Sharing a story written by Chuck Yeager forwarded to me today.
This story resonates with me because when I was a teenager I was a busboy and waiter at a Holiday Inn hotel in my home town. I worked with a man who looked like a pit bull but with the kindest eyes and warmest smile I've ever seen. His name was "Pappy". One day "Pappy" showed me a Time Magazine and on the cover was The Supreme Allied Commander of European Allied Forces, General Dwight D. Eisenhower and standing around him was a grizzled group of 101st Airborne Paratroopers. "Pappy" showed me the image and standing next to General Eisenhower was - you guessed it - a younger looking pitbull of a man - "Pappy". You see, "Pappy" had jumped in to Normandy on D-Day. Before he hit the ground he'd been shot three times. Through neck, through his left wrist and through his calf. Amazingly, his adrenaline was surging through him and he actually didn't know he'd been shot. He landed and assembled with a couple of other paratroopers and they took the fight to the enemy and fought valiantly that day. Later a combat medic pulled him aside and told him he needed to be treated and was then taken to a field hospital and treated.
The point here is that I'm thankful to have known "Pappy" and for the moments I spent with him washing dishes or cleaning up the kitchen. I knew that I was in the presence of someone special -I just didn't realize how true that was until much later in my life.
So that's my humble preface to a remarkable story told by a remarkable man about another remarkable man.
Enjoy your weekend and do yourself a favor, spend a minute to reflect on the individual sacrifices so many people have made to protect our country, freedoms and constitution.
For one weekend, please forget about politics and focus on individual courage, commitment, honor and sacrifice.
Go out of your way to find a veteran and just simply and humbly say thank you.
Thank you.
Cheers,
John
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"Shifty"
By Chuck Yeager
Shifty volunteered for the airborne in WWII and served with Easy
Company of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, part of the 101st
Airborne Infantry. If you've seen Band of Brothers on HBO or the
History Channel, you know Shifty. His character appears in all 10
episodes, and Shifty himself is interviewed in several of them.
I met Shifty in the Philadelphia airport several years ago. I didn't
know who he was at the time. I just saw an elderly gentleman having
trouble reading his ticket. I offered to help, assured him that he was
at the right gate, and noticed the "Screaming Eagle," the symbol of
the 101st Airborne, on his hat.
Making conversation, I asked him if he'd been in the 101st Airborne
or if his son was serving. He said that he had been in the
101st. I thanked him for his service, then asked him when he served,
and how many jumps he made.
Quietly he said: "Well, I guess I signed up in 1941 or so,
and was in until sometime in 1945 ..."
At that point, again, very humbly, he said "I made the 5 training
jumps at Toccoa, and then jumped into Normandy . . . do you know
where Normandy is?"
I told him "yes, I know exactly where Normandy is, and I know what
D-Day was." At that point he said "I also made a second jump into
Holland , into Arnhem ." I was standing with a genuine war hero ...
and then I realized that it was June, just after the anniversary of
D-Day.
I asked Shifty if he was on his way back from France , and he said
"Yes... And it 's real sad because, these days, so few of the guys are
left, and those that are, lots of them can't make the trip."
I helped Shifty get onto the plane and then realized he was back in
coach while I was in First Class. I sent the flight attendant back to
get him and said that I wanted to switch seats. When Shifty came
forward, I got up out of the seat and told him I wanted him to have
it, that I'd take his in coach.
He said "No, son, you enjoy that seat. Just knowing that there are
still some who remember what we did and who still care is enough to
make an old man very happy." His eyes were filling up as he said it.
Shifty died on Jan. l7 after fighting cancer.
There was no parade.
No big event in Staples Center .
No wall-to-wall, back-to-back 24x7 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.
Rest in peace, Shifty.
Chuck Yeager, Maj. General [ret.]
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