Over use of the word "Hero" cheapens true heroism

You are making a fair criticism of this overabundance of hyperbolism in our culture. Where it's PC to see that every soldier is a hero ... every teacher is portrayed as a hero. Every fire fighter ... etc....

It's an oversimplistic and idealized delusion that overlooks that most people are humans with their own individualized flaws and faults. It undermines any attempt at a meritocracy and it dilutes any real effort and attempt at heroic action.

My first husband was a paratrooper in WWII. He and his unit was dropped into the Battle of the Bulge to rescue trapped GIs. He dislocated his leg when he landed carrying his heavy mortar. He was a unit mortar man with the nickname of "Mort". He carried his mortar around firing it despite his leg injury. He walked on his injured leg for many days in high snow before he could get medical car. His feet suffered from frozen feet.

He and his unit continued on into France and further into the German's concentration camps. He brought back home photos he took of the masses of dead people that he saw. The worst thing he had seen in his entire life.

He and his unit received the French Ruban de la croix de guerre 1939-1945.PNG and Croix de guerre 1939-1945.

Does this make him a hero? Or was he just doing his job as a good soldier?

BBB

Undoubtedly yes. An average soldier or even an average individual wouldn't continue with on with such pain and injury.

And if he did give in, who would blame him for this resignation of being injured and combat related stress. His perseverance in this case is extraordinary. True he wasn't that unique and there were a lot of his generation giving their extra effort for this particular war thus earning their respective titles as heroes.

The title of hero should be used on an individual basis and not as a blanket designation. I can honestly say there were no acts of bravery such as this in my unit as we fough in Kuwait and Iraq in the first Gulf War.

We were merely inconvenienced for four months or basically acting out a live fire field exercise in regards to our part of the war.

True we had to keep an eye out for land mines, snakes, scorpions, and stray Iraqi soldiers, and Republican Guard tanks, but since we weren't challenged on the battlefield (I'm referring to only to my field artillery battalion and not the whole set of armored and infantry divisions on the battlefield) we can't take the mantle of hero. At least I won't wear the title and I dismiss any attempt to give me it.

Would you be surprised to learn that my husband didn't consider himself to be a hero? He would say he just didn't want to die and he wanted to protect his GI buddies who depended on him.

Some things he never got over. He warned me not to never touch him when he was asleep in bed, but to call his name before coming to him. He feared he would harm me due to his natural reaction in war fighting. Once, when we were walking down a town sidewalk, he heard a car's backfire. He threw me down on the sidewalk and laid on top of me to protect me from the imagined gun fire.

War is hell.

BBB

Tsarstepan, I forgot to thank you for your comments about my husband's war experience.

BBB

No I wouldn't be surprised to learn of your husband's modesty. It seems to be more then a generational thing. I hate when people make that claim ... or that generation was this or that. But that's another story....

He could have kept his survival instincts and took the easy way out by getting evacuated off of the battlefield but he also gave his fellow buddies a major consideration in this timely formula. That dedication towards his fellow GI's is what I think deserves the heroism status.

What amazed me about his choices is that mortarmen are the first targets that the enemy tries to kill, because they do the most damage and deaths.

BBB

Not also failing to mention that mortarmen are compromised by the sheer weight of their equipment. Carry and setting up such heavy equipment makes one quite vulnerable to snipers and other attackers who see this guy is a tad busy getting his weapon ready for battle.

Sounds like a very difficult job in the midst of a chaotic battlefield.