When “Hero” rings hollow
Dan Gomez of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) had an opportunity to write a column in the New York Times…and he blew it. The title of his piece is “When “Hero” Rings Hollow” and he started it out alright, but he should have ended it after he wrote this part;
Even though I didn’t participate in any solitary acts of heroism, like jumping on a grenade or being the guy who got Osama bin Laden, there are many who would say I am a hero for doing what others would not while putting myself at extreme risk.
That’s the way most of us see it. Not many of us think we did anything out of the ordinary or anything that one of our buddies wouldn’t have done for us. Listen to Sal Giunta. But then Gomez goes off on a tear;
Calling everyone a hero is unfair to the real heroes who accomplish extraordinary things. It’s also unfair to the rest of us who do important work, only to have it wiped away by being equated to the work of everyone else. Yes, people’s hearts are in the right place when they call us heroes. But I’d much rather a person struggle to understand what military service is all about, rather than just assume it’s all heroic, all the time. In a country where so few people serve in a military that plays such a prominent role in global affairs, a little understanding can go a long way.
Is it really “unfair” and being “equated to the work of everyone else”? Seriously? Gomez defined heroism as doing what others wouldn’t do…but, ya know what…that’s kind of the essence of heroism. Admiral Halsey once wrote “There are no extraordinary men…just extraordinary circumstances that ordinary men are forced to deal with.” But, it takes a special person to seek out extraordinary circumstances – the people who volunteer to confront those circumstances…run towards the sound of the guns…are the best our country have to offer and deserve to be called heroes.
Sure it would make them feel uncomfortable, but not so uncomfortable that they would run to the New York Times and write a column that makes the $8/cup coffee crowd feel better about their own inadequacies. “Hero” only rings hollow when hollow people make it sound so.
Category: Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America
I totally disagree with you. The term “hero” should be reserved for extraordinary acts of bravery and not diminished by application to everyday acts. Earning a Silver Star or CMH requires heroism of a degree few are willing to supply but serving in the military has been done by millions, including myself.
A soldier in performance of his everyday duties is not a hero. One that throws himself on a grenade to save his squad is.
A fireman by being a fireman is not a hero. One that runs into a burning building and rescues a child is.
I make no claim to knowing or being a hero. After many years of reading about our various conflicts, the men and sometimes women in them, as well as those of ancient history, I suspect that Bull Halsey got it in one.
To extend your argument, there’d be no Admiral Bull Halsey without the kid from the sticks shoveling coal in the firebox – the same kid as likely to die from heat injury or malfunctioning machines as from an enemy round.
I remain amazed at the quality of men and women, the majority of them not wearing the metal, enamel and fabric of an award, but who serve heroically nonetheless.
JonP is thoroughly, 1000% incorrect. Those awards require two things, and two things only: the requisite number of witnesses. Heroism is performed within sight of witnesses, or all alone in the dark of night. Men and women have received AAM with “V” device for the same actions as have earned SS and higher.
“Hero” rings hollow on me; but a friend of mine, SFC M, got caught in an ambush. Two Americans went down in the killzone, and SFC M broke cover twice to retrieve them. One, unfortunately, had passed on. SFC M applied combat lifesaver methods to keep the other alive until the Taliban had been fought off, and MEDEVAC could be effected. He didn’t get a medal, just PTSD. One of the finest men I’ve had the privilige of knowing.
Dave T says DaveO is wrongO. Millions have served-that doesn’t make us heroes, it simply makes us role models.
Think of it this way-if simply serving in uniform or being in a combat zone is ‘heroic’, than John Kerry is a hero of the same grade as John McCain.
I served 16 months in Iraq and got hit by an IED. But I am not a hero. SSG John Kriesel, who also served with the Red Bulls and got hit by an IED, lost both legs and almost an arm, rehabilitated and swears every day is a gift from God. He is a hero.
Heroism doesn’t come from putting the uniform on. It comes from being tested by adversity and responding in a heroic manner.
The audience that reads that article in the NY Times has no way of knowing who’s a “real hero” and who isn’t. If someone with no military background wants to call me a hero I just shrug and say “I was just doing my job”, because that is the way I see it.
The real problem as I see it is people that 99% of the military would recognize as real heroes are never acknowledged outside the military. I’m sure those heroes are just fine with that…but part of the motivation of a nation at war is heroes and their stories. The DOD has lost that somewhere in their quest to make us all the same and leave no Soldier behind. When real stories about real heroism never get out, and only vague descriptions about firefights on the side of a mountain by for example the 173rd, then people reading about that will tend to lump everyone from the 173rd into the category of the heroes who fought that battle.
That article does nobody any favors…and who is he or any of us to tell others who a hero is and isn’t? It’s sort of like beauty, it’s in the eye of the beholder.
The AG FOBbit jacking up your pay with air conditioning, Internet, all the coffee he can drink and no risk to his ass whatsoever is not a hero no matter how much he whines his job sucks. He would, like that article’s author, qualify as a “douchebag” if obnoxious enough.
