Django wrote:
EASY. The ones who didn't come back.
Rest were just doing their job. Ask any of them... that's usually the answer they give.
Bang on.
But Bill's right. I think Bill is looking more for a definition:
For the MOHconspicuously by gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while engaged in an action against an enemy of the United States…"Quote:
A hero (from Greek ἥρως hērōs[1]), in Greek mythology and folklore, was originally a demigod[2], the offspring of a mortal and a deity,[3] their cult being one of the most distinctive features of ancient Greek religion.
Later, hero (male) and heroine (female) came to refer to characters (fictional or historical) that, in the face of danger and adversity or from a position of weakness, display courage and the will for self-sacrifice – that is, heroism – for some greater good, originally of martial courage or excellence but extended to more general moral excellence.
I think McCain qualifies. I hate his guts, but he is indeed a hero. And honestly, a hero can later perform acts of incredible evil and still be a hero. He's just a fallen hero.
We dont normally think of Tim McVey as a hero. but he earned a bronze star with the V on it during Desert storm. He preformed heroic acts in teh service of his country. Hero. And then he performed an act of incredible evil after he grew to feel his counrty had abandoned him: fallen hero.
Who was the fighter pilot turned politician who was convicted of bribe taking not to long ago The ace? Fallen hero.
McCain offered his life in the service of his country. That alone doesn't make him a hero in my book. Everybody should do it. It's in my opinion one of the basic qualificatios for being a citizen: that you act in the best interests of your nation, even when it will hurt you. Taxes are not heroic. But we all should pay them in order that the nation do well. Not the government: the nation.
THose who don't serve out of laziness or cowardice or just because they don't like the idea are not military heros. But like MLK, they migh tstill be heroes, even, as BW pointed out, they do things they believe to be in the common interest which many polilticains have painted as not in the natinal interest.
McCain went through some brutal things as a pilot and later a prisoner. He was shot down and he was in tha fire. But those things don't make him a hero. They were not actions aboce and beyond the call of duty. And every citizen owes duty to his nation. After he was shot down, I believe he DID perform above and beyond the call of duty. I don't even believe his turning down an offer to go home made him heroic. He was made he offer soley due to his fathers position. He didn't deserve to go home before other men who had been there longer. There was an order to who went home: longer terms in the camp meant earlier release.
What makes him a hero is that he refused to sign a statement condemning the US for a long time. It cost him a good deal of torture. He stood up for his fellow inmates when it was not his duty to do so, beyond the common duty of humanity. The price he paid for it was far beyond the call of duty. He knowingly sacrificed of himself tha others might live. THAT is a hero.
I'm not sure I have ever heard of any other actions he undertook which qualify him as a hero, if you remove the service to his country thing. Living through a random accident (being shot down) does not make you a hreo. It makes you a luck sumbitch. Turning down an offer you don't deserve doesn't make you a hero. It makes you honorable. Only when you perform an act of selfless sacrifice above and beyond what any citizen should do are you a hero.
There was a guy who ran through fire and grabbed me and pulled me out of a very bad place once. It was not his job to do it, he was simply unwilling to see me die without trying. HE is my hero.
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