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To: blam
I've nothing to add to what's been said but I gotta say it too - He's a hero.
49 posted on 12/09/2003 9:51:45 PM PST by Holly_P
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To: Holly_P
I've nothing to add to what's been said but I gotta say it too - He's a hero.

Nope. There's a considerable difference in doing your job in a particularly effective or meritorious fashion, as opposed to performing an act of valourous conduct, often when the situation has deteriorated beyond the standards to which a professional soldier would ever care to see them sink.

He did his job, but I hope at as minimal a risk to himself and his pals as was possible, especially when truck and driver parts started flying. And that also sets a professional standard much better for others to follow, far better than self-sacrificing acts, which while noble, are often ineffectual, though no less inspiring.

Another stripe for that young troop would be a fine touch, though it'd be a shame to lose his skills and talents as a gunner. But I've known more than one E-5 sergeant who hauled an M60 around, and very much knew what to do with it. I suspect the tool used here was an M240, but it could have been an M249 SAW- explaining why it took a hundred-round belt to kill a truck- or a .50. No matter. It worked.

So the word for Spec4 Ross for what he pulled off is not *hero,* though like that word, misapplied to everything from ball players to guitar pickers, a return to the original definition is called for. Specialist Ross is a Champion.

-archy-/-

57 posted on 12/09/2003 10:19:43 PM PST by archy (Angiloj! Mia kusenveturilo estas plena da angiloj!)
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