I prefaced this post by stating this is about MILITARY Heroes. The reason for this is that I do not want to get into the conversation, at this point, all of the various representations of heroes that can occur that are not represented by non-combat situations.
I was thinking about the term Hero lately. After all the AHC changed from the “American History Channel” to the “American Heroes Channel”. In this representation it seems that they are trying to represent that all military action is the action of “heroes”. In addition, every attempt to represent the actions of current military actions, it seems to be a concerted effort to represent all participants as “heroes”.
This seems to be a difference from the way things were represented in the past, like when I grew up. In those days, it seemed that we always thought of heroes as those who did something above and beyond the expected to be a hero. In essence, a hero was someone who did something that was worthy of a medal.
In reality that is probably an unfortunate way of thinking. But I am also troubled by the concept of all soldiers being considered to be heroes. It seems to be somewhat condescending to the military personnel. It is probably also unfair to someone who actually deserves accolades.
Then I was reminded of a couple of statements about heroes from people “who were there”.
First, I heard a talk from Andy Rooney on “60 Minutes”. He was reflecting back on his time when he was in combat as a reporter during WWII. He said that they were just plain people that were not trying to be heroes but just survive. Also, he got a lot of mixed attitudes from stating “Treating soldiers fighting their war as brave heroes is an old civilian trick designed to keep the soldiers at it. But you can be sure our soldiers in Iraq are not all brave heroes. …” At least from my interpretation from this, and my agreement with his beliefs that he was on point, I find it hard to continue to bandy around the “HERO” stuff so darned much.
Second, and most importantly, was the comments of Audie Murphy. For the uninitiated, Audie Murphy was the most decorated soldier in WWII. In fact, he had every medal for bravery available from the US, as well as bravery decoration from such countries as Belgium and France. All by the time he was 19. At the end of the war, a famous radio personality, Walter Winchell, in an interview said to him, “Well, Audie, how does it feel to be a hero?” Audie Murphy’s answer says it all. He said, “I don’t know Mr. Winchell. All the heroes I know are back there dead.”
Well, Audie, I think you would be closer than a TV channel.
