Band Of Brothers, Real Heros

[Kuan]

I am about halfway through band of brothers and it is amazing what they went through. So I have been thinking, these guys are real heros, then I thought. What constitutes a real hero? How many people will live their life and they could be a hero but we will never know about them?

[cnorman18]

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I had a friend (who is gone now) that was one of the heroes of the Pacific theater. He flew Corsairs from improvised island airfields (and perhaps later from aircraft carriers?). He NEVER spoke about his experience, even when asked. I didn't know what he had done until a mutual friend said "look Bill up in the Book of Aces". I did. He had shot down eight enemy aircraft and been shot down himself.

I thanked him for what he had done for all of us and told him that I would have been with them if they hadn't entered the war when I was only two years old.

I have a dear friend, named Bruce, who is a Vietnam vet. One day he sent me into his office to get a pen from his desk drawer; I saw a leather case, and being a nosy guy, I opened it. It contained two Silver Stars. He wouldn't talk about them.

When he got drunk, he'd talk not about his own heroism, but about his regrets over the men he'd killed. There were many, and he'd done most of them with a knife. "I have ghosts," he'd say. "I can still see the face of every one."

Sometimes the wounds that heroes carry aren't wounds of the body. Maybe most of them -- and we never hear about nor recognize those who are so wounded. More than one has died of those wounds, on the street or under a bridge.

[Zzyzx]

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Some veterans are true heroes, but I can't say that I automically admire all vets.

My sentiments exactly. Merely serving in the military does not qualify anyone for hero status (myself included) -- and some are a disgrace to the uniform (myself not included).

I reserve the term "hero" for those who did something outstanding -- well beyond the call of duty.

[Kuan]

I see what your saying, man the stories out there are amazing!

[otseng]

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Some veterans are true heroes, but I can't say that I automically admire all vets.

My sentiments exactly. Merely serving in the military does not qualify anyone for hero status (myself included) -- and some are a disgrace to