RIP Edward Shames
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Shames
Band of Brothers...
Colonel Edward David Shames (June 13, 1922 – December 3, 2021) was a United States Army enlisted man and officer who later served in the U.S. Army Reserve. During World War II he was assigned to the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division.
At the time of his death, Shames was the last surviving officer and, following the death of Roderick G. Strohl in December 2019, oldest surviving member of Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment. He was Jewish and reported being deeply affected by his personal viewing of Nazi Germany's concentration camps.
Shames read about and applied for duty with the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment. In August 1942, Shames was called to active duty. He was sent to Toccoa, Georgia for training, starting as a private in I Company, 3rd Battalion of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment.
In England, Shames was promoted to Operations Sergeant. Prior to the paratroopers making their jump on D-Day, he built the sand tables the airborne unit used in planning the airdrop into Normandy.
Shames made his first combat jump into Normandy on D-Day as part of Operation Overlord. On 13 June 1944, he received a battlefield commission to second lieutenant, although the formal commission was completed in England.[3][full citation needed] He was the first NCO in the Third Battalion to receive such a commission in Normand. He was transferred to Easy Company and took charge of its third platoon.
Shames fought with Easy Company in Operation Market Garden and volunteered for Operation Pegasus led by Frederick Heyliger. He was wounded once in his left leg during the campaigns.[3][full citation needed] He then fought with the rest of E Company in the Battle of the Bulge in Bastogne. In Foy, Shames and Paul Rogers knocked out a German tank with a bazooka. In Germany, he saw some of the concentration camps in which the Germans imprisoned and murdered Europe's Jews and was deeply affected, because he was Jewish
