Everyone's a Hero

Hero: a person of exceptional courage.

I'm as big a supporter of recognizing extraordinary deeds as anyone, and I understand the pressure to honor World War 2 veterans while they're still around to appreciate it. However, it sure can get out of hand.

In the news lately is a move afoot to give some sort of medal to the WASP's. Who were the WASP's? The Women's Airforce Service Pilots was an adjunct of the Army Air Corps during World War 2 which enlisted women to, basically, ferry newly completed planes from their place of manufacture to embarkation ports for shipment to the fighting fronts overseas. Occasionally it required such hazardous assignments as towing target drones, but this was duty only marginally more hazardous than working in a defense plant Stateside.

Reports in the press (who has little understanding of the subject) make it sound like these women were in combat and their heroic deeds have gone unrecognized due to sexism, George W Bush (isn't everything his fault?), or whatever. It kind of reminds me of stories about illegal aliens in the press -- moaning and wailing about how these poor "immigrants" (the fact that they're illegal is never pointed out) are discriminated against because they don't have health care, their unemployment rate is high, they're living 4 to a room, or whatever. Or the Japanese-American internment camps during World War 2 (see my article on this Blog below). The whole story is never told -- only that portion of it that makes the most sensational, heart-wrenching story.

But back to the WASP's: everyone can't be a hero, by definition, including by the definition above. "Exceptional courage" means the deeds were exceptional; ie, they were the exception, and therefore not the norm. Many people did their part during World War 2 -- in too many areas to list here. The danger we run by over-applying the term is what I call "label inflation": if the term "hero" is applied to too many people, it loses its meaning.

These days the press, most of whom, I'm sure, feeling collective guilt at not having served in the military when it was their time (think about it -- name one person in the mainstream press who has ever served in the military), apparently seek to assuage that guilt by conferring the term "hero" on anyone in the military. So what does this make guys like John Basilone, Jackson Pharris, Alvin York, or Walt Ehlers? With regard to the press, I do think that symtomatic of the problem is that I doubt any of them have ever heard of any of these guys. To help anyone in the press out, I've created links. Their pictures appear in order below:



So, please be selective when applying the term "hero" and handing out medals. The guy who took out a Company of maniacially charging Japanese at Guadalcanal, risked his life to go below during the Pearl Harbor attack and counter-flood the USS California so it wouldn't end up like USS Oklahoma, captured 132 proud members of the Wehrmacht, or scaled Pointe-du-Hoc at Normandy under German crossfire, respectively, don't need the true valor of their deeds diluted by conferring the term "Hero" on those who flew airplanes domestically.