But whenever I hear the word "hero" loosely used, as it so often is a professional athletes and media celebrities and many people of done no more than wear uniform for a while, I think of Stanley going back into the dark.
George MacDonald Frasier.
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Sports "Heroes" in particular irritate me. Those overpaid entertainers are not risking their lives. And I haven't forgotten the people who, when OJ Simpson was doing his slow-motion car chase, were saying "let him go, he's a hero."
ReplyDeleteI'm enough older than you to have known many WWII (and some WWI) vets. Quite often, the first I heard that so-and-so had won serious medals was at his funeral service; they didn't talk about what they'd done, much less brag about it. It was there to be done, they did it, and that was that.
I missed the WW1 vets. But since I live in God's Waiting Room, I've met a fair number of WW2 and Korea.
DeleteWillard is a Rhodesian vet.
Lots of 'Nam vets too.
There's definitely a code of silence about talking to outsiders.
Willard divides the stories thus: Stories you can tell anyone. Stories you can only tell someone who's been. Stories you can only tell someone who was there with you.
Some vets just don't have many stories for the anyones.
As a guy who did no more than wear the uniform for a while, I wholly endorse this post.
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