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”.”
You may say the men who attacked at D-Day were not heroes - but they are in MY book! My uncle in the Merchant Marine, who had 3 ships torpedoed out from under him, was a hero in my book. My Dad, who came back once from a mission in WW@ with his plane riddled with bullets and scorch marks on the front of the plane (from flying thru burning wreckage), was a hero.
Certainly more so than someone who spent the same time going to college in the USA...
HERO: “a man distinguished by exceptional courage, nobility, fortitude, etc”
Someone who risks their life for their country, because they believe it is their duty, distinguishes themselves “by exceptional courage, nobility, fortitude” - particularly when compared to those who sat out the war.