Book Description

Just Call Me "Colonel" was written and published for our family. The pages of this book were the result of interviews with Grandpa and written by a hospice volunteer who is also a freelance writer. Specific facts were checked and double-checked by his children. These pages are filled with the accomplishments of a West Point Cadet, an officer of the occupation in post-war Japan, and the military service that followed. They provide us with good reference material, and a necessary framework to understand the man we knew and loved as Wade Harvey Shafer. In his book Grandpa also accurately describes a personal account of American farm life in the early twentieth century. Just Call Me "Colonel" is a personal documentation of the widespread transition from rural to urban life that affected many of those who lived in the United States at this time. It is a depiction of the effects caused by WWII and The Great Depression. These experiences were important to his development as a citizen, a husband, and a father, and are definitely worth noting. While they were extraordinary enough to Grandpa for him to request their documentation, it is important to note they were an ordinary experience, common to many in his generation. This is because he was part of an extraordinary generation of men.