Yeah, I heard they all had a great life afterwards. Minus the alcoholism, depression, suicide, nightmares, etc.
Just ask Audie Murphy...
“Just ask Audie Murphy...”
Normally great, fearless heroes are psychopaths of one degree or another. They don’t experience the paralyzing fear of normal humans and either win valor awards on the battlefield or die spectacularly...even honorably.
And they become legends.
That was not Audie Murphy. In the field he confesses to being terrified all the time, but motivated to perform his role, and to do everything he could, no matter what came.
And he survived.
And with all his fame...awards...movies...he died miserable.
A weapon he ALWAYS carried, a .45 found in a holster on his shoulder with his remains after a plane crash. He has said he would “check every lock in the house, twice” before he could go to sleep, and sometime awaken to check them again.
Our greatest hero was a drunken, drug addicted PTSD vet.
And my hero since I was 5yrs old.
I guess I was recalling the ones I knew personally — friends’ fathers, my family, church members, etc. Of course I don’t know every WWII vet. They DID have great productive lives, although who knows what was under the surface...