The Way I Heard It with Mike Rowe - 32: The Dreamer

Episode Date: August 30, 2016

He couldn't change the people, so he changed the world.

This is the way I heard it. Eugene was staring at a thin ribbon of mist, trailing behind the number two engine of the Lockheed constellation, and hoping against hope, his eyes were deceiving him. They'd lost the first engine an hour after departing Karachi, but the pilot felt confident the remaining three could get them safely to Istanbul. It's not the call Eugene would have made, but as the third officer on the Pan Am crew, it wasn't his call to make. But now, as he watched that troubling ribbon of mist darken and thicken, Eugene knew the captain had gambled poorly with the lives of 36 people. He shared the bad news succinctly, with the one word guaranteed to strike terror into the hearts of mariners and aviators the world over. Fire. The plane descended quickly. It shook and shuddered as the pilot did what he could to keep them from nosediving. but there was no doubt among the passengers and crew.

They were going to crash, and all Eugene could think was not again. Against some very long odds, Eugene had already survived two deadly plane crashes in the Second World War. Walking away from a third was statistically impossible, so Gene prepared to meet his maker. He thought about the 89 bombing raids he had flown over the South Pacific in his B-17. he considered the many tons of ordinance he had dropped upon the enemy and the countless lives he had extinguished serving his country. The army had called him a hero and awarded him a distinguished flying cross. But for what, Eugene wondered, for killing strangers from a great height?

Was that to be his legacy? The airplane smashed into the Syrian desert with a sickening impact that seemed to go on for an eternity. Eugene felt his ribs crack. He heard the screams from behind him and smelled the jet fuel. When the plane finally came to a stop, Eugene paused for a moment, unsure that he was still among the living. Then he freed himself from the cockpit and ran straight into the burning fuselage.

He grabbed anyone he could find, pulling them onto the sand and smothering the flames as best he could. Again and again, Eugene returned to the passenger compartment before the wind picked up and engulfed the entire aircraft in flames. The last person Eugene pulled out of the plane, died in his arms. To truly survive a crash, you have to also survive the aftermath. Many suffer from survivor guilt and retreat into themselves. Others vow never to fly again.

Eugene had survived not one but three deadly crashes, and now he was questioning everything. Why had he been spared? Was the universe trying to tell him something? Eugene was not a religious man. All he knew for sure was that saving lives felt a lot better than taking lives. So he resolved in that moment to do something more with the life that he still had. He joined the Los Angeles Police Department and dedicated himself to helping others.

For seven years, Eugene protected and served the people of Los Angeles, but the work took a toll. As a cop, Eugene saw man's many flaws up close and personal. The ugliness, the pettiness, the racism that so stupidly divides us, he yearned even more for a better world, but wondered what one man could do in the face of so much wickedness. Maybe the best way to change the world was to simply create a new one. Eugene left the police force and put pen to paper, Fleshing out the rules of an imaginary society, a meritorious culture in which everyone had an equal shot, where technology leveled the playing field

and people of all races worked together toward a common goal. He turned his vision into a screenplay and showed it to some producers in Hollywood, where more than a few eyebrows were raised. Interracial relationships? Good guys from communist countries? Who was this dreamer? There was a Cold War raging, and the civil rights movement had barely begun to move.

What was Eugene thinking? Eventually, Hollywood would come around and throw some money at Eugene's utopia. But even then, the small screen was too small for such a big idea, and after a short run on NBC, Eugene's vision for a better world was canceled. That's the trouble with being ahead of your time. You need to wait for the rest of the world to catch up. But if you're patient and prescient, who knows, your vision of a better world just might morph into a multi-billion dollar enterprise. Likewise, the next generation might credit you with envisioning cell phones, touch tablets, GPS, and FaceTime decades before they actually appeared.

In truth, it's hard to know what our world would look like today without the decorated war hero who valued peace above all. things, the combat pilot who cheated death three times, turned his back on aviation, and then created the most famous aircraft in the history of modern flight. Indeed, you'd have to live in some parallel universe with no television to escape the impact of the man who created Star Trek, a man who saw a world where everyone might live long and prosper. That was the true final frontier for a dreamer, named Gene Roddenberry. That's the way I heard it. If you work in university maintenance,

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