Obituaries

I got this as a facebook message from a group I'm in.

Chris Shubert (Spokane, WA) wroteon July 19, 2009 at 3:02pm
Another World War II veteran gone.



Worth sharing. Kind of puts a perspective on what is really important in life.




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We're hearing a lot today about big splashy memorial services.

I want a nationwide memorial service for Darrell "Shifty" Powers.

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 quietly 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 and humbly, he said "Well, I guess I signed up in 1941 or so, and was in until sometime in 1945 . . . " at which point my heart skipped.

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?" At this point my heart stopped.

I told him yes, I know exactly where Normandy was, 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." My heart was in my throat and I didn't know what to say.

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 still care is enough to make an old man very happy." His eyes were filling up as he said it. And mine are brimming up now as I write this.

Shifty died on June 17 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.

"A nation without heroes is nothing."
Roberto Clemente

Otis C. Ingebritsen
Yorktown, VA - Otis Carroll Ingebritsen, 91, passed away August 12, 2009. Otis was a native of Wisconsin. He served his country during WW-II in the U.S. Air Force as a B-17 pilot. He was decorated for extraordinary achievement on 25 heavy bombing missions. His awards include and Air Medal with 3 Oak Leaf Clusters and a Distingushed Flying Cross with one Oak Leaf Cluster. He is survived by his wife of 56 years, Josephine, a son, Kris, of Seaford, VA and a daughter Anne Morse of Ohio.

This from today's Virginian Pilot.



Charles

25 missions completed in a B17....dang.

That is amazing.

TO

Wheels

Yesterday afternoon, August 18th, AVG Ace Major General Charlie Bond passed away

Cavanaugh Flight Museum: Major General Charles R. Bond, Jr.

I think only three or four AVG vets are still with us. EDIT [Ken Jernstedt, "Bus" Keeton, and Dr. Carl Brown}

Bond and Erik Shilling are generally credited with the Tiger Shark motif

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Tigers

Respect

RIP

TO

Wheels

For those of you in Dallas area here are details about the Services. There will be a missing man formation

The Obit

Restland Funeral Home and Cemetery

The details

Services for Charlie Bond will be held at the Restland Funeral Home in Dallas. Visitation will be from 6 to 8 p.m. on Monday, August 24, with the Funeral on Tuesday, August 25th, at 12:30 p.m. Burial will follow at Restland, with a planned fly-over and missing man formation.

My father is also at Restland along my mother and oldest daughter. His services were unusual in that it was the USN that flew the Missing Man formation instead of USAF

If it was anything even remotely connected with Niagara's daredevils, Riverman Ken Sloggett would be the first person I would turn to for information.

He was so much more than just a news contact who had a wealth of information at his fingertips.

Above all, he was a dear friend and we shared many memories over the past 25 years.

Ken died Thursday morning at the Greater Niagara General Hospital. He just turned 93 and his family had celebrated his birthday in the cafeteria at the hospital last Friday.

Ken was also a very proud Canadian. He always had a Canadian flag flying in front of his home and never missed the Canada Day festivities held at Optimist Park.

In 1944, he was a private with the Lincoln and Welland Regiment, and that August was part of the Allied forces fighting desperately to close what was known as the Falaise Gap.

Legion Magazine interviewed Ken back in 1999 when he took part in a 12-day pilgrimage marking the 55th anniversary of D-Day. The tour organized by Veterans Affairs Canada took 60 Canadian veterans and 10 youth and cadet representatives to France and England.

While overlooking the battlefield, Ken recalled that when they arrived friendly tanks encircled Polish troops in a defensive stockade and the Poles were cooking their supper on fires.

"We had a you-scratch-my-back and I'll-scratch-yours arrangement," he told the magazine. "We were glad to help them," he added, noting he was proud to be a D-Day soldier. "Once we got in and we went all the way to Falaise, but we left a lot of men on the field. If you lived for 24 hours you were a soldier; if not, you were dead."

Ken had a love for the Niagara River and knew it like the back of his hand.

He was related to members of the Hill family, who also have a significant history and connection with the Falls and the Niagara River.

