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.Īnd mine are brimming up now as I write this. 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. I sent the flight attendant back to get him and said that I wanted to switch seats. I helped Shifty get onto the plane and then realized he was back in Coach while I was in First Class. 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 asked Shifty if he was on his way back from France, and he said, "Yes. " I was standing with a genuine war hero … and then I realized that it was June, just after the anniversary of D-Day. 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. do you know where Normandy is?"Īt this point my heart stopped. " at which point my heart skipped.Īt that point, again, very humbly, he said "I made the 5 training jumps at Toccoa, and then jumped into Normandy. Quietly and humbly, he said "Well, I guess I signed up in 1941 or so, and was in until sometime in 1945. I thanked him for his service, then asked him when he served, and how many jumps he made. He said quietly that he had been in the 101st. Making conversation, I asked him if he’d been in the 101st Airborne or if his son was serving. 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. I just saw an elderly gentleman having trouble reading his ticket. I met Shifty in the Philadelphia airport several years ago. His character appears in all 10 episodes, and Shifty himself is interviewed in several of them. If you’ve seen Band of Brothers on HBO or the History Channel, you know Shifty. Shifty volunteered for the airborne in WWII and served with Easy Company of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, part of the 101st Airborne Infantry. I would like to propose a nationwide memorial service for Darrell "Shifty" Powers. Shifty's War is a tale of heroism and adventure, of a soldier's blood-filled days fighting his way fromthe shores of France to the heartland of Germany, and the epic story of how one man's skills as a sharpshooter and engagingly unassuming personality propelled him to a life greater than he could have ever imagined.We’ve heard a lot about the big splashy memorial services for the likes of a drugged-up, wacked-out entertainer, Michael Jackson, and a cowardly drunk who happened to be a U.S. He parachuted into France on D-day and fought for a month in Normandy eighty days in Holland thirty-nine in the harshly cold winter of Bastogne and for nearly thirty more near Haguenau, France, and the Ruhr pocket in Germany. As one of the original men who trained at Camp Toccoa, Georgia, Shifty was one out of only two soldiers in Easy Company to initially earn the coveted expert marksman designation. Little did Shifty know his finely-tuned skills would one day save his life-and the lives of his friends. His father trained him to listen to the woods, to "see" without his eyes. As a boy growing up in the remote mining town of Clinchco, Virginia, Darrell "Shifty" Powers's goal was to become the best rifle shot he could be. The Authorized Biography of Sergeant Darrell "Shifty" Powers, the Legendary Sharpshooter from the Band of Brothers.
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