Posted on 12/05/2021 7:03:31 AM PST by DFG
Retired Colonel Edward Shames, the last surviving officer from the legendary Easy Company of World War II paratroopers whose exploits were featured in the award-winning miniseries Band of Brothers, died at age 99 on Friday.
Shames died 'peacefully at home,' according to an obituary posted by the Holloman-Brown Funeral Home & Crematory.
Born to Jewish parents, Shames forged his mother's signature to enlist in the Army in 1942 at just 19, and was one of the officers in charge of the famed Easy Company, part of the US Army's 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division.
The book Band of Brothers - chronicling the bravery of Easy Company, or the Screaming Eagles - was written by Stephen Ambrose in 1992.
Shames's death leaves 97-year-old Bradford Freeman as the last surviving member of Easy Company. Freeman, who enlisted and was a mortarman, was a consultant for the Band of Brothers HBO miniseries created by Tom Hanks and Stephen Spielberg in 2001.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
For your interest.
Thank you Sir, we can never repay you.
Rip, Sir. You did good.
Enlisted 1942. Original Tacoa.
And very few of today’s youth could envision what “those” kids went through. RIP sir. 🗽
RIP well done good and faithful servant. We thank you!
Colonel, I hope you meet my Father in whatever afterlife. He was a basic ground grunt and fought many campaigns, including the Bulge. Have a couple beers and celebrate your victories over an evil tyrant. I hold you both and other Brothers in the highest regard. You were indeed the Best Generation.
“Currahee!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vwz5JT2KnT4
This scene from Band of Brothers introduces the soldiers who are war fighting heroes in the operations of the war. As opposed to the genuine factual martinet that was Captain Sobel (a trainer, and destined for nowhere rubberstamped career- certainly no leader, ever).
Shames was there in Toccoa, GA for all of this, and Normandy and all the way to Obersalzberg & the mop up of the nazi redoubt and Eagle’s Nest.
RIP, sir. Well done!
These stories always remind me of my Dad’s outfit liberating the Austrian Death Camp at Ebensee, where the first tank in gave bread to a survivor, only to see him drop dead from the shock of eating it. They quickly learned that ice chips were all they could give the sufferers at first.
I can remember when there were still World War I veterans around. Where have the years gone?
Back in 2018, I went on a Band of Brothers Tour put on by Stephen Ambrose Historical Tours, the tour started in Taccoa and ended in Munich, with stops at all the important battle sites of The Band of Brothers, with a bunch of other stops in between.
It was a great trip and I’m so glad I got to go all of this before Covid.....
Isn’t it strange that Hitler fought a war against the Communists and the big European bankers, and we are fighting the same fight.
Anti Semites should read Philip Roth’s short story “Defender of the Faith”. People don’t realize just how many men there were and are like the heroic Colonel Shames.
RIP good sir, thank you for your service and go to your reward.
Indeed. These sad sacks of today would have lost us the war. I got a free subscription to Apple TV and yesterday watched Greyhound with Tom Hanks about North Atlantic troop and materiel convoys during the war. Extremely powerful. I’ll “formally” post it on Pearly HArbor Day, but here’s my son’s Eagle Scout project video bio of my dear friend Lou Conter, aged 100, one of two remaining survivors is the USS Arizona, and South Pacific pilot
USS Arizona Survivor Lou Conter — Pearl Harbor & Pacific War Video Memoir: Witness to Infamy
Astonishing. Your father must be one of those who was able to "talk about it."
Training others is a difficult job. Captain Sobel might have been the best man for that job. A winning army needs different skills for different jobs: training, logistics, planning, and fighting, to name a few.
Hard, tough training can save lives during combat.
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