Family keeps fun, caring spirit of soldier son alive
Event honoring him to help kids charity
Brenda Shaw can’t help laughing, even now, about all the practical jokes her son, Daniel J. Shaw, played on her during his 23 years.
Like the time he called home, two or three years ago, between his two tours of duty in Iraq. His mother heard a volley of shots over the phone before her son let out a yelp.
“Did I just get hit?” he asked.
“Run, run, run,” his mother screamed at him, before her son ’fessed up.
He was in California, at a target shooting range.
Or the time when Daniel Shaw kept tilting, ever so slightly, all the photos in the first-floor bathroom of their West Seneca home, trying to convince his mother that the house sat on a fault line.
“I was starting to believe him,” Brenda Shaw said. “He was just a good bs’er.”
Or the time Daniel Shaw called his parents from Denver, asking them to wire $500 bail money to him at the Denver jail. That wasn’t true, either.
“He used to bet his friends that he could get his mother swearing in two minutes,” said his father, Ronald.
Army Sgt. Daniel J. Shaw’s many practical jokes and pranks no doubt will take center stage at the Aug. 9 benefit being held in his memory.
Shaw was killed last Nov. 5 in an explosion in Iraq, where he served as a master breacher who knocked down doors in buildings suspected of holding weapons caches.
At the benefit, his pranks will have to share the spotlight with all the photos and stories about him and the kids of Iraq.
Shaw learned Arabic, and one small Iraqi boy, no more than 4 or 5, followed him around the streets. He gave the boy some trinkets and much-needed attention. The boy called him “Mister, Mister.”
Shaw’s Army buddies called him something else: Dad.
“His fellow soldiers would say, ‘Hey, Danny, your son’s around,’ ” Ronald Shaw recalled. “He’d go right to Danny.”
Shaw loved talking with the kids. It helped him learn the language, especially the slang.
But there was something else.
“He had a soft spot in his heart for little kids,” his mother said. “He would take it upon himself to become a guardian for those that were living in turmoil, especially the children.”
That’s why the Shaws and their daughter, Angela Hinterberger, have set up a fund in his memory at the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo. The plan is to hold a fundraising event each year, with the proceeds earmarked for a local children’s charity.
This year’s event, featuring live music, a ticket auction, food and beer, will be held from 2 to 8 p. m. Aug. 9 at Post 8113, Veterans of Foreign Wars, on Leydecker Road in West Seneca. Tickets for the fundraiser, $20 now or $25 at the door, are available by calling 822-7929. Proceeds will benefit Haven House, a local shelter for abused women and children.
“That’s why we chose Haven House,” his father said. “He always looked out to protect everybody, especially people who couldn’t protect themselves.”
Spend some time with Daniel Shaw’s family, and it’s not too difficult to reconcile two of his main interests — his love of kids and his practical jokes.
“He was a child at heart,” explained his brother-in-law, Karl Hinterberger. “He loved to play, and he never lost that.”
At Shaw’s funeral, on a picture- perfect morning two days after Veterans Day, the Rev. Adolph Kowalczyk told mourners, “Daniel, the man, never forgot the spirit of Danny, the boy.”
One of the family’s favorite stories is about the time Shaw invited his best friend, Sean O’- Brien, to a toga party.
The only problem: O’Brien was the only partygoer wearing a toga.
“Danny was laughing his head off, taking a picture of him,” Brenda Shaw said. “Sean came in and said, ‘Sorry I’m late. My sister helped me make this dress.’ ”
His family is convinced that Shaw’s spirit didn’t die with him, that the young peacemaker who liked to help others would be so proud that friends and family are doing something in his memory to help disadvantaged kids.
And they feel his presence in helping plan for the Aug. 9 event.
“It’s a way for him to show he’s going to stay around and encourage us to do good deeds,” his mother said, “to help his spirit live on.”
