An Online Memorial to an American Hero
July 29th, 2009
I recently received an email that was quite touching and I thought worth sharing here (see below). SSgt Darrell “Shifty” Powers served with the 101st Airborne Infantry Easy Company. Anyone who has read Stephen Ambrose’s Band of Brothers or seen the HBO hit series by the same name will recognize Shifty’s name. Actor Peter Youngblood Hills portrays Shifty’s character on the HBO series.
SSgt Powers died at his home in Dickenson County, Virginia on June 17 at the age of 86 after losing a prolonged battle with cancer. While the story was covered by several local news outlets in and around Shifty’s hometown in rural Virginia, the story and Shifty’s significance to American history seems to have been lost on the national media.
The email I received was written by an individual who met Powers in a Philadelphia airport a couple of years before Shifty’s death. After helping Powers confirm that he was waiting at the correct gate, the email’s author engaged in some small talk with the elderly man that led the author to discover that he was chit-chatting with a true American hero. After recognizing the emblem of the 101st Airborne on Powers’ hat, the author quickly discovered that Powers was not only a World War II veteran, he was in fact a man of notable military experience and distinction.
