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I agree that the distinction between the average soldier and the hero is less than it seems. I think the Band of Brothers series put it best in the words of the unit leader when asked by his grandson if he was a hero in the war and responded, "No....but I served in a company of heroes." The universal notion reflected by the interviews with the soldiers seems to have been that the real heroes were not the survivors, but the ones who gave their lives in battle. Easy Company's men were all Rangers in the Airborne and in virtually every major campaign in the Europe.
Pat Tillman and his brother were in one of the same units, and seem to fit the description, the ethic of the corps. The odd thing to me is not that he walked away from millions, because I think that the notion of our corpulence is overstated. Maybe it's just an odd or quaint notion in a day and age when folks will literally eat worms on TV for a chance at some dough, but I tend to see those folks as unrepresentative. They certainly must fit the Hollywood producers' view of average Americans as money grubbers willing to debase themselves in every which way, but they don't fit mine.
No, to me odd thing in this is that we focus on walking away from the NFL as so unusual when in fact it is more ordinary than we acknowledge - though perhaps on a grander scale. I think the other parallel to WWII is that the reaction to war at that time wasn't WHETHER folks would be in the service, but what they would DO in the service. I think the Tillmans were closer to that ethic - and Pat may well have gone not because doing so was living a dream, but because the thought of his brother over there alone simply made it something he had to do. Perhaps the Tillman case makes the point that sometimes things we feel we have to do take precedence over those that we want to do. Seems a pretty ordinary perspective.
Having said all that, I do not mean to commend this conflict but to recognize the heroics of the ordinary men and women who have answered the call for whatever reasons of their own. There is much to dislike about this conflict, the way it began, the way it seems to be winding down, the some many ways it has utterly failed in its shifting objectives, and the way our leadership remains committed only to negating the need to admit its mistakes and move on. Yet there remains much to acknowledge in the honor of the men and women continuing to do as they have been asked - knowing more of these frustrations, failures and even some bright spots than we do - not for their country or some greater good, but as always, for each other.
posted by 69.140.185...
, Tue, 27 Apr 2004 17:29:57, Tue, 27 Apr 2004 16:33:11
, Tue, 27 Apr 2004 16:18:25
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