Heroes

Stryker Brigade News ^ | July 17, | Unnamed Stryker Brigade Officer

[R. Scott]

They have no more met a hero than I have met a movie star.

Who does our “esteemed” media want us to hail as “heroes”?
The ball player who was brave enough to actually show up for work.
The person who died from an attack. A “hero” only because he died.
Anyone who is employed as a fireman or police officer. Not because of any act of bravery, but just because of their chosen employment.
The reporter who chooses to cover a story in a war zone. No heroic action is necessary - just being there qualifies.

I worry more about the headspace-and-time on a M2 .50 cal machine gun.

A note to pass on to the young men in Afghanistan and Iraq:
When you screw in the barrel, just run it all the way in and back it out two clicks. It’ll work just fine.

[arjay]

WOW! May God bless our great troopers.

[arjay]

I checked out your website. Thanks for your service.

I was in college during Nam and have always felt a bit guilty because I did not go. I probably should thank God instead.

[ALOHA RONNIE]

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American Soldiers fighting...
For the Freedom of Others,
Those that train them and...
Those who wait for them...
To come home...
Or not...
are...


............HOLY...!!!!



Signed:.."ALOHA RONNIE" Guyer / Veteran-"WE WERE SOLDIERS" Battle of IA DRANG-1965
http://www.lzxray.com/guyer_set1.htm


"MODERN DAY HEROES" Contributing Author
http://www.ModernDayHeroes.com/aloha

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[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[American in Israel]

Thanks for the ping, would not want to miss this one...

[geopyg]

In my book they are heroes, but I recall some private saying at his medals ceremony (purple heart and silver star I believe) something like "Yeah - the medals are nice - kind of saying that I did what I was supposed to do".

[R. Scott]

I was in college during Nam and have always felt a bit guilty because I did not go. I probably should thank God instead.

I came close to doing the same thing. I turned down a full scholarship with stipend for the University of Pittsburgh - because when I was looking the place over the Dean of Men assumed I would attend. When He handed me a fall class schedule, dorm assignment and the paperwork for the scholarship I walked out - because he did not ask me first if I wanted to attend.
What fools some kids are!
I later volunteered for the draft and volunteered for Viet Nam. I would not trade that experience for anything.

[R. Scott]

"Yeah - the medals are nice - kind of saying that I did what I was supposed to do".

Particularly the one he took for pulling the man from the river. In our unit, if someone had not retrieved a man overboard he would have been nailed for dereliction of duty. For doing what he was expected to do - and nothing more - he is awarded a Bronze Star and hailed a “hero”.

[geopyg]

Thank you for your service to our country.

The guy I was talking (Pvt. Dwayne Turner) is an airborne medic who got injured during an attack earlier in the war, and was wounded from the initial mortar blast (arm wound I think?). Anyway - he takes cover behind a wall for a second and sees others injured all around him out in the open.

He goes out into the open and under fire to retrieve some guys and gets shot in the leg. He stops again at the wall and notices he's bleeding a lot. But then figures "it can't be that bad or I would be dead by now".

He goes back out into the fray. He gets wounded again - but continues to rescue a total of 16 guys! 2 of the guys he rescued would surely have died. (And how many more would have been wounded again?)

The guy is (was?! hopefully)a Private. For some reason (movies?) I always think as them as just doing the grunt work and leaving the heroics to the cigar-chomping sargent.

Lots (most?) of the medals I see beeing awarded seem to be to privates. Anyway - their humble attitude and "just doing my job" attitude is amazing when I think about the hazards they face and the job they are doing.

[R. Scott]

There were two groups of people who really impressed me in Viet Nam. One was the Navy Seabees, the other was the Navy Corpsmen (no offense to Army medics - I never worked close with them). While I was snuggled down in a bunker at Dong Hoa the Corpsmen would go out and tend to the Seabees who were getting hit on an all to frequent basis offloading our boats. The Seabees were all volunteers out of Da Nang.
I was Army, not Navy - at the time we were helping to bail out the Navy and Marines in I Corp during Tet ‘68.