A TRIBUTE TO SHIFTY POWERS AND AMERICA’S BRAVE SOLDIERS WHO MADE HISTORY ON JUNE 6, 1944 – by guest author Sharon Pigeon of the Wise County Historical Society
In 1783 Benjamin Franklin wrote a friend saying, “There never was a good war or a bad peace.” Whether this belief is universally held or not, it is a hard statement to dispute. However, Shifty Powers could, if he so chose, as he certainly had earned that right.
Several years before he passed away in 2009 at 86, I had the privilege of hearing Sgt. Powers speak about his experiences throughout Europe during World War II, my parents’ war. Although he would not have said it himself, he was a hero in that “skirmish”, along with so many others.
He did not voice any complaints about being pulled from the comfort of his tiny hometown of Clincho, Virginia to ultimately be thrown into the fire of a world war raging all over Europe. His only regret was for those in his band of brothers who did not make it home.
I do not use “band of brothers” in the generic sense here. Perhaps you may already know something about Staff Sergeant Darrell “Shifty” Powers from the 2001 television miniseries of that title. A very important character from that story was the sharpshooter who, in one episode, was called upon to take out a sniper in a church tower trying to pick off Shifty’s comrades, one by one.
Shifty Powers’ father had taught him to hunt: first by becoming an expert marksman, but then by learning to use his eyes in the woods. He also taught his young son to “see” with his ears. The combination of his extraordinary vision and shooting prowess honed while hunting in the mountains of Southwest Virginia meant Sgt. Powers rarely missed. He did not miss that day at the church tower, and the threat of that sniper was taken out with one shot.
That Fall, when Shifty Powers spoke to our group at a local community college, he stood tall, slim and ramrod straight, still comfortable wearing his paratrooper jumpsuit from his time in the famed Easy Company 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne. He was a handsome, mustachioed man and a folksy speaker. His was the classic storyteller’s style that these mountains have long nurtured.
He spoke with a soft Southern colloquial voice that was comforting, yet authoritative. A man who did not waste words, but when he did speak, one knew he expected to be heard. That whole auditorium heard him and hung on every word he spoke that day.
He did not glorify his role in that war, nor did he share only the triumphs of 3rd Platoon Easy Company. They had many crucial successes, but they also suffered significant failures, and sometimes mistakes of judgment were made. He shared that twice he had almost shot & killed a fellow member of his own company. In each case, he had waited to be sure, with his finger on the trigger, despite others telling him to “shoot the Kraut”
He was one of the troops who parachuted into France on D-day eighty years ago. That was his first combat mission after many months of training. Thousands of U.S. paratroopers were counted as casualties during their drop behind enemy lines at Utah Beach, having been shot out of the sky by enemy fire or weighed down in marshlands flooded by the Germans in anticipation of the Allied invasion.
Sgt. Powers continued to fight in Normandy behind enemy lines for another month. Ultimately, he fought from Normandy to Hitler’s Eagles Nest in Germany. Along the way, he was part of the disappointment of Operation Market Garden in Holland, where 20,000 Dutch deaths resulted from starvation, after the German occupiers cut off all food shipments.
This was followed by many other smaller battles before the Americans’ successful resistance to a surprise, last-ditch attack by Germany in the Ardennes, at what became known as the Battle of the Bulge in Bastogne, Belgium. My own uncle, another fine Southwest Virginia boy, was awarded a Purple Heart for injuries he suffered at Bastogne, where he fought as an 18-year-old machine gunner fresh from high school graduation. To this day, Belgium continues to honor all those men, living and dead, for their incomparable bravery against overwhelming odds.
Who could have anticipated that mountaineer boy Shifty Powers would someday meet and mingle with Hollywood elite including Director Stephen Spielberg and multi-talented Tom Hanks. Later, a Wikipedia page was devoted to his story. This is somewhat surprising for when Shifty Powers finished his part in saving the world, he simply returned to that same small town of less than 500 people, married his sweetheart Dorothy and raised a family.
He made a brief detour to California for a few years, then he earned his living and supported his family working as a machinist back in tiny Clincho. For roughly twenty-five years, he worked for the Clinchfield Coal Co. and then enjoyed a well-earned retirement. After that war, Shifty Powers was a respected man in his community, but like so many, he did not speak of his war experiences, even to his family. And like so many others, he had to deal with emotional damage.
He participated in everyday activities with several community groups including veterans’ organizations, the Masons, and a volunteer Rescue Squad. He coached teens in sports, both boys and girls. He was a charter member of the Clincho Missionary Baptist Church and after a while felt his baptism had finally given him some peace from the horrors of war that re-played in his head. However, after historian Stephen Ambrose published his seminal work, Band of Brothers, people began to learn of what a hero we had in our midst.
