Thanks Shifty!

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.

Please forward this email to everyone you know.  Especially to the veterans. 

Rest in peace, Shifty. 

Chuck Yeager, Maj. General [ret.]

P.S.  I think that it is amazing how the "media" chooses our "heroes" these days...

Michael Jackson & the like!

"SHIFTY" - an incredible American hero

SHIFTY DIED JAN 17, 2011..........May God rest his soul.

Please do me a favor and pass this on so that untold thousands can

read it. We owe no less to our REAL heroes....

Our “LATE” Great Constitution!

Recently a federal judge ruled the new health care law was not constitutional. Now we know that both the Senate and the House of Representatives passed the bill. So what does that tell you about them? It plainly tells me that none of them have ever read or more important studied The Constitution of the United States. Last week a top official for the Democrat Party picked up where our Vic president left off when he made this comment: "We have three branches of government, the Senate, The House, and the President."  That just goes to show you who is in charge of making our laws and someone who really knows about our government. Then we have state senators who run away and hide in another state when they can not have their way. These are the people who keep getting re-elected and voted back into office. They have no respect for their office or the rule of law, unless it can be turned into their favor. What a disgrace to the American people and our beloved Constitution. The American people wanted change and when they did not get the change they wanted two years ago they made a change this past November, but the liberal congress and Obama (sorry can not call him my president) did not listen to the people. It is either their way or the highway1
It is a sad state of affairs when we have a president and elected officials that conduct business  late of a night or behind closed doors, or a president who waits for congress to go home for the holidays to sign a new bill into law by executive privilege. or how the state (Democrat) senators from Wisconsin have conducted them selves. We really do not have much in the White House or the halls of congress. It is a sad day when we have a president that we, the American people, do not know where he was even born. It hurts me to see the way he is tearing down and dismantling our country, piece by piece, because this was the change he was talking about. This nation is a republic, not a democracy. We as a nation are to follow the rule of law, but our leader does not see that.
All I have heard for the past thirty years, and it may be longer, is separation of the church and the state. If you read the constitution you will see that mention one time the separation of church and state. What it does say is this: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibit the free exercise there of."  all Americans must know our countries constitution, because if we do not all of our rights will, sooner or later, be taken from us by groups such as the ACLU, Code Pink, and sad to say the school boards. We are slowly losing our freedoms, here a little and there a little.
Just to give you an example I have said this many times and it needs to be repeated: "just look what has happen since "The Great Society" has taken Bible reading and prayer out of the schools back in the 60s, we now have police officers walking the halls because of the crime, disrespect for school authority, guns and knives, a drop out rate that has not come down but went up! It is at an all time high!
Lets look at this in real time. It is time for America to turn back to God instead of turning their back on God!