WWII Veteran

Have any of you ever listened to Darrell "Shifty" Powers speak? He was a paratrooper on D-Day. I was very privileged. He spoke (probably for the last time) at MECC in April. It was very touching.

Here is a link from Coalfield.com. I didn't want to post the article because it is so long. This review isn't from this year when he spoke in April, but from a time before that. However it's all the same.

You wouldn't believe how humble this man is. He is a true hero, however, you would probably never hear him say that. What he and his company did was tremendous. If it wasn't for them we could be speaking German today [img]/LDPforum/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]

"Shifty"

[PVVikeFan]

You seldon if ever hear one of them refer to what they did as brave or heroic. I don't know if we would have been speaking German but I know France definately would have been if it had not been for them. That was a great article.

The WWII vets were dying at the rate of 1100 per day last year- they even pushed up the opening of the memorial. They have been called "The Greatest Generation" . When they left for the war there was no date to get out of (for the first ones ) the war. Folks put up with rations of oil products , food, just about everything. I don't know if we would have the determination to do it all over again .

When I attended the time he spoke... an audience member asked if he had to do it again- would he? And he replied that he would. That really touched me.

They all would, my grandfather was 45 and was drafted for WWII . Appy (after 9/11/01)had a short ceromony for a gent that quit school when drafted in the 40s , never returned to graduate, but I guess going to war was much more important. He acted as if the small time taken to honor him and the others that had served was great. It really was the other way around- a good friend of mine- John Clark, was talking one evening . I was hoping I wouldn't have to change shifts and miss ballgames, John said," I film a lot of things at Appy, don't you worry about missing your son's games. Till God takes me out of this world ,I'm gonna keep on filming, I missed most of Ed's games , when I was in Nam, and some of Kris and Travis's games working. That is why I go out of the way to film what I do, so people don't miss family things." I guess sometimes the service to the country just follows some naturally.