I have had the privilege to know several Silver and Bronze Star recipients. I have met Congressional Medal of Honor recipients. I have known several Navy Cross recipients. In all these highly decorated men, (and I am sure women too, though I have not had the privilege of knowing female recipients) I have never met a braggard, or a buffoon, or a dishonest man.
I am sure that there are. No sample of people is devoid of bad people. It is either too small a sample to be statistically significant, or it contains a number of bad people. So, just because someone has a medal for valor, it does not mean that I assume they are immediately saints.
My personal experience is that these are uniformly good people. Some were flawed, none were perfect, but my experience is that they were uniformly good. And, I think that perhaps we would find that as a subset of the total American population, there is no better pool than those citizens decorated for valor on the battlefield.
It stands to reason, if you understand what typically, at least since WWI, is required to be awarded a decoration for valor. This is not an award for popularity, nor is it a gimme. An investigation into the facts of the matter occurs. Multiple levels of the chain of command must all agree and sign off on approval for the decoration. And the particulars are generally in the realm of the nearly unbelievable.
Most decorations involve similar themes. They all indicate exposure to deadly hazard throughout the incident cited. They all indicate a disregard for personal safety. They all indicate a driving and unstoppable will. They usually indicate the annotation that injuries were received in the course of the actions, and ignored while more feats of bravery and valor were accomplished.
Given that, it is much more likely that a man or woman that is willing to behave as described above, is at heart a genuinely good person. It is hard to behave in the fashion described in times of ultimate stress and chaos, and behave oppositely at any time of less stress. A person who is not basically good at heart does not dive on top of a live grenade to protect the platoon. A person that is at heart selfish or self centered, does not charge, alone, at a machine gun nest to protect the platoon. A person who is not basically worthwhile, does not enter a burning engine room, not once, not twice, but three times to extract shipmates that were trapped, and die on the fourth attempt.
The reason we know so few, any one of us, is that far too frequently, the actions found worthy of citation as valorous are deadly. One does not win a decoration for valor, one receives it, and generally posthumously. The citations, the write up that describes the behavior, will make you weep that you did not get to know the man or woman, that died so bravely.
If they are not killed, almost all are severely wounded. They then routinely read that they refused medical care, while they continue to engage and combat the enemy. It really does work that way. "I am fine, but that guy over there needs help." Then they run off, tossing grenades, using captured enemy weapons because they exhausted their own ammunition. That sort of stuff.
And, it is not like the movies. In the movies, there is that quiet moment, chaos flowing all around the hero, where there is this compelling sense that the hero knows they are doomed, and it is okay. No, these folks do not know they are doomed, do not recognize that they are behaving out of the normal. They are so focused on the need of the mission at hand, they disregard every other priority.
If you have never, I highly recommend that you search and read Medal of Honor or Navy Cross citations. In them, you get the true essence of why America is great, and why we have been so successful in arms. Good people. They deserve the benefit of the doubt.
Yeah, the Jim Webb thing started me off tonight. But, he is a capable man, well equipped to handle his own issues. But, there are folks all around you, that don't know. Don't let them ever question the patriotism of these heroes. And, whether they be Presidential candidates, or homeless and alone, they have earned your respect and concern.
Oh, and they almost all swear they are not the hero. The heroes are those that did not make it home. They cry over their lost comrades and friends. Those tears, they are worth more than all the gold in Fort Knox. If you ask me, what is the magic that keeps making America work, I would tell you, it is those tears, and the men who shed them.
GLYASDI
No comments:
Post a Comment