When Memorial Day speeches and commentaries suggest the war dead are heroes, we find it easy to accept this because it is Memorial Day and the time to honor the war dead.

Tuesday, May 22, 2001

When Memorial Day speeches and commentaries suggest the war dead are heroes, we find it easy to accept this because it is Memorial Day and the time to honor the war dead. Without the disrespect that would appear by speaking of it aloud, we ought yet to recognize there is no necessary connection between being killed and heroism and that not every hero has been recognized. Not every military person decorated as a hero is one in fact and, more important to recognize, some of the most genuine heroes have been decorated only by the nobility of what they did.

Jesus, of course, spoke truly when he said: "Greater love has no one than this, that he lays down his life for his friends" (John 15:13, tr). When I was a staff chaplain of the Military District of Washington and responsible for pastoral coverage of Arlington National Cemetery, I worked with a very fine organization that earnestly seeks to honor all military people who have given their lives in service to their nation. Those friends understandably call themselves "No Greater Love." This Bible statement has become a social proverb.

Our appropriate use of this quotation ought to be tempered by the fact that Jesus was not talking about war dead or combat heroism, however fair it is so to apply his words. He spoke primarily of his own anticipated death as a moral sacrifice. His death was intended to save lives. Most KIAs, in contrast, result from the attempt to take an enemy life and not to save any life.

Gen. George Patton was fond of lecturing his troops: "Your job as a soldier is not to give your life for your country, but to make sure the other poor [guy] gives his life for his country." He was correct that a life lost in combat is a life lost from combat-and from returning home. I am not so sure it is accurate to speak of KIA as "the supreme sacrifice," even if the most extreme.

The number of soldiers (and other armed forces personnel) who have risked their lives is greater than the number who have actually lost them. It seems to me that consciously risking ones life is more heroic than an accidental death, even if resulting in combat success.

One of our heroes, when I was an MP officer, was the one who risked his life to save the lives of the North Korean POWs he was escorting to a collection station. I know a number of medical officers and nurses who risked contracting tropical diseases from the captured soldiers they were treating.

Probably the majority of combat heroism, I have concluded from both observation and research, is little more than the ignorant and irresponsible impulses of thoughtless and careless adolescents who neither knew nor cared about consequences to themselves or anyone else. They do stupid, senseless things. If they succeed, we give them a medal. This is what "hero" rather often means.

The combat training that is now given, in a sense, actually reduces the number of heroes. Soldiers are trained to act instinctively and intuitively, thus eliminating the need for moral deliberation in the midst of combat, which would actually endanger lives.

Some stories of heroism are not such at all but simply accidents and neither intentional nor even conscious. Some of these were decorated only for purposes of unit morale or public relations. Some people who should have been court marshaled for reckless acts or disobeying orders have actually been given medals for no better reason than that public disclosure wouldn’t make their commanders themselves vulnerable to discipline.

Mind you, there have been a lot of actions that merit honor, and I wish there were a way to give greater honor still to authentic combat heroism. There is such and there are instances of it: when a soldier knew exactly what and why he did what he did, with no reasonable chance of success and convinced he will be killed. He takes action despite knowing he will be killed and that he will not succeed and precisely because he feels responsible and has the opportunity at least to try.

Such is a hero, but there are equivalents. They know who they are, and their satisfaction of having done the heroic thing counts more than anything we can say about them or do to them. He said it best who said at Gettysburg: "we cannot dedicateThe brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract."

Wallace Alcorn’s column appears Mondays.