If you jump out of an airplane you’re going to hit the ground, one way or another.” Powers laughed. Powers said, “And parachuting to the ground isn’t hard either.

We volunteered for paratrooper school.” Powers and his fellow paratroopers were originally sent to Camp Pickett in Virginia where they got their basic physicals and their numerous shots and immunizations, but soon shipped out to Camp Toccoa, Georgia. I worked there as a machinist for a while, My buddy “Popeye” (Robert Wynn, a fellow Virginian from South Hill) and me wanted to join the military so we went and signed up for the Army before we got stuck at the shipyard. “After the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, they (the government) moved all of us from the school over to the Navy Shipyard at Portsmouth, to do work on the ships there. After graduating from the local high school, Powers decided to go to technical school. In fact, he got his nickname, “Shifty,” from his outstanding basketball play. Powers liked school because got to play basketball. He also participated in all of Easy Company's battles including Operation Market Garden, Battle of the Bulge, and the capture of Hitler's Eagles Nest. Shifty dropped behind enemy lines in Normandy on D-Day. He was a member of the famed Easy Company whose exploits received worldwide recognition in 'Band of Brothers,' a book by historian Stephen Ambrose, and miniseries produced by Tom Hanks and Stephen Spielberg. Shifty was a veteran of World War II, having served in the 101st Airborne, 506 Parachute Infantry Regiment.

He was a charter member of Clinchco Missionary Baptist Church. DARRELL 'SHIFTY' POWERS Obituary Fond Memories of Noteworthy Native American Hero War Veteransĭarrell 'Shifty' Powers, 86, of Shifty Lane, Clinchco, Va., passed away Wednesday Jat Wellmont Regional Hospital, Bristol, Tenn., after a courageous battle with cancer.

Darell shifty powers