THANK YOU SHIFTY POWERS!
AMERICAN HERO SHIFTY POWERS - THANK YOU
This week we saw the death of a genuine American hero. There was no mainstream media coverage, of course, they were too busy piling saint-like status on a drug addicted, child molester! Oh, how low this country has fallen since men like Staff Sergeant Darrell “Shifty” Powers were models for what American men should be. AWD first came to know of Shifty in the HBO movie series “Band of Brothers.” It is, unquestionably, one of the greatest series filmed. It tells the stories of the men of Easy Company of the 101st Airborne in WWII. If you have never seen Band of Brothers, I command you to get down to the local video store and rent it! You will not regret one minute of viewing what these heroes accomplished.
The men of Easy Company were. first and foremost, men. Even though they were very young when they volunteered for service, they quickly became men. They had a duty to do for their country and they did it. Without question. They were men of honor and character. Their great sacrifices have allowed the United States to become wealthy and strong. However, I am afraid for our country. We have become so wealthy and passive that we no longer truly understand sacrifice. We have lost our moral compass. The values that were unquestionable to the men of Easy Company are now openly ridiculed in the name of progressive ideals. In short, everything is turned upside down.
Try and compare these heroes to lowlife scum like Michael Moore, Barney Frank, Christopher Dodd, Barack Obama, Keith Olbermann or Bill Maher! They, and their ilk, are an embarrassment to our country and the legacy of the great men who gave their lives for our freedom. I hope those of us who love and believe in this country will be seen worthy in the eyes of men like Shifty Powers and forgive our liberal countrymen for what they have done.
This email from George Moneo who went met Shifty went viral on the internet this week. I’ll post it for you:
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 was, 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 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 after fighting cancer.
There was no parade.
No big event in Staples Center.
No wall to wall back to back 24×7 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 to everyone you know. Especially to the veterans.
Rest in peace, Shifty.
Here are the men of Easy Company in their own words:
AWD, when your page loads I am redirected to the WHAT’S UP WITH WIGGERS? post. The page slowly descends through each heading till it reaches this post, then finalizes. It started after the last post you published.
Angry, my tech guy is working hard to figure out the problem.. He’s good so it shouldn’t be long. I’ve had others tell me about the problem too. My apologies!
AWD
Great post, AWD. I think our current soldiers will be heroes like these guys are. The general population, I just don’t know…
My wife and I are big WWII history nuts, so we own just about every movie, documentary, and book on it. Her grandfather served as well.
I tears me up to know that no one heard about this. Men like him and his generation are hard to come by now a days. A genuine hero dies and the public just sees another old man. MJ dies and its a tragedy. It makes me sick.
God speed Shifty, and thank you for all you have done and sacrificed.
True Hero! I will allways keep him and all veterans in my thoughts and prayers.These brave men laided down their lives for us and that is what Jesus did for us too!
AWD,thank you for remembering these men.
I watch the “Band of Brothers” series at least once a year.
My maternal grandfather attended secondary school with Clifford Carwood “Lip” Lipton.
(Donnie Wahlberg did an accurate job portraying a West Virginian)
Most Americans today,do not even realize,let alone understand,what we as a nation are losing with the passing of this generation.
Hillbilly Jack has been blessed,over the course of his life,to have known and learned from so many of them.
I miss them and cherish the few we have left.
Hillbilly Jack
every black in this country should pay reparations to this mans family.
AWD,
Nice tribute to a real American Hero. We have a military full of heros. May God bless them all.
When an old white distinguished WW2 veteran hero dies, nobody (in the MSM) bothers to care.
When a white-bleached black singer with a side-job a child molester dies, people will lose their balls going crazy over his death.
AWD:
Ain’t it the truth!
An elderly client walked into my office the other day- he’s now in his late eighties. I’ve known him at least for the last twenty years. He never mentioned a word about his past to me. Since he was “of that generation”, I decided to ask him if he had served in the military in WWII. Yes, he answered. He had enlisted in the navy right after Pearl Harbor, and was in Tokyo Bay for the surrender on September 2, 1945. His battleship group had been involved in slowly making it’s way across the Pacific, cleaning out the Japanese-held islands, until they sailed into Japan on that day in September, 1945. Unbelievable! It was just a given back then- that’s what was expected of you. Nothing special. No heroics. A job had to be done, and they did it.
