splashy memorial services. I want a
nationwide memorial service for Darrell “Shifty” Powers.
Shifty volunteered for the airborne in WWII and served with Easy Company of the
506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, part of the 101st Airborne Infantry. If
you’ve seen Band of Brothers on HBO or the History Channel, you know Shifty. His
character appears in all 10 episodes, and Shifty himself is interviewed in
several of them.
I met Shifty in the Philadelphia airport several years ago. I didn’t know who he
was at the time. I just saw an elderly gentleman having trouble reading his
ticket. I offered to help, assured him that he was at the right gate, and
noticed the “Screaming Eagle,” the symbol of the 101st Airborne, on his hat.
Making conversation, I asked him if he’d been in the 101st Airborne or if his
son was serving. He said quietly that he had been in the 101st. I thanked him
for his service, then asked him when he served, and how many jumps he made.
Quietly and humbly, he said “Well, I guess I signed up in 1941 or so, and was in
until sometime in 1945 .. . . “ at which point my heart skipped.
At that point, again, very humbly, he said “I made the 5 training jumps at
Toccoa, and then jumped into Normandy . . . . do you know where Normandy is?” At
this point my heart stopped.
I told him “yes, I know exactly where Normandy is, and I know what D-Day was.”
At that point he said “I also made a second jump into Holland, into Arnhem.” I
was standing with a genuine war hero . . . and then I realized that it was June,
just after the anniversary of D-Day..
I asked Shifty if he was on his way back from France, and he said “Yes. And it’s
real sad because, these days, so few of the guys are left,
and those that are, lots of them can’t make the trip.” My heart was in my throat and I didn’t know
what to say.
I helped Shifty get onto the plane and then realized he was back in Coach while
I was in First Class. I sent the flight attendant back to get him and said that
I wanted to switch seats. When Shifty came forward, I got up out of the seat and
told him I wanted him to have it, that I’d take his in coach.
He said “No, son, you enjoy that seat. Just knowing that there are still some
who remember what we did and who still care is enough to make an old man very
happy.” His eyes were filling up as he said it. And mine are brimming up now as
I write this.
Shifty died on June 17, 2009, after fighting cancer.
There was no parade.
No big event in Staples Center.
No wall-to-wall, back-to-back, 24x7 news coverage.
No weeping fans on television.
And that’s not right.
Let’s give Shifty his own Memorial Service, online, in our own quiet way.
Please forward this email to everyone you know. Especially to the veterans.
Rest in peace, Shifty.
Chuck Yeager, MajGen. (Retired)
Prayers for all our Vets as they pass on, known or unknown to us.
[Mr] T
Your letter has tears streaming down my face, dang it. I’m at work, but luckily my door is shut! Both of these men are heros extroidinaire! R.I.P., Shifty.
Beautiful story. I was fighting back tears by the end. Passed it on to one of my friends.