I answered the question by how they answered it. When I was young and inexperienced I thought of them as heroes but now understand the meaning of the word as the military sees it. The military does not set out to train or create heroes. It sets out to train troops to fight and follow orders.
Thirty years ago when Ed was my senior coworker and I found out through others that he had been on one of the landing barges that landed on Normandy Beach, I was in awe of him. But that was 30 years ago.
Today I accept Ed’s instruction to me after I exalted his service to hero status. He was following orders and inside his spirit he had already accepted that he was dead when he was waiting for that landing barge to open to direct fire from the enemy. Ed said he and the others with him were not heroes for following orders to storm the beach. I accept that.
War is Hell. All manner of atrocities occur and victims including innocent victims are the result of war. The victims are not ‘heroes’, they are victims.
McCain was beaten and savaged as part of the Hell of War. As many have said on this thread and others he deserves respect for his service but he does not deserve the status of ‘hero’ that the political establishment and their sycophants in the media perpetuate because they use it as cover to hide behind when losing the moral high ground.
When I see the political establishment and their media minions rush to protect McCain under a false aura of hero worship, I say in response:
“YOU LIE!”
Because I am not after McCain alone. I am after the political establishment that he is a part of.
But it no longer matters now. Just this morning after decades of allowing the myth to be perpetuated, and in response to overwhelming pressure from constituents who have had enough of this sad excuse for a human being, McCain finally, finally admits he is no hero.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3314205/posts
“When I was young and inexperienced I thought of them as heroes but now understand the meaning of the word as the military sees it.”
No.
I spent 25 years in the military. I’ve met Medal of Honor winners. I’ve met ex-POWs. I know how the military views them. Without exception, everyone I knew in the military considered those who emerged from the Vietnam prison camps as heroes.