They truly were the Greatest Generation.
More & more, I think that America should enact the model government from Robert Heinlein’s “Starship Trooper”.
Anyone who wants to obtain citizenship status, needs to serve a term of enlistment in the military, with an honorable discharge.
“Citizen” = one who can vote and hold an elected office.
Read the book (don’t go by the movie, it SUCKED). Enlightening.
All our heroes of the past are dying! The (mostly) punks that are today’s young generation are too spoiled, soft, lazy, ignorant, and self-centered to understand sacrifice and courage. But, it isn’t entirely their fault, seeing as they are products of government indoctrination centers, oops, I mean public schools.
I read starship troopers, and I agree. it was a model system.
I will always respect and gladly salute these men.
Norwich ’13
USMC
i agree 100%! citizenship is NOT guaranteed. you should have to EARN it.
i especially love the part where the girl talks about wanting to have a baby, and how much easier it is to get a license if you are a citizen.
sounds like a win-win plan all around and would solve about 95% of the major problems in america: abortion, single moms, violent crime, hell, you name it and it would be fixed.
and if you want to see how this kind of civilization would work, just look @ israel. they have to serve 2 years in their military. it’s how they defended their country against 7 other invaders and whooped their asses in 6 days. it’s why i think the palastinians need to STFU. they started it and got their asses kicked. DEAL.
“Called to Serve
A total of 535 major league baseball players were either drafted or enlisted in the armed forces during World War II. Two of these ball players were killed in action — Elmer Gedeon and Harry O’Neill. I know of at least two major leaguers who were captured by the Germans — Mickey Grasso in North Africa and Dixie Howell while crossing the Meuse River in Belgium. Grasso later escaped his captors in Germany.
Houk was one of a few New York Yankees who saw action. The man who beat him out for the Yanks’ No. 1 catching job after the war, Yogi Berra, was a gunner’s mate aboard a Navy rocket launching ship off Normandy on D-Day.
Marine Sgt. Hank Bauer, who was a teammate of Houk and Berra, played a dozen years in the outfield for the Yankees after WWII when they won seven World Series titles. He served 32 months in the South Pacific and saw action at New Georgia, Guam, Emirau and Okinawa. He was wounded on Guam and again on Okinawa.
Jerry Coleman was another Yankee of that post WWII era who saw combat as a Marine pilot. He flew 57 missions in World War II and the Yankee second baseman was recalled to fly 63 more missions in Korea in 1953. Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox, who was also a Marine pilot in WWII, was recalled like Coleman to fly missions in the Korean War.”
Can you imagine this happening today?
My Uncle Oscar (now deceased), A Ragin’ Cajun for sure, was a top gunner on a B-25. He flew in Gen. Doolittle’s raid on Tokyo. His children (my cousins) and I look at his scrapbooks, medals, etc. everytime I return to the Bayous. My Uncle Gene was in a tank that rolled ashore on Omaha Beach.. I still hold these brave men in utmost fascination and admiration. They will always be heroes to me….God Bless our Troops..
RIP, StaffSgt. Powers, may you never be forgotten.
It’s sad to see that an increasing number of todays youth just don’t give a Damn about the true heros of America. I’m sure that all of you know the drastic difference that people treated our troops during WWII and Vietnam, it’s self-explanitory. It’s sad to see the same thing happening to our troops now.
I’m not spared from their wrath, and I haven’t left for Boot yet!(That’s a story for another time)
I am genuinely afraid of the way the country is moving, and the point of no return looms closer with every piss-poor decision that our “Representatives” make. Whats worse that if the situation gets as bad as I fear it might, I might be forced to harm the people that I have sworn to protect… it’s not a good feeling.
“I might be forced to harm the people that I have sworn to protect… it’s not a good feeling.”-PFCStringer
Remember PFC,your actions are first and foremost between you and God. No matter the circumstances or consequences always ask yourself.. What would God do?
