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Invesco Field At Mile High

Rocky Mountain High

Denver – Newsroom Magazine contributor Gordon Shaffer lives only a few miles from Invesco Field — Denver’s 76,000-seat football stadium. Just a month from now, Barack Obama plans to accept the Democrat nomination for president to the sound of thunderous cheers from adoring fans. For that moment, Denver and Invesco Field will be the center of the media universe. Richard Evans opined recently that Obama’s coronation speech will be an important historical event — largely because of how it will be covered by network television news and cable channels.

Television, Richard well knows, has the ability to capture political rhetoric and sports spectaculars with equal ease. He is right, of course, about the historical opportunity provided that all goes as planned. But no matter the media attention, or the accolades of adoring Democrats, outdoor events can be tricky in Denver’s August heat.

Gordon Shaffer knows about Denver’s August heat — how late afternoon thunderstorms can suddenly appear, then sweep north along the front range. Suddenly the skies turn dark, filling the air with thunderous noise all the while drenching everything in sight. “It’s just not the same back East,” Gordon once told me. He knows, for although Shaffer lived in Ohio, where he met his wife Sharon, he’s a native Coloradoan — a man’s man who knows his way around the fields and streams in the highlands just west of town.

Lessons From The Greatest Generation

B-17 Flying Fortress Over Europe

If you don’t know about this great American you may find his story inspiring. Shaffer is counted among Tom Brokaw’s Greatest Generation — those gallant young men and women who served their country in the knowledge that being an American meant more than enjoying the bountiful cornucopia.

Like so many others of his generation, Gordon Shaffer went to war to fight for his country when he was barely old enough to get his driver’s license. If you think times were different back then, you’re right, but men like Gordon Shaffer still knowingly go into harm’s way to defend those of us who take our freedom, rights and comfortable lifestyle as being God given.

America has changed a great deal since March 17th, 1945 when Shaffer’s 384th bomber group came under heavy anti-aircraft fire over central Germany. Shaffer’s aircraft, Dark Angel, was under the command of Bill Schauer as it approached its assigned target area near Leipzig. When Dark Angel was hit by flak, Schauer gave the bail-out order well behind German lines, not far from Emden.

Gordon Shaffer's Crew -- Dark Angel

Moments later, the Dark Angel crew members seen in this image were dangling from their parachutes in broad daylight. One of them, radio operator Vernon Cooksy died on impact, while the others, including Shaffer, were captured and incarcerated in a German POW camp. The survivors included pilot Schauer, Shaffer, co-pilot Van McKay, navigator Willis Gallop, toggel Dan Frankel, engineer Lamar Tumlin, waist gunner Frank Condon, and tail gunner Ken Stewart.

What was different then, Shaffer explains today, were American attitudes toward doing what mattered most. Unlike so many of us today, Brokaw’s Greatest Generation did what had to be done, not what was most fun, or profitable.

When Is Enough Enough?

Iraqi IED Attack

World War II America is long gone — as is our sense of commitment to one another. But the need for Americans to serve the greater good remains the same — only today that burden is not shared by all. While the more fortunate among us strive to get ahead, to live the American dream, others are asked to pay the ultimate price while we frivolously live lives of indulgence and affluence.

Our problem isn’t that we’re unwilling to share the burdens of keeping our families free and our nation strong. Our problem is that we’re confused by what we know — and confounded by what we don’t know. The cause is entertainment masquerading as news — for what’s fun, exciting and profitable is far afield from what’s important, relevant to our lives, and probative of our culture, institutions and political inclinations.

As journalists, reporters and editors, we’ll cover the Obama event in Denver with enthusiasm and skill. The question is whom among us will tell the greater story, or speak of the bravery of men like Gordon Shaffer, John F. Kennedy, Charles Kuralt, John McCain, Richard Engel, Ernie Pyle, John Burns, and thousands of others who put their lives on the line for our freedoms.

Americans need to know. Telling them is our job. It’s high time we get on with it.