Shifty Powers was a  soft spoken man. He didn’t seem to be a man of many words. He didn’t need to be. Shifty Powers is probably known to most, if not all, of the people who read this blog for his heroic exploits as a member of Easy Company. 506th PIR, 101st Airborne Division in World War II.  He was the soldier that every NCO longed to have in his squad and that every commander prayed for when he got a replacement. He was legend and at the same time as humble as a church mouse. He didn’t brag about jumping into Normandy on D-Day amidst a hail of murderous flak and gunfire. He didn’t have to. He didn’t often mention jumping into Holland during Operation Market Garden, although he was well within his rights to do so. He was just a regular guy with a past frought with heroism and exploits that would make the toughest men of today’s world cower. He was SSG Darrell “Shifty” Powers and he died on June 17, 2009. Cancer finally did what several thousand Nazis failed to accomplish.

Shifty didn’t get the fanfare that Michael Jackson got when he was interred because Shifty wasn’t a rock star. His passing didn’t get the attention that Farrah Fawcet’s got because he wasn’t a buxom blonde with aggressive nipple syndrome. He didn’t get video tribute after video tribute from broadcast journalists because he wore boots instead of licking them. Today we set that right. Today we, the military bloggers and military supporters of the internet, honor Shifty’s memory as we honored his life while he lived. He was a better man than most of his day… I’m certain that he’s still a better man dead today than most men living. Thank you for being that man that you were, SSG Powers. Thank you for risking all of your tomorrows so we could have our today. And thank you most of all for inspiring a generation of quiet, understated civilians to become a small, but formidable force of quiet, professional paratroopers that continue your work of keeping the world free.  Your gift to us is not your legend, but your legacy