Shames was the first member to enter Dachau concentration camp just days after it liberated.
NORFOLK (Va.) — Edward Shames, a World War II veteran and the last surviving officer of the “Easy Company,” that inspired the HBO miniseries “Band of Brothers,” has passed away. He was 99.
The Holomon-Brown Funeral Home & Crematory posted a obituary that stated that Shames, a Norfolk, Virginia resident, had died peacefully at home on Friday.
Shames participated in some of the most significant battles of World War II. He was part of the famed Easy Company, 506th Parachute Infantry Regment, 101st Airborne Division during World War II.
Operation Overlord saw him make his first combat jump in Normandy on D-Day. According to the Obituary, he volunteered for Operation Pegasus. He then fought in Operation Market Garden with Easy Company and the Battle of the Bulge In Bastogne.
Shames was the first member to enter Dachau concentration camp just days after it liberated.
The obituary stated that Ed and his Easy Company men entered Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest to find a few bottles.
After the war, Shames was an expert on Middle East affairs for the National Security Agency. Shames also served in the U.S. Army Reserve Division, and was later promoted to colonel.
Stephen Ambrose’s 1992 novel, “Band of Brothers”, was about Easy Company. This book was the basis for the HBO miniseries. Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks created the 2001 miniseries. It followed Easy Company’s journey from its 1942 training in Georgia to its end in 1945. Joseph May, a British actor, played Shames.
Douglas and Steven Shames, as well as four grandchildren and twelve great-grandchildren, are Shames’s surviving sons.
According to the funeral home, a graveside service will take place at Forest Lawn Cemetery, Norfolk, Virginia on Sunday morning.