You always have a choice,no man or government can take that away from you!
Hillbilly Jack
Here is a website you may be interested in:http://oath-keepers.blogspot.com/
AWD, Please check out this site.
http://www.biblestudysite.com/obama.htm
Thanks, Hillbilly, and you’re right. Good to know that my fear was severely misplaced. Guess the only thing I can do about that is to wait and see, and try to keep the honor of defending this great country.
If all else fails, I will gladly fight for the people to restore our country to its former glory.
PFCStringer:
My hunch is that if the s*hit hits the fan, and I expect that it will when enough people realize they are being hoodwinked by the Democrats, your conscience will dictate that you follow the oathbreakers pledge and be on the side of the people when we march on Washington with deadly force to remove the traitors in Congress, the White House, and the Supreme Court. I may very well be one of those people you will have to choose to whether to support or not in taking our country back from said traitors. Godspeed to you and thanks in advance for your service and sacrifice to our country.
Men like SSG Powers protected our freedoms and gave so much (“and some gave all”) – but one of the most important things they gave us -the next generation, was an example to follow.
I honestly believe that for every “noisy” boisterous veteran (John Kerry, John Murtha, Eric Mass and several other politicians come to mind) there are at least 10 silent heroes.
Men who I have had the honor of serving with and men I have met and known. Men who were larger than life yet believed in the fact that those they served with were heroes – not them.
Several years ago some of us had the honor and privileged to meet with “Snake” Crandall, at our Vietnam Veteran Memorial.
He was the lead chopper pilot who despite it being a hot LZ, along with “Too Tall” Freeman, continued to bring in ammo and other supplies and take out the KIA and WIA from LZ Xray in the Ia Drang Valley of Vietnam, in November of 1965.
Both these real heroes received the Congressional Medal of Honor, for their heroic efforts which is credited with saving the lives of 70 members of the 1/7th Cavalry, 1st (Air) Cavalry Division.
Their heroic deeds are depicted in the book We Were Soldiers Once and Young, written by Joe Galloway and Hal Moore, and later made into a movie staring Mel Gibson.
Then there is Robert L. Howard, one of America’s most decorated soldiers. He served five tours in Vietnam and is the only soldier in our nation’s history to be nominated for the Congressional Medal of Honor three times for three separate actions within a thirteen month period.
http://www.rlhtribute.com/
I could go on and on naming names but suffice it to say that while our peers were busy doing the piece and love gig at Woodstock, demonstrating at the Pentagon and like Bill Ayers – “allegedly” blowing up police stations, the real Americans were honestly dedicated to something greater than themselves – trying hard to live up to the standards that those who went before us set.
Thank you SSG Powers and to all of that generation. I have absolutely no regrets in my life because of you and men like you.
Many great points in this post and in the comments above – no doubt. But I had to look this up on Snopes just to confirm it was real (being a skeptic at heart). It is, more or less…
http://www.snopes.com/politics/military/shiftypowers.asp
Apparently, the authorship of the email changes periodically, but the actual person who encountered Shifty in Philly was a guy by the name of Mark Pfiefer – just for the record.
RIP Shifty, and thanks for everything.
I attempted to past a photo here taken at the memorial of Jimmie Ray along with LTC Bruce Crandell. The photo was taken by myself at a 1st Cav. Vietnam Veterans gathering at the memorial. – Could not figure it out but would be happy to email it if someone would like.
I did look at the SNOPES link and have sent them a note. Not that it really matters to me personally. I know where I have been and what I have done I’m just an “old man” now but that DFAS retirment check the 2nd day of every month is quite nice.
Steve
SGM USA Retired
God speed Shifty. Hero says it all.
My grandfather from my mothers side served in the South Pacific and he told me lots of war stories of hero’s before he died in 1992. I still remember he said, I served because i love this country and our freedoms and i am proud to be an American. I don’t think he would be proud of the way our country is heading or being governed at this time. R.I.P. and Thanks Shifty, from a thankful American.