That day at the college, Sgt. Powers told us how he had returned to a simple, but good life and was so very thankful for that. He said it was only years later that he had begun to realize he was part of saving the world. He was gratified that he had been called upon to perform a role that he seemed born to do, and with unassuming confidence, he volunteered that he would do it “all over again”.
During his presentation, he included stories of how some of the villages Easy Company marched through only had gardening tools for defense. He told of how enthusiastically residents in many of these places had greeted the American soldiers. He smiled when speaking of how the soldiers shared their chocolate bars with the village children, children who had been left with so little.
After concluding his prepared remarks, Sgt. Powers took questions from those in attendance. It was obvious his audience had been spellbound. Finally, a middle-aged woman stood and asked if she could say something.
She said her name was Jacqueline Havaux Bowers and explained that she had been one of those children living under Nazi occupation in Bastogne, one of the children with whom Easy Company had shared their candy. As he later quoted in his biography, she said that day, “I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for what you did for us. I wouldn’t be here at all, my family wouldn’t be here at all, if it wasn’t for the soldiers like you.” Then she asked if she could come down to the front and give him a hug. During the standing ovation, there was not a dry eye in the room.
“The Greatest Generation” is not enough of a superlative to adequately describe a generation who together, at home and abroad, saved our world. For their unequaled service and sacrifice, we should all be forever grateful. I know that I am.
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EDITOR’S NOTE: As an addendum to Sharon’s inspiring story, let’s take a look at what was in the hearts and minds of Virginians on June 6, 1944. The article below is from the June 7, 1944 edition of The Richmond Times Dispatch. Here at home during other important battles of WWII, Castlewood citizens had gathered at Temple Hill High School to pray for the men and women serving in the United States armed forces. Perhaps they did so on D-Day as well. On this, the 81st. anniversary of D-Day, let us be ever mindful of the sacrifices our soldiers make for us, and honor them accordingly.
Full Text of President Roosevelt’s D-Day Invasion Prayer
My fellow Americans: Last night, when I spoke with you about the fall of Rome, I knew at that moment that troops of the United States and our allies were crossing the Channel in another and greater operation. It has come to pass with success thus far.
And so, in this poignant hour, I ask you to join with me in prayer:
Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our Nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity.
Lead them straight and true; give strength to their arms, stoutness to their hearts, steadfastness in their faith.
They will need Thy blessings. Their road will be long and hard. For the enemy is strong. He may hurl back our forces. Success may not come with rushing speed, but we shall return again and again; and we know that by Thy grace, and by the righteousness of our cause, our sons will triumph.
They will be sore tried, by night and by day, without rest-until the victory is won. The darkness will be rent by noise and flame. Men’s souls will be shaken with the violences of war.
For these men are lately drawn from the ways of peace. They fight not for the lust of conquest. They fight to end conquest. They fight to liberate. They fight to let justice arise, and tolerance and good will among all Thy people. They yearn but for the end of battle, for their return to the haven of home.
Some will never return. Embrace these, Father, and receive them, Thy heroic servants, into Thy kingdom.
And for us at home – fathers, mothers, children, wives, sisters, and brothers of brave men overseas – whose thoughts and prayers are ever with them – help us, Almighty God, to rededicate ourselves in renewed faith in Thee in this hour of great sacrifice.
Many people have urged that I call the Nation into a single day of special prayer. But because the road is long and the desire is great, I ask that our people devote themselves in a continuance of prayer. As we rise to each new day, and again when each day is spent, let words of prayer be on our lips, invoking Thy help to our efforts.
Give us strength, too – strength in our daily tasks, to redouble the contributions we make in the physical and the material support of our armed forces.
And let our hearts be stout, to wait out the long travail, to bear sorrows that may come, to impart our courage unto our sons wheresoever they may be.
And, O Lord, give us Faith. Give us Faith in Thee; Faith in our sons; Faith in each other; Faith in our united crusade. Let not the keenness of our spirit ever be dulled. Let not the impacts of temporary events, of temporal matters of but fleeting moment let not these deter us in our unconquerable purpose.
With Thy blessing, we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our enemy. Help us to conquer the apostles of greed and racial arrogancies. Lead us to the saving of our country, and with our sister Nations into a world unity that will spell a sure peace a peace invulnerable to the schemings of unworthy men. And a peace that will let all of men live in freedom, reaping the just rewards of their honest toil.
Thy will be done, Almighty God.
Amen.