“Not being a coward does not automatically mean one is a hero.”
Flying combat missions behind enemy lines qualifies as heroism in my book. Doing so knowing that being shot down will result in either death or torture (or both) means you are risking your life and accepting the possibility of severe torment for your country. It goes well beyond “not being a coward”.
You confuse the words ‘bravery’ and ‘duty’ with the word ‘heroism’. That is the point.
You also allow your ‘admiration’ to drift into ‘hero worship’ thereby diminishing the meaning of the word ‘hero’.
Again from post #19 from my own experience as a young man with errors in applying meanings of words as you have shown here:
“The men who landed on Normandy Beach (and I knew some in my lifetime) refused to allow themselves to be called heroes when in their own words they were following orders.”
“One of them I talked to 30 years ago, I asked “what were you all thinking when you were in the landing craft ready to run onto the beach?” His response was “we had accepted we were already dead”.”
“In response to my remark to him that he and the others onboard with him were heroes he responded “no, we were following orders, nothing more”.”