Darrell "Shifty" Powers, 1923-2009
Sometimes, in between uploading videos of stupid cat tricks, sustaining the careers of such blights on pop culture as Lindsay Lohan, and obsessively critiquing Jennifer Love Hewitt's bikini bod, the Internet community can up and do something admirable. Today, across Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking sites, citizens are holding a nationwide memorial for
Darrell "Shifty" Powers, of Virginia:
Immortalized in the pages of Stephen Ambrose's Band of Brothers and the subsequent mini-series, Powers jumped into Normandy with the 101st Airborne Division and fought through some of the grittiest battles of World War II. His nickname came from the basketball courts, his family says, not from running moonshine, as one of his battle buddies liked to joke. He was buried quietly near his hometown in rural Virginia. He was 86 and had spent many of his last years visiting troops and faithfully attending reunions with his dwindling band of "Easy Company" brothers.
Powers was played by Peter Youngblood Hills (photo) in the HBO miniseries, but also appeared in poignant interviews interspersed in the production. The quote I remember most was this one, delivered with a matter-of-fact sadness about the men he was charged with killing in the war:
"We might have had a lot in common. He might've liked to fish, you know, he might've liked to hunt," Powers said. "Of course, they were doing what they were supposed to do, and I was doing what I was supposed to do. "But under different circumstances, we might have been good friends."
When Powers died, to little fanfare in June, a man named Mark Pfeifer (formerly with Dow Jones) was appalled by the disproportionate amount of coverage given to Michael Jackson. He penned an e-mail about a chance encounter he had had with the humble war hero at the Philadelphia airport. The e-mail went viral as friends forwarded to friends. It ended with this plea:
"Shifty died June 17 after fighting cancer. There was no parade No big event at Staples Center. No wall-to-wall, back-to-back, 24-x-7 news coverage. No weeping fans on television. And that's not right." "Let's give Shifty his own memorial service online. In our own quiet way. Please forward this e-mail to everyone you know. Especially to the veterans. "Rest in peace, Shifty."
Now, Shifty has a handful of fan groups and memorial pages on Facebook, growing by the day, and a hashtag for tributes to him on Twitter. Join the biggest memorial group, here. Shifty's family is touched by the efforts:
"It's amazing," Powers' daughter Margo Johnson told Military Times from her home in Bristol, Va. "He'd be very surprised about all this. He'd probably say everyone is making too much of a fuss, but that's just the way he was, very humble." She said she remembered her dad talking about meeting Pfeifer on the flight, but never knew his name until she got Pfeifer's e-mail. "It was wonderful that he would take the time to do that." Like many e-mail pass-alongs, versions of Pfeifer's note are already making the rounds attributed to Chuck Yeager and others. "It almost sounded too good to be true, like those fake stories that make the rounds on the Internet," said Margo's husband Seldon. "But we knew it was the real deal because Shifty had been so touched by his gesture."
And, Pfeifer is just glad it went as far as it did:
"I had no idea that it would take off the way it did," Pfeifer told Military Times. "I thought I was sending it to a bunch of military-minded friends, maybe they'd send it to another 100 people or so. When I started hearing that it was going all over the Internet, and taking on a life of its own, it gave me hope. It was so good to know that there are so many people left who would respond to the story about Shifty that way."
To remember Shifty today, you can join the Facebook group or post on Twitter with the hashtag, #shiftypowers. If there's any justice, it'll be outperforming "Michael Jackson" by day's end. Thank you for everything, Darrell "Shifty" Powers. I found a great interview with Powers, shot two years ago as he was watching the story of Easy Company on TV: