Who are the TRUE "American Heroes"?

......those who risk their lives for us "average citizens" daily.

Those who work for police and fire departments, and, of course, members of the military.

Too many use the term "hero" to describe a grossly-overpaid sports star.

Our TRUE heroes should be so widely recognized, and, most certainly, should be paid a great deal more than what they are being paid at present.

How much guts does it really take to swat at a ball with a bat, tackle an opponent, or dribble a ball up and down a court for a few months a year?

Those individuals who, indeed, face uncertainty each and every workaday, whose families are never sure if their loved ones will be coming home that evening.....these are the TRUE heroes of America.

And, those parents who, in spite of so many odds in an increasingly unstable society, who work overtime in making sure their children are raised the RIGHT way, with respect, decency, a good work ethic......these parents are indeed heroes and heroines in their own right, for their task is quite formidable indeed.........

"A true hero never considers himself one, despite his tremendous deeds and bravery"

 

Anyone can be a hero "aka" the hero's journey. You may slip, fall and make mistakes that only shows your human. Once the journey is complete and you come full circle and end up where you started from. All the knowledge you gained during thar time is a time you can share it and use it in a way to make the world a better place.

 

I agree with you, 100%.

ANYONE can indeed be a hero, if they only put the safety and well-being of another person before themselves, and who do not think twice about putting their life on the line,in order to save the life of another in need......

 

My Father served thru the whole Korean War and did Advisory work in Vietnam before the big war kicked off .
His Brothers served in WW2, his youngest brother served in the late 1969 / 1970 in Vietnam .
They all told me, " True Heroes pay with their lives, it's better to be alive, than to be a Hero " .

 

The men in your family had GUTS,for sure.

NO ONE (unless one is a die-hard, gung-ho, military fanatic) WANTS to see battlefield action,in all of its violence, gore, bloodshed, and destruction.

Seeing your buddies blown to bits just inches away from you, while risking death yourself, cannot help but cause severe mental trauma for the rest of your life, if you are fortunate enough to survive.

I recall John Wayne once saying: "A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do."

My uncle flew a B-24 over Occupied France during WW2; the plane was shot down and, despite the heavy damage, he managed to bring the plane down.

His co-pilot was dead; one of the crewmen was so much in shock, that my uncle said he took off running, so fast, in fact, "A jeep couldn't catch him" (his words")

My uncle seldom talked about his war experiences, and, only very briefly when he did.

He passed away (RIP) at age 94, several years ago.

Through old family memories and photos, however, his bravery will always live on.

The famed quote, "war is hell", says it all...............

 

Now THAT'S a TRUE hero, for certain; thank you for posting this to share here.

LIke Murphy, I'm also a small-statured guy, and I have always had tremendous respect for his bravery and courage.

I agree with you; the term "hero" is far too loosely used these days, for sure.

You have no idea how much it irks me when I hear of these grossly-overpaid sports figures being continually touted as 'heroes"......NOT to my way of thinking, for sure.......

 

Read here of the late John McCain's serving in Vietnam, and his surviving his time as a prisoner of war.

That is an horrific experience where only those with the strongest wills and constitutions survive....

"Guts"...........

John McCain - Wikipedia

 

A true American hero, in every sense of the word.............

Audie Murphy - Wikipedia

 

For Humanity to prosper in peace, we have to illiminate War .
Irradicated the causes of War .
People should illiminate Corporate's Kleptocratic Governance and have the Will of the People be the Rule Of Law, as promised in the Constitution.
That's why you seen the acclimation of the GOP become the Fascist MAGA party .

 

.....think of all the wars that have been fought since the beginning of "civilized" man.

What did these wars really accomplish?

Is humanity all that much better for all of the bloodshed and destruction that has taken place due to wars, over the course of many centuries?

Too many times, when a battle ceases, the involved parties end up forgetting what they were fighting over in the first place.

We are always hearing about the war on drugs and the war on gun violence; let's be realistic, here.....

Realistically, neither "war" will ever be resolved.......and shameless, spineless, lily-livered politicians are indeed accessories to the crimes, for they do little or nothing to stand up and fight for the very people that put them into office in the first place.......it's all a vicious circle of a game, a game in which there are no winners, only losers......

 

we've allowed the 'media' to define what matters to us and how we perceive history..

I looked at my kids' HS American History textbooks and there was minimal mention if the Vietnam War EXCEPT about riots, civil unrest; mostly protesting THE DRAFT.. very little info about when and why America got involved (gotta read/watch THE QUIET AMERICAN to see how things happened)..

but in the Vietnam War, 70% of us enlisted/30% were drafted.. the % of domestic American ethnicities were drafted in almost identical proportion these %.. none of this is revealed in the textbooks..

WWll was the reverse.. but THEY are the GREATEST GENERATION; christened such by a media member of said generation..

but the moniker stuck..

I sometime think America is just waiting for us to die off and then NOTHING will appear in textbooks.

In the book "We Were Soldiers Once; and Young" (and in the beginning of movie based on it) is the statement "Vietnam was a war America does not understand and wants to forget"..
I suppose that will apply to a lot of our military efforts. We don't focus enough to really understand our enemies.,

combat RTO in 101st Airborne Div (1970-72)

 

Very well said; you brought up some important observations and issues.

I was in grade school and junior high during the 'Nam era; I well remember the almost-daily riots, protests, and unrests, as well as such haunting folk songs as "Where Have All the Flowers Gone"?

As I attended a Catholic grade school, our nuns (who were very much concerned about the war themselves) used that area of the world as a basis for many geography lessons; we learned not only about the cities, towns, agriculture, and customs, but als learning something "positive".

I was about 11 (1968) when my mother and I (aboard a subway train in New York) witnessed what had started out as a VERY vocal "debate" about the War, between and older man and a kid in his late teens (or thereabouts),at the opposite end of the car in which we were riding.

Anyone could see that this "confrontation" was going to get ugly.

Mom said,"We better get off at the next station", which, thankfully, we did.

When we boarded the next train, we were held in the station for some time, due to a "police incident" involving the train we had just been on.

I still remember that long-ago Saturday afternoon clearly.

I've read that, to this very day, there are many thousands of acres of fertile land in Vietnam that cannot be used for farming, as the soil still hides uncountable land mines from 'Nam.

I've also read, over the years, of the senseless deaths of thousands of our men, not to mention the innocent people caught in the crosshairs.

To this very day, heated discussions are still engaged in, still questioning WHY the US ever got into the War to begin with, and what was the great victory won at the end of hostilities.

Draft-dodging was a HUGE issue then, and still can make for some highly-volatile verbal exchanges today.

You are so right; we've, for too long now, allowed the media to dictate to us just what transpired in our history.

Look at how long it took before 'Nam vets to be recognized as true American heroes, long after the lucky ones had come back home, to TRY to live a "normal" life....in many cases, that was easier said than done.

The mental scars inflicted upon thousands of 'Nam vets were every bit as devastating as the physical damages they suffered.

A large-sized book well worth the price (with many haunting "on the spot" photos is "THE VIETNAM EXPERIENCE" (David J. Bowman); this book was published in 1989.

The photos are,indeed, worth more than a thousand words.

What do we actually LEARN from war?

Obviously nothing, as wars still have a death grip on the world today.

Mankind, sadly, will never learn.............

 

thank you for caring...

I was in the northernmost two provinces of South Vietnam..

there's a road (back then an all dirt road named Rte 547) from Hue to the Ashau Valley (now called Aloui Valley).. this valley was one of the most-used routes used by North Vietnam to enter the South.. "Hamburger Hill" (Dong Ap Bia) was a vicious battle in May 1969.. American Forces overran the North's defenses at great cost of life, then we abandoned it..

this road and the valley were among the most heavily sprayed with Agent Orange and hundreds of farmers' kids are still being born w/o faces, limbs, etc.. the chemicals last damn near forever in the soil/watershed..

it was a heck of a time over there..
I quit a perfectly good career opportunity with LA County FD (wild-land fire 'hotshot' crew) just because I wanted something 'more exciting' I suppose..

well... I got my wish..

 

Thank you for sharing your personal experiences; these are the experiences that truly were the foundation of becoming a hero....that you survived (thank God) and came home and made a new life for yourself speaks volumes.

How well I can recall reading of (and hearing of) "Agent Orange" during the 'Nam days, in the papers and on the news.

Just the mention of this insidious chemical (and thinking of the damage it could inflict on a human body) was frightening.

The War, for many of us, was far, far removed from our placid, everyday lives, and yet, the evil spectre of what was taking place on the other side of the globe was always with us.

I do, sadly, recall, hearing of the deaths of men who were the older brothers (or other relatives) of some of my classmates; it was ALWAYS hard for us to grasp the concept of it all.

Here at home, it was the heyday of "GI JOE" action figures, and, of course, the ever-present, now-classic, little plastic green army men.

Not to mention the convoys of toy military vehicles, available in every dime store and toy shop (I still have some of these displayed today)

IMHO, I truly believe that, until the end of time, there will always be heated debates and discussions on 'Nam, and why it was fought, and why we were involved to begin with.

For us young boys growing up "at home", we could "play war" with our toy soldiers but, without the carnage, bloodshed, and destruction....our "troops" were always victorious, and always "came home" unmaimed and whole (if only this held true in real life!)

Regarding the toxic, polluted soil, forever laden with land mines in Vietnam, it only further proves what I have long believed.....that, just because the CONFLICT has ended, does not mean the WAR has ended............

 

An excellent, in-depth article (many photos, etc.).................

Vietnam War - Wikipedia

 

From: "SINGING LESSONS" (famed folk singer Judy Collins' autobiography).....

"......there are still twenty-five million craters from bombs dropped on Vietnam. Though they are all covered in lush green, the land on which this rich green thrives cannot be farmed......"

".......there are land mines everywhere. More casualties among soldiers occurred from American anti-personell mines than from any other cause. In Cambodia, crops are left to rot because no one can get to the fields and forests, due to the still-buried land mines....."

Waste.......sheer waste.........

 

I was thinking about humanity's periodic orgies of reciprocal mass destruction.. the vast majority of conflicts between different groups have been fought over access to salt.. salt was so precious that Roman soldiers' pay included salt (salus = salt = root of salary)..

the proto Comanche nation were the poorest of the poor Shoshone in NE Wyoming/SE Montana and we're known as 'worms'.. they cowered in the shadows and obtained salt from discarded organs of bison left by Arikara/Blackfoot/Crow nations.. but they watched the richer tribes breed/train horses.. they stole many and bred them and marched south to the OK/TX Panhandle; killing and/or displacing countless thousands of other nations (Utes, especially)..
we can extend that concept if "salt" to include resources such as tillable land, water, ports, transportation routes, more tolerable weather, etc).. later, world views, religions, fear of not being as powerfully as one's neighbors drove hostilities. archeological sites in Missouri/Platte/Niobrara River systems show evidence of seemingly peaceful proto-Pawnee and Kansa settlements living peacefully until one massacred a village of 300-500, scalping every human, dog, child as a symbolic erasure if them. (contrary to popular Progressive nonsense, the French/English didn't introduce scalping.. it's been used in Africa, Asia for thousands of years.. Native Americans didn't see other natives as 'humans'.. that was reserved for those if their own tribes.

anyway, humans can easily be aroused to commit horrific violence in those they see as an impediment..

just because capitalism somehow became connected with 'the Bible' and mankind being give 'dominion" over the Earth (I translate dominion as 'caretaker'; not dominator) but capitalism believes socialism is anathema to human existence (even though Jesus & apostles wandered without working and communally shared the food and supplies provided by others)..

having hiked/slept in jungles and spent nights on ambushes/guard duty I was thinking a few weeks ago: "when was first military application of infrared targeting?"

what a difference a few years made.. if we'd had such rifle scopes we'd have seen clusters of enemy at night while we were completely invisible.. the war could've ended very quickly.. but it was not to be.. the standard procedure for opening a forward fire support base was selection, then massive B-52 strikes to eliminate trees/vegetation, agent orange saturation of hillsides to eliminate cover and open our field of fire, engineering machinery to shape hilltop.. installation of landing pads/howitzer positions.. periodically the planes would flyover with additional agent orange herbicides.. we hiked and slept in the damp shit..

I spent 4 months working 7pm to 7am plotting locations (of EVERY unit in field) with a grease pencil at Brigade HQ TOC.. then mostly on jungle hilltop firebases and a few classified missions.. when in the field, the life expectancy of an RTO was 5 seconds in a firefight..

I never heard of extensive use of land mines in SE Asia.. I'm sure there were some placed, but mostly placed by North Vietnamese on clearings in jungles where our helicopter landing zones were.. I'm sure we likely dropped thousands of small mines/bouncing Betty nimblest on Ho Chi Minh trail in Laos/Cambodia..

it's will not stop.. humans are not capable of non aggression.. if there's two 'big boys' positioning for world dominance, that's a good thing.. nothing happens when two equal & opposite forces face each other.. but adding a third country (China, India) will destabilize the world..

since my wife is Canadian, our children have 'right of blood' to become Canadian citizens.. when - in 2003 - Bush decided to go from Afghanistan to Iraq, my don was 15. I worried about the draft being reinstated so I made the effort to get him his Canadian citizenship.. that was another BS war and I didn't want my son activated..

well.. I'm all over the board here.. I'll wrap up by saying I study war causation, strategies & tactics..

I was exposed repeatedly to AO and am now suffering peripheral neuropathy, hypothyroidism, and damn near deaf from the hundreds of hours of howizer blasts just 25-50 yards from me.. we didn't have ear protection then..

 

a couple of websites you'll likely read.. the cherries writer site posts first person stories regularly plus comments.. there's a large catalog of postings over the years and some "real time" radio communications as special forces are fighting a rear guard action escaping from Laos into Ashau Valley and all the various aviation units waiting for them so they could open fire behind them (but not into Laos)



Radiomen in the Vietnam War faced a 5-second life expectancy | We Are The Mighty

CherriesWriter - Vietnam War website

 

That you are here today, typing a message full of much insight, turmoil, and harrowing wartime experiences, is a miracle in itself.

I, of course, was too young (thankfully) not be be drafted (or, to enlist); though I have weathered many, many personal "wars" of my own, I know I could never (emotionally or physically) be able to handle active combat (God bless you and the thousands who also served)

As I have always put little value on my own life, but put tremendous value on the lives of others, I truly believe that it would have affected me less suffering personal injury, then seeing my buddies gunned down or blown to bits right alongside me.

Think about it:

"Vietnam", to most young people today, is just the name of a country on the other side of the world.

I truly believe that few young people today truly know of the carnage and destruction that took place, over 50 years ago.

I well recall,many years ago, a Veteran's Day parade in lower Manhattan, where I worked for nearly 25 years.

As each group of veterans marched by, there was much cheering and applause (WELL deserved, for sure)

BUT.......

When the 'Nam vets paraded by (God, they all looked so war-weary and spent) they were greeted by only silence.

Nothing.

It truly caught me off guard, the sudden silence.

Well, I began applauding and cheering, and shouting out: "God bless you, guys! You're ALL heroes! Thank you!"

I guess those around me were shamed (as well they should be) and started to cheer and applaud with me.

The 'Nam vets waved back to me, and one shouted out "GOD BLESS YOU, FRIEND!"

To say I was humbled and elated was indeed an understatement.

I still so clearly recall that cloudy day in lower Manhattan, on Broadway, nearly 40 years ago.

From what you have written, you've experienced traumas that NO MAN should have ever had to suffer.

You are, indeed, a true HERO, and we today should ALL say "THANK YOU", to you, and the many thousands of other brave men who suffered so greatly, during the conflict.

In you, and men like yourself, is indeed the true and solid core of GUTS.......................