American Valor Quarterly Issue 12 - Spring 2015 | Page 9

D-Day to the

Eagle’s
Nest
From Colonel Edward Shames
Col. Edward Shames is a United States
Army officer who served during WWII with
the 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry
Regiment, of the 101st Airborne Division.
After leaving paratrooper training in Toccoa,
GA, Shames was promoted to operations
sergeant in England, and gathered a team to
build the sand tables that were used to plan the
airdrop into Normandy on D-Day. He was
the first man in the 101st Airborne Division
to receive a battlefield commission following the
Normandy landings. As an officer, Shames
also contributed in later campaigns including
Operation Market Garden, and the Battle of
the Bulge in Bastogne.
The gallantry exhibited by Shames and the
men he served with was celebrated in the 2001
HBO mini-series Band of Brothers.

I

was born in Norfolk, VA on
June 13, 1922, and grew up there
with my brother and two sisters.
My father died when I was five years
old, and growing up, I guess you could
say I was somewhat peculiar. While
other kids played with their toys and
other trinkets, I developed a fondness
for maps at an early age. I liked road
maps; all kinds, any kind of maps.
When other kinds would ask for a toy
soldier, I would ask for a map. People
thought I was a little screwy, but I
was fascinated by trying to figure out
where I was, where I was going, and
how to get there. Little did I know
then that this childhood hobby of
mine would serve me well later in life.
SPRING 2015

I was also quite shy growing up.
When it came to dating, I went out
with girls of course, but was never
overly romantic with any of them. I
developed deep feelings for one girl in
particular by the name of Ida Aframe.
She was a beautiful girl. In fact, she
was the jewel of the town.

WAVES OF ALLIED
PARATROOPERS DESCEND ON
THE NETHERLANDS DURING
OPERATION MARKET GARDEN,
SEPTEMBER, 1944.

My relationship with Ida was more
or less platonic until the day I was
going overseas with my unit. When
I had to leave for camp, one of the
last things I did was go and visit her.
She was a volunteer nurse’s aide at the
hospital and that’s where I found her.
By this time, I had developed a dear
relationship with her, but the romantic
feelings were coming from my side,
not hers. Fortunately, I would get
another chance to win Ida over when I
returned home after the war.

across an ad in the newspaper for the
Royal Canadian Air Force. They were
looking for spitfire fighter pilots. So
we made a pact then that the three of
us would go up to Hamilton, Ontario,
to see about joining. We went through
several of the physical and mental
examinations and were waiting to be
admitted to the cadet training corps.
This was December, 1941. We were
scheduled to sign our papers on Dec.
8, 1941, but our plans changed when
the Pearl Harbor attacks happened
on Dec. 7. We decided then and there
that this was not the place for us and
headed back to Norfolk. We were
still too young to enlist in the units
that we wanted so we stayed in school
until July, 1942. Advertisements came
out of Fort Monroe, VA, calling for
physically, and intellectually gifted
young men to join a paratrooper unit
that was being formed. We knew
nothing about it, but it sounded good
to us. I don’t know what the other two
ultimately decided, but I signed up at
Fort Monroe, VA to become a part of
the 506th Parachute Infantry.

When the war broke out, I scored
high on the admission tests and
was allowed to go to the Naval
Engineering School. I was at the
school for about a year. When the war
broke out in 1939, there were rumors
swirling constantly. We knew that
sooner or later the United States was
going to be involved in the war effort
and we wanted to pick out a particular
unit to serve in. Two or three of my
classmates and I had always wanted
to be fighter pilots. We talked to each
other frequently about our plans, and
it was in 1941 that one of us came

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