OT - Tribute to a hero

[tesco samoa]

I was reading on the weekend that it was friendly fire that killed Mr. Tilman.

It just makes me shake my head.

[Gandalf Parker]

I havent read the article but the only time I ever saw a bad haircut kick someone out is when they did it on purpose. Such as being told to trim the sideburns, and getting them trimmed halfway up the side of your head. Usually if someone does it to you all you have to do is keep your mouth shut and get it done again even if its a total buzz-cut.

[Atrocities]

Originally posted by tesco samoa:
I was reading on the weekend that it was friendly fire that killed Mr. Tilman.

It just makes me shake my head.

Regrettably this happens more often than not.

My grandfather in WWII (10th Armored Division) had to deal with friendly fire on a regular basis. They were even straffed by our own planes from time to time.

[PvK]

Originally posted by President Elect Shang:
... Tillman is a hero! So are all the others in our armed forces. They are heroes because they chose to join. He didn’t go over to die, he went to serve. Damn the Webster definition of a hero. If you save a baby in a burning car does that make you a hero? If you help a trapped man after a storm does that make you a hero? Yes it does and why? Because you chose to help and he [Tillman] is a hero, along with all the other men and woman of the armed forces, because he choose to serve!

So if the word "hero" must now mean anyone who joins an army or who helps someone in need ... what words would you use to explain the difference between say, Audie Murphy or John Paul Jones, and random soldiers, or anyone who helps anyone else out?

I suppose (even without taking hyperbolic language abuse by commerical news media into account), the word "hero" has long been used in a very broad range of ways, to mean everything from, as you say, simply helping someone else or doing something dangerous and selfless, to tales of Hercules.

The problems then are abuse and misunderstanding. It's not as a specific term as some people take it when it bothers them. The speaker needs to make clear what they mean, and the listener must understand, or major misunderstanding can easily occur. When either doesn't appreciate the subtlety, and has fixed but different ideas about the term, it gets worse. When the media is over-using charged terms just to boost the hype level, it gets out of control. For the local news, any unexpected death is an excuse to bring out the word "tragedy".

Seems to me the words don't have much meaning by themselves in a modern context where they've been abused so much. Arguing about whether someone is a "hero" or not usually boils down to a difference of definitions, which the arguers mis-cast as a disagreement about something more concrete.

PvK

[tesco samoa]

I think that ones hero's are personal. As they always have been to me and i believe AK.

I just read that and wanted to let AK know.

[PeterD]

My Uncle spent 5 years in a German POW camp and
then in 1945 he was a victim of friendly fire
when he and his fellow POW's were attacked by US
planes who thought they were German troops.

He was never bitter about this despite several
friends being hit. He said the pilots simply
made a mistake and these things happen in war.

He also said that without American help he'd
probably still be in that camp, or dead.

One day perhaps we'll all grow out of it but I
don't expect it will happen any time soon.

[Simeron]

Hero....means alot of different things to each person I suppose.

The best definition I have heard, to me at least, is this:

"A person that was at the right place, at the right time, did the right thing and someone else was there and lived to tell about it."

How many hero's go unknown?

All I know is one thing....

The more extreme the situation, the greater chance for heroes and curs (anti-heroes) to emerge.

Also, one thing I think all military types will tell you...

Friendly fire isn't.

[ June 02, 2004, 15:15: Message edited by: Simeron ]