Newsman Without Equal
Unforgotten Hero With the Ultimate Sacrifice
Beginnings
If you're traveling in the North Country Far...
This Midwesterner was born on May 22, 1963, and was raised in Minnesota. His dream --when not playing hockey and debating for his school-- was journalism.
Most of us have seen TV grow from infancy to adultery.
David got his first start in broadcasting at a station in Lacrosse, Wisconsin, but the big break came when he became a broadcast reporter at WTVJ station in Miami, Florida. His famous coverage of Hurricane Andrew with him traversing through the catastrophe there won him, at only 29, a Peabody Award. That landed him a coveted position with NBC as a roving News Correspondent, and his talents proceeded to propel him to the lauded White House Correspondent.
Today
With boyish enthusiasm.
When not reporting top stories for NBC, he became in March 2000 a weekend co-host of the NBC Today show, and showed other sides of his multi-talentedness. He had not too long ago reported from Israel concerning Palestinian infatidas, and was prominent in his pieces about homeland security while taping at ground-zero. Tom Brokaw remembers him excitedly out of breath barging into his office for advice on this story or that, then vanishing. Tim Russert recalls his integrity, of never hitting below the belt, so to speak. And, how he received one of his last telephone calls for scores to the NCAA Tournament.
The Best for Last
I want to see and hear everything.
Operation Iraqi Freedom was to be David Bloom's finest hour. He was going to be the first reporter to be embedded in an American Army armored column, the Second Battalion's 315 Mechanized Unit of the Third Infantry Division, on its way from Kuwait to fight its way through the Republican Guard in Baghdad. His home for many weeks was a modified M-88 tank recovery vehicle, that became dubbed, the Bloommobile. In cramped conditions, Bloom sent live reports via digital satellite for NBC and its sister, MSNBC.
Many of us will never forget his youngish face growing weary and old like the soldiers who came to a mutual respect while he reported first during the first days' quick start from the blocks, then sandblasted. His report at four PM in the day was in such pitch black conditions during the turbid sandstorm that the glow sticks barely lit his face. He reported while mired in spring rains' mud, and searing heat.
Not only was David a devoted family man, but he was an avowed Christian. His last e-mail mentions how he was in the hands of Jesus.
His last report was on Friday, April 4, 2003 was when they were on the doorstep of Baghdad. On the next day, Saturday, after calling his wife, Melanie, he came out of his vehicle where he collapsed. The possibility of immobility could have caused the pulmonary embolism when a clot formed in the legs, aggravated by cramped quarters (legs bent to his chin), lack of sleep, and harsh, hot, dry desert conditions. The medics that came quickly could not revive him. A couple of months short of 40, David Bloom was another casualty of war, that included several other news persons.
His funeral in St. Paul's in New York was highlighted with Tom Brokow giving a moving eulogy.
note:
In May of 2003 a Dr. Strom of the Pennsylvania Medical School has proposed that Bloom might have actually died as complications from his smallpox vaccination. With almost a dozen of the third million troops taking it have had this unusual heart inflammation, Dr. Strom is one of some who warn against anyone taking these shots. Most doctors do not see a correlation.
Source: MSNBC
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