This Week’s Hero Was Suggested By Deb

SSgt. Darrell “Shifty” Power
86 years old from Dickerson County, Virginia
E Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division
June 17, 2009

The world lost one of it’s true heroes a couple of weeks ago. Darrell “Shifty” Powers passed away on June 17 of cancer. “Shifty” was part of the famed E Co/2/506 of the 101st Airborne Division. Easy Company. The Band Of Brothers.

“I loved everything about my daddy,” said Margo Johnson, daughter of SSgt. Powers. “He never bragged about what he did in the war. And for a lot of years, he never even talked much about what he did – unless someone asked him about it. But he truly was a hero to me. Just like he’d been to the people who know him as a soldier in a [mini-series].”

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.

Force Protection Team

Members of the force protection team at Camp Eggars, Afghanistan, assess damage resulting from an explosion near the gate. A vehicle-born improvised explosive device exploded near the German Embassy and a U.S. base. Eliminating threats such as the VBIED is the focus of Army’s 3rd Counter-IED Conference that was scheduled July 28-30.

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.

Band Of Brothers

Something a little different this week. Instead of profiling a service member, Wednesday Hero will be profiling a movie. Band Of Brothers. It was a miniseries tha aired on HBO in 2001. It follows Maj. Richard Winters, Cpt. Lewis Nixon and the men of the 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment assigned to the 101st Airborne Division, aka E-Company or Easy Company on their march to Germany. From their training to their battles at Normandy and Bastogne, their liberation of the Kaufering IV concentration camp to their taking of Hitler’s Eagle Nest. A great cast and great writing make this one of the best war movies ever made. But it is graphic in visuals and language. And parts of it may be hard to watch, but it is worth it.

What the men of E-Company did will never be forgotten. They are the heroes that helped the cause of freedom.

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.

Aviation Ordnanceman 2nd Class (SEAL) Marc A. Lee
28 years old from Hood River, Oregon
Navy SEAL
August 2, 2006

“Marc was amazing. He was my best friend, my love,” his widow, Maya, said.

Petty Officer Marc A. Lee joined the Navy in 2001 and became an AO after completing Naval Air Technical Training. Later that year he attempted to complete the grueling BUD/S program but caught pneumonia and had to drop out. He tried again in 2004 and completed the course.

On August 2, 2006, Marc A. Lee became the first SEAL to be killed in combat in Iraq when he was fatally wounded in a firefight in Ramadi, Iraq. The following is from the award citation:

“During the operation, one element member was wounded by enemy fire. The element completed the casualty evacuation, regrouped and returned onto the battlefield to continue the fight. Petty Officer Lee and his SEAL element maneuvered to assault an unidentified enemy position. He, his teammates, Bradley Fighting Vehicles and Abrams tanks engaged enemy positions with suppressive fire from an adjacent building to the north.

“To protect the lives of his teammates, he fearlessly exposed himself to direct enemy fire by engaging the enemy with his machine gun and was mortally wounded in the engagement. His brave actions in the line of fire saved the lives of many of his teammates”

“It was so like Marc to give up his life to save his friends,” his mother, Debbie Lee, told the Hood River News. “I am so proud of him. He is my hero.”

Petty Officer Lee was posthumously awarded a Bronze Star with combat “V” for his actions in Iraq during his team’s combat tour and the Purple Heart medal.

All Information Was Found On And Copied From MilitaryCity.com

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.

Sgt. Pablo A. Calderon
26 years old from Brooklyn, New York
1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division
November 30, 2004

“He wanted to fight for his country,” said his heartbroken younger sister, Lilliana Calderone. “He always wanted to be there.”

Pablo Calderon joined the Army in 1997, right out of High School. “He went straight to the army from high school,” said his sister. “He wanted to improve himself. He was proud. He loved his country.”

Sgt. Calderon was killed when an IED was detonated near his vehicle in Fallujah, Iraq. Also killed in the attack was Sgt. Jose Guereca of Missouri City, Texas.

All Information Was Found On And Copied From MilitaryCity.com & NYDailyNews.com

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.

Sgt. Christian E. Bueno-Galdos
25 years old from Paterson, New Jersey
3rd Battalion, 66th Armor Regiment, 172nd Infantry Brigade
May 11, 2009

On Mother’s Day, Eugenia Gardos made a tabletop shrine to her recently deceased mother — surrounding her photograph with silk roses, a small white rosary cross, two votive candles and a prayer card of Senor de los Milagros, the patron saint of Peru.

The next day, May 11, she added her son’s picture to the shrine for the dead.

Sgt. Gardos was killed along with five fellow servicemen; Army Spc. Jacob D. Barton, Army Maj. Matthew P. Houseal, Navy Cmdr. Charles K. Springle and Army Pfc. Michael E. Yates Jr. in the attack on Camp Liberty.

“The first time he left for Iraq, when they would read the lists of the dead on the news, we used to hold our breath, praying he wasn’t on it,” his mother said. “I don’t understand how he could have died this way. I just don’t understand it.”

Sgt. Galdos had emigrated with his family from Mollendo, Peru, as a child and had been a U.S. citizen since high school. His mother, two older brothers and older sister recalled how he used to hand out candy to children in Iraq the same way he always did in Paterson — never making a trip to the corner bodega without a group of neighborhood children tailing behind, knowing he would buy them candy or a soda.

“We were all here at home,” Carlos Bueno, Sgt. Galdos’s father, said. “I was getting ready to go to bed when I heard screaming downstairs. I ran downstairs and everyone had thrown themselves to the floor, thrashing around, screaming.”

Bueno said he does not feel bitterness toward the man accused in the shootings, whom he described as “mentally ill.”

“We want people to know we’re proud of our son’s Army, but if my son had died in war we would be able to handle that,” he said. “But not to die in this manner.”

All Information Was Found On And Copied From MilitaryCity.com

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.

Spc. Robert Hamilton

Spc. Robert Hamilton, from Corpus Christi, Texas, Company C, 2nd Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, prepares to bandage the thumb of an Iraqi boy in Ula Market in Sadr City, April 19. The boy cut his thumb while preparing meat at a local butcher shop.

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.