The Jumpmaster has added another paratrooper to his manifest. Darrell 'Shifty' Powers passed away on June 17, 2009, fighting. He lost his final battle to cancer. He joins his squad members from Easy Company, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Infantry Division (Airborne). He was part of the US airborne jump on D-Day on Normandy. He fought in every engagement that Easy Co. was involved.
In giving birth to not only a new Infantry Division, but one that would travel and conduct operations in an unfamiliar manner, Airborne. On August 19, 1942, Major General William C. Lee read the following orders.
General Order Number Five.
'The 101st Airborne Division, activated at Camp Claiborne, Louisiana, has no history, but it has a rendezvous with destiny. Like the early American pioneers whose invincible courage was the foundation stone of this nation, we have broken with the past and its traditions in order to establish our claim to the future.
Due to the nature of our armament, and the tactics in which we shall perfect ourselves, we shall be called upon to carry out operations of far-reaching military importance and we shall habitually go into action when the need is immediate and extreme.
Let me call your attention to the fact that our badge is the great American eagle. This is a fitting emblem for a division that will crush its enemies by falling upon them like a thunderbolt from the skies.
The history we shall make, the record of high achievement we hope to write in the annals of the American Army and the American people, depends wholly and completely on the men of this division. Each individual, each officer and each enlisted man, must therefore regard himself as a necessary part of a complex and powerful instrument for the overcoming of the enemies of the nation. Each, in his own job, must realize that he is not only a means, but an indispensable means for obtaining the goal of victory. It is, therefore, not too much to say that the future itself, in whose molding we expect to have our share, is in the hands of the soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division.'
Today, a thousand of these heroes from World War II pass away every day, they gave their all for the country that we love. God Bless the 'greatest generation' for our freedom.
R.I.P. Shifty.
ReplyDeleteI have watched Band of Brothers several times and I am amazed and proud of these men that went to war to preserve our way of life. We owe them so much. It saddens me to think that every day we lose more of these heroes. I hope they finally find peace. God bless them all.