"It is with great sadness and regret that we announce the passing of Colonel and friend, Edward D. “Ed” Shames - the last officer of the Easy Company / 2nd Battalion / 506th PIR / 101st Airborne Division at the age of 99 years old. June 13, 1922 - December 04, 2021 "
He passed away at 99, I did a tour of Bastogne and surroundings with him in 2008. At 89 he was still very vivid and generally a great guy. He was heavily traumatized and suffered from nightmares his whole life especially after he liberated the “Dachau Death Camp” near Munich in April 1945.
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This is really the time I need a time machine to go 4 years back in time, take a flight and say hi again to him.
Ed Shames 5 years ago, Norwood Thomas who passed on in Januari is there as well!
There are a few interesting jokes on the snakes in the vid 
Ed Shames - Currahee Mountain - YouTube0
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The last of the Band of Brothers 
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Yeah, and the last liberator of Dachau, very sad. I kinda secretly hope he would live forever.
Ed Shames - Currahee Mountain - YouTube
In the 10s he also worked with Historian Ian Gardner to write a book on his experiences like it really was. It is much darker than Ambrose his works. Actually according to him Ambrose was trying to write things about him that didn’t happen promising him a “place in the book”. He really pushed back as he couldn’t care less about it. Also Shames specifically worked together with a historian to double check events AND give credibility because he as a Jew knows firsthand that way too many people still refuse to believe what happened. Also in his interviews he is very clear that the was of antisemitism in the 101st Airborne as well. He called Dick Winters an antisemite as well. (not every antisemite is a genocidal maniac but antisemitism isn’t something exclusively German). I can dig up the interview. He is no longer around to say it so I will do it for my friend!
Deliver Us From Darkness: The Untold Story of Third Battalion 506 Parachute Infantry Regiment during Market Garden by Ian Gardner (goodreads.com)
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Here is another one purely on his activities, some of it reads as a spy novel. Especially him making contact with the resistance in Tilburg and phoning through a “Secret telephone line” from Tilburg to Eindhoven but it is all verified. The high tech Company Philips Electronics had its own (like REALLY private) underground telephone line which the Germans never ever discovered.
Airborne: The Combat Story of Ed Shames of Easy Company by Ian Gardner (goodreads.com)
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