A video profile from the greatest generation

On a hot, balmy Dallas day in June 2011 our crew was conducting video sessions for business professionals at a hotel on Central Expressway. The day proved remarkable, not for the business video we shot that day, but for the lesson we learned from one of the greatest generation about how to tell your story.

A few weeks before, Rick Damerau (member of client First Presbyterian’s Open Ring Class) visited our office inquiring whether we ever filmed presentations…he told me about a World War II veteran named Charlie who volunteered at the Frontiers of Flight Museum for decades and Rick was urgent about finding a way to preserve Charlie’s presentation.

We understood instantly what had to be done…

After 20 years working with business professionals in video, you hate to say there’s only one way to present yourself, but for many not used to being in front of the camera, it’s a safe bet that the more you script, the less authentic you sound.

So, we really discourage scripting…unless of course you have logged more than 12,000 hours giving your presentation…like Charles D. Mohrle!

We captured his presentation on video 3 times that day…just to make sure WE got it.

Watch the full-length presentation, and you’ll appreciate where he slows down to emphasize his point, as if to make sure history won’t interpret him any other way. Charlie’s life and heroic actions in World War II helped define the greatest generation for us who knew it and for those to come later who should. After 50 years, and now an incredible life celebrated, Charlie Mohrle’s presentation about the heroic and historic flights he flew and his love for the machines that got him home are preserved by the Frontiers of Flight Museum.

It’s only fitting to share this tribute with his passing for those passionate about flying, pilots, and World War II.

articles

Charles D Mohrle Dies Peacefully At Home

Charlie Mohrle, who devoted his later life to teaching lessons of war, dies at 92

 

Ross R. MasonA video profile from the greatest generation