Oh, and this just in…
No more ghey beret!
“In US Army, the Beret is Out and the Cap is Back,” by AFP via Yahoo! News, 13 JUN 11
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110613/pl_afp/usmilitaryuniform
Come on, we all think it. When we see the pimply kid come home fresh from Air Force button pushing school getting hailed as a “hero” we all do the eye roll. When we see people we know are Grade A Shitbags getting back slaps and free beers we scoff. The thing about it though is that it’s an internal discussion, not something to be splayed all over the front of the New York times for the aptly named $8 a cup coffee crowd. It’s not their business. Those are our brothers and only we get to talk shit about them, in our own house.
NotSoOldMarine,
“only we get to talk shit about them, in our own house.”
I don’t know about you, but the house I live in is America, and in America, we can talk shit about anyone we damn well please. To have such “internal discussions” you only perpetuate the civilian/military divide.
Also, I am a NYTimes subscriber, and I spend $8 per pound for my freshly roasted organic coffee.
re #9,
I too am an NYT subscriber with a penchant for gourmet coffee, don’t get your panties in a twist. My statement is a reflection of that fact that the overwhelming readership of papers like the New York Times and other, similar publications lack the cultural reference points to understand the nuance of what Gomez is trying to say. It’s how people like Sy Hersh and Jeremy Scahill, ostensibly national security and military “experts”, get away with the outlandish things they publish. Their audience simply posses a rational ignorance in the field. The ridiculous narrative of “every service man a hero” is scar tissue from our collective wounds from Vietnam but it serves a purpose. To undercut it in that venue in the manner that Gomez did is counter productive.
#9 Shit talking in the military is a right you have to earn. I’m sure an AF ATC could shit talk all he wants to his buddy back home that never left his home town, but he doesn’t dare talk shit to an Army or Marine Grunt. Just as often I’ve seen Grunts beat the snot out of someone that talked shit about their Meidcs or Corpsman. There IS a divide. We are a community that is truly representative of America, with Race ratios proportionate to the total US ratios. That the job we’re asked to do is often requiring of the kind of calm and collected thought when the whole of your being is screaming “GET THE F**K OUT OF HERE” adds to the “hero worship” the public has. Even if you are a FOBbit, you are expected to pick up and leave your home, family and all the comforts of home to go live in a shithole for up to and including 15 months. Even if you do not get into a bayonett charge with 1500 heavily armed taliban, or what have you, even THAT is a test of endurance. I can only speak for my own experiences. But rolling up and down Predators after I’d lost 2 guys in less than a month, and IEDs were hitting every day. . . that scared the everloving shit out of me. It scared me so much i was physically nauseous. I don’t have words for how scared I was. The only thing that kept me from flat out refusing to go, was my Platoon. I couldn’t let them down. I don’t think my story is one to emulate or even really repeat, but people seem to think it is. I don’t want to be thanked, and I think a lot of people don’t want to be either. But the question really is, in this case, is the humility false, and the praise well earned, or is it a sign of something more, a wish NOT to be elevated above those that lost everything? Its up to each combat Vet… Read more »
@NotSoOldMarine –
I understand where you’re coming from, and maybe you’re right. But I don’t like the idea of living in a country where we have to pretend that everyone that served is a hero in order to preserve some semblance of respect, which would be fake anyway. I’d much rather we lay it out there and let Americans decide for themselves what they want to think about service members than to expect them to pony up and declare us all heroes.
Yes, not everyone is willing to serve. But even if they were, they couldn’t, because we have a pretty small military relative to the population. Serving is a privilege. Some who serve are heroes. The rest, just serve.
Don nailed it.
When a company names all of its employees “Vice President”, the word becomes diluted and loses it meaning. (See Corcoran real estate or New York.)
When you name every criminal or combatant a “terrorist” the word becomes diluted and loses its meaning. (See the Global War on Terror.)
When you call every servicemember “Hero”, the word becomes diluted and loses its meaning. When you sign the contract that enlists you in the U.S. Army, you’re called a soldier. Sal Giunta is a hero. Jason Hartley and Don Gomez are soldiers.
@daveo: I didn’t mean those awards specifically but the actions required to earn them and you illustrated my point.
I have been thinking about this for a while and finally came up with my definition of the word “hero” being as follows:
An individual who, against all odds, commits an act of self-sacrifice in order to protect or defend another, without pretense or forethought of personal gains or accolades. This is from my strictly civilian perspective. Something else to bear in mind is that if a child watches his/her father go off to war, the father may be deemed to be a hero by the child, however to another soldier, or to another person across the country, he may be deemed to be just another soldier. Certainly the word “hero” may have been watered down over the years to be a more generic term, but the basic premise should still hold true. There are heroic efforts and heroic acts, but the hero himself/herself is in the eyes of the beholder. How does one quantify the value of a hero?
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