D-Day

[cjclong]

Just saw this. We owe an incredible debt to those who fought for us, of course not just on D Day but all the wars. However D Day is when we specially remember those who fought in Europe in WW 2 . I can't get over the courage of those who went into battle with the knowledge they could be killed or horribly wounded. And those who survived D Day then continued to do the same thing in battle after battle. Its an incredible thing to be brave and risk your life on a single occasion, as courageous as that is, but to do it over and over day after day as our soldiers fighting in Europe did is something I find hard to comprehend. Thank you for posting.

[CampWest]

Thanks for the thread, its good to keep things in context and remember those who sacrificed. Does anybody here collect WWII? I have a couple small items, but not much...

[cordovacollector]

Thanks for the thread, its good to keep things in context and remember those who sacrificed. Does anybody here collect WWII? I have a couple small items, but not much...

I do collect some WWII items. Most recent, about 3 years ago I went to the WWII air show in Eden Prarie, MN, and got to talk with and get autos of 75 of the 78 or so Vets that were in the program by their photos - including women pilots, George McGovern, some from the Doolittle's Raiders, Tuskeegee Airmen, Chuck Lindberg (Iwo Jima flag raiser - original flag, not the second posed one), etc. Got a wonderful small, deco-styled poster representing Tuskeegee airmen and got three T. Airmen to sign it. It was glorious.

Most unique WWII item I have is a collection of about 175 letters a Jewish girl wrote to her boyfriend who had managed to escape Germany and get to US around 1939. She wrote all these letters to him during the 13 months they were apart. And I have two photo scrapbooks of them. I have purchased the items and the rights to publish it as a book someday. Gotta shake this cancer bug first. Heh.

Of course, as I mentioned my most cherished WWII item is the flag from Dad's ship.

Picked up other items off and on. What kind of things do you have? How about the rest of you?

Oh geez, I forgot, my uncle worked in the athletic department of the Navy in WWII in Pensacola. One day a guy walked in while uncle Archie was sewing a baseball glove back together on a sewing machine. Archie finally saw him watching and jumped up to salute. Then noticed the officer he was saluting was Ted Williams. He nearly fainted. Ted said, "No salute needed, son .... you're doing a nice job on the glove." He signed a baseball for him, along with Johnny Sain, Bob Kennedy, and a couple others that were with him. His daughters, my cousins, now have the baseball. And yes, theft has crossed my mind!

[cordovacollector]

Forgot to add, that print you have is a treasure!

[CampWest]

Amidst all the *journalism* about Jon and Kate breaking up, all the American Idol garbage, etc... The media by and large completely ignored the passing of a true hero and a deserving celebrity. Its sad they couldn't take 15 minutes to properly honor this fallen hero.

SSG Shifty Powers fought in, among other battles, Normandy on D-Day, Bastogne, Hitler's Eagle's Nest, and Battle of the Bulge.


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By The Continuous News Desk

Published: June 20, 2009
BY ROGER BROWN
BRISTOL HERALD COURIER
“The world depended on them. They depended on each other.”
That was the tagline for “Band of Brothers” – an award-winning 2001 HBO mini-series drama on the World War II experiences of Easy Company, a U.S. Army unit that fought bravely and fiercely across Europe.
But for Bristol’s Margo Johnson – daughter of Darrell “Shifty” Powers, one of the soldiers depicted in “Band of Brothers” – two more lines could be added to describe her heroic father: “The world truly admired Darrell Powers. I absolutely adored him.”
“I loved everything about my daddy,” Johnson said. “He never bragged about what he did in the war. And for a lot of years, he never even talked much about what he did – unless someone asked him about it.
“But he truly was a hero to me,” Johnson said. “Just like he’d been to the people who know him as a soldier in a [mini-series].”
Powers, a Dickenson County native, died earlier this week at age 86 following a battle with cancer. His funeral service will be held today in Clintwood.
“He was a brave man, even to the end of his life,” Johnson said of her father. “He’s helping me be brave now, too.”
Bravery – and dignity – was a constant, running thread in the life of “Shifty” Powers, both during and after his life as an Army sharpshooter in the actual “Band of Brothers.”
During the war, he fought brutal battles against the German army across France and Belgium.
After the war, Powers served as an eloquent representative for the men he fought with: At one point during the “Band of Brothers” mini-series, he appeared on camera to talk in moving, humane fashion about his grim but necessary task during the war – killing the enemy.
And, too, Powers served as a loyal, steadfast representative for the country he fought for: from graciously meeting with a former enemy German soldier to eagerly accepting any chance to speak with modern-day members of the U.S. military.
Ivan Schwarz, a producer on the “Band of Brothers” HBO series, remembers Powers as a “kind, generous soul with a great sense of humor.”
“Shifty was an incredibly humble human being,” said Schwarz, now executive director of the Greater Cleveland Film Commission in Cleveland, Ohio.
“He was like most of the other [Easy Company] soldiers we met for the series. They were good guys who were kind of shocked that, 50 years later, people were making a big deal over them for just doing their duty.
“That’s exactly how [Powers] was, too,” Schwarz said.
Attempts were unsuccessful to reach Peter Youngblood Hills – the English actor who portrayed Powers in the “Band of Brothers” miniseries, through both HBO and his former publicity firm, Hamilton Hodell in London, England.
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