One of the first things we are taught as journalists is that everyone has a story. (I can hear several of our readers arguing this point right this second!)
When historian Ben Pate begin talking to Paul Gaudette and myself about Noel Shoup’s story, we automatically thought: ‘Well, that’s really cool.’
It wasn’t until we had the opportunity to sit down with Shoup’s nieces Brenda Baumert and Sandra Hammons that his story became personal to us.
In case you missed the story in last week’s edition, Noel Shoup is a 1936 graduate of Dublin High School who crashed in France during World War II after his plane was shot down Feb. 28, 1944. His remains were recently recovered and he will be buried in Upper Greens Creek Cemetery on Sept. 11, 2023 - on what would be Noel’s 105th birthday.
We had the privilege of getting to not only cover the story, but the family asked us if we would break the story before even the military sent out its press release.
We gave advice on press releases and contacts for other media for the Dublin Historical Museum exhibit and discussed the best way to tell Shoup’s story in the newspaper.
Let me tell you what ... it was humbling to say the least.
If I’m honest, it was also a little overwhelming for Paul Gaudette and myself but rewarding since we collaborated together on the story.
As we did a basic interview and then a longer one where we perused family scrapbooks and military documents, it became even more real to us.
There are 82,000 families still missing family members from a variety of conflicts in many locations throughout the world.
Noel’s mom always described Noel as a man of great character and although he was classified as ‘Killed in Action’ their grandmother always seemed to expect he would return one day since a body had not been recovered.
Many families, I’m sure hold out that same hope.
We both found ourselves emotional as we crafted the story, chose photos and discussed how it would look on the front page.
We would like to extend a special thanks to the Shoup family for trusting us with Noel’s legacy.
Each and every time we are able to craft a story about someone in Dublin, it is truly an honor.
This was obviously a story with a lot of historical significance and incorporated cutting edge science, but every person and family’s story is personal to them and important. Thanks for trusting us with something so precious.