{"id":1086195,"date":"2021-12-05T10:28:55","date_gmt":"2021-12-05T15:28:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1086195"},"modified":"2021-12-05T10:28:57","modified_gmt":"2021-12-05T15:28:57","slug":"last-of-wwii-band-of-brothers-officer-edward-shames-dies-at-99","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/last-of-wwii-band-of-brothers-officer-edward-shames-dies-at-99\/","title":{"rendered":"Last of WWII &#039;Band of Brothers&#039; Officer Edward Shames Dies at 99"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Flast-of-wwii-band-of-brothers-officer-edward-shames-dies-at-99%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1086195&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p class=\"subheading\">Col. Edward Shames, final surviving member of the World War II parachute infantry regiment known as the \u201cBand of Brothers\u201d which inspired the HBO miniseries and book of the same name, died Friday. He was 99.<\/p>\n<p>An obituary posted by the Hollomon-Brown Funeral Home &amp; Crematory said Shames, of Norfolk, Virginia, died peacefully at home.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<p>Shames enlisted in the Army in 1942, parachuted into Normandy and fought in the Battle of the Bulge as part of the \u201cEasy Company,\u201d 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division.<\/p>\n<p>Their combined efforts \u2013 and sacrifices \u2013 made in the name of freedom inspired the 2001 HBO miniseries&nbsp;<i>Band of Brother<\/i>s,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pilotonline.com\/news\/obituaries\/vp-nw-shames-obit-1205-20211204-ykhq6q43vfhtlobnmfr6ed4ata-story.html\">the Virginian-Pilot reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The miniseries was based on a <em>New York Times<\/em> bestseller by Stephen Ambrose.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>Only 19 at the time of his enlistment, Shames reportedly forged his mother\u2019s signature to join the Army. He trained at Camp Toccoa, Ga.<\/p>\n<p>His service subsequently saw him involved in some of the most important battles of World War II.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe made his first combat jump into Normandy on D-Day as part of Operation Overlord. He volunteered for Operation Pegasus and then fought with Easy Company in Operation Market Garden and the Battle of the Bulge in Bastogne,\u201d according to the obituary.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_19011554\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" readability=\"49\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/WireAP_4f24d11c1e2b47a8bf83920e1bb3ae85_16x9_992.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-19011554 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/WireAP_4f24d11c1e2b47a8bf83920e1bb3ae85_16x9_992.jpg\" alt=\"Edward Shames, center, hugs Ed McClung, center left, both members of the World War II Army Company E of the 506th Regiment of the 101st Airborne, with veterans Jack Foley, left, Joe Lesniewski, right, and Shifty Powers, far right, at the Library of Congress in Washington, on July 16, 2003. Shames, who was the last surviving officer of \u201cEasy Company,\u201d which inspired the HBO miniseries and book \u201cBand of Brothers,\u201d has died at age 99. An obituary posted by the Holomon-Brown Funeral Home &amp; Crematory said Shames, of Norfolk, Va., died peacefully at his home on Friday, Dec. 3, 2021. (AP Photo\/Gerald Herbert, File)\" width=\"992\" height=\"558\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>Edward Shames, center, hugs Ed McClung, center left, both members of the World War II Army Company E of the 506th Regiment of the 101st Airborne, with veterans Jack Foley, left, Joe Lesniewski, right, and Shifty Powers, far right, at the Library of Congress in Washington, on July 16, 2003. (AP Photo\/Gerald Herbert, File)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Shames was the first member of the 101st to enter Dachau concentration camp, just days after its liberation.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B3\" class=\"a8d adSo\"><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cWhen Germany surrendered, Ed and his men of Easy Company entered Hitler\u2019s Eagle\u2019s Nest where Ed managed to acquire a few bottles of cognac, a label indicating they were \u2018for the Fuhrer\u2019s use only.\u2019 Later, he would use the cognac to toast his oldest son\u2019s Bar Mitzvah,\u201d the obituary outlined.<\/p>\n<p>Shames worked for the National Security Agency as an expert on Middle East affairs at war\u2019s end. He also served in the U.S. Army Reserve Division and later retired as a colonel.<\/p>\n<p>The 2001 miniseries <em>Band of Brothers<\/em>, created by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg, followed Easy Company from its training in Georgia in 1942 all the way to the war\u2019s end in 1945. Shames was portrayed by British actor Joseph May.<\/p>\n<p>Shames was preceded in death by his wife, Ida, who died in 2019 after 73 years of marriage. He is survived by sons Douglas and Steven, four grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.<\/p>\n<p>A graveside service will be held at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Norfolk, Virginia, on Sunday morning, the funeral home said.<\/p>\n<p><em>AP, UPI contributed to this story<\/em><\/p>\n<h5><em><span>Follow Simon Kent on Twitter:<\/span> <a class=\"twitter-follow-button\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SunSimonKent\" data-show-count=\"false\">Follow @SunSimonKent<\/a> <span>or e-mail to: skent@breitbart.com<\/span><br \/><\/em><\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Col. Edward Shames, final surviving member of the World War II parachute infantry regiment known as the \u201cBand of Brothers\u201d which inspired the HBO miniseries and book of the same &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":82,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1086195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1086195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/82"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1086195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1086195\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1086195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1086195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1086195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}