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As a young man, Ken and his cousin, Wesley Hill, would often be called upon to retrieve a body if there had been a drowning or if someone had gone over the Falls. In those early days, he was paid $10.

His one daughter recently told me, her father did it for the families of those victims. He wanted them to have a proper burial.

On July 2, 1984, Karel Soucek brought back the age of daredevils to Niagara. He became the first person in 23 years to survive a plunge over the famous cataract in a barrel.

That story was carried around the world, but Soucek didn't live long enough to really enjoy his new found fame. He died in January of 1985 while trying to re-create the stunt in the Houston Astrodome.

Soucek was placed in a barrel and it was dropped 55 metres, the approximate same height as the Falls, into a pool of water. The barrel hit the edge of the pool and Soucek, 37, suffered massive injuries and died the next day.

Soucek, who was originally from Czechoslovakia and lived in Hamilton, didn't have any immediate family in Canada.

Ken knew that Soucek wanted to be buried close to the Falls when he died. Ken made that happen.

Historic Drummond Hill Cemetery is the closest one near the Falls. Several members of Ken's family are buried there and they also owned an empty plot. Ken donated the plot so that Soucek would get his final wish.

Ken would always see to it that Soucek's monument, the top of which is in the shape of a barrel, always had plenty of flowers. It's located near the back parking lot close to the gate. Any time I happen to be at Drummond Hill Cemetery, I always stop in to say hello to Soucek, who I interviewed by telephone just days before he headed out to Houston.

When daredevil John David Munday of Caistor Centre was building his barrel getting ready to go over the Horseshoe Falls around 1985, Ken knocked on his door and asked if he could take a look at it.

The two men started talking and at one point during their conversation, Ken let him know that if he ever did go over the Falls and needed his help he would be there for him.

Munday, who always referred to Ken as Mr. Sloggett, didn't give it much thought because Ken was in his 70s at the time. Ken proved to be true to his word.

As some readers might recall, Munday made four attempts at going over the Horseshoe Falls. He was stopped by police on his first attempt on July 28, 1985, but made good on his second try on Oct. 5, 1985.

After the barrel when over the Horseshoe Falls, it became stuck near some rocks near the base and Munday couldn't get out.

Ken's daughter, Dawn Tarrant, was at the Maid of the Mist listening as the Niagara Parks Police gave updates to their officers.

This is how she recalls it: "My heart went in my throat when I overheard someone say that my dad was going to climb down the bank to get Dave from his barrel. I did a lot of praying that day. I wanted them both to be all right. Dad never thought about himself. He just wanted Dave to be safe and on dry land. He knew Dave was deathly afraid of water and he didn't want him to panic."

Munday talks about that rescue in a video he put out after his first successful attempt.

On July 15, 1990, Munday tried going over the Falls again in a "no frills" barrel during the early morning hours. The barrel became stranded on rocks right at the brink of the Falls due to the low level of the water.

Review photographer Mike DiBattista and I stuck close to Ken who had contact with Dave on his two-way radio. Ken assured Dave everything was going to be fine and that a crane was being brought in so they could hook up a cable and remove the barrel from the brink.

Mike and I were soaked to the bone that morning. The mist was coming off The Falls so hard that at times it felt like someone was pointing a hose directly at us. Mike's camera bag had filled with water and I remember him turning it over to empty it out.

Dave told Ken he thought he was surely going to die that morning.

Three years later, on Sept. 26, 1993, Munday returned with a red and white ball-like steel chamber and went over the Horseshoe Falls for the second time.

John Harkness, who knew Ken since the 1950s, said he was the longest serving member of the Lincoln and Welland Regiment. He joined in 1936.

"He told me so many stories," said Harkness. "Those infantry boys had a pretty tough life. The one thing that has always struck me is how much respect his family had for him. They would do anything for him."

On Remembrance Day, Ken would often be seen at the cenotaph on Clifton Hill paying his respects to his fallen comrades.

Those are just a few memories of my good friend, Ken Sloggett. Rest in peace, I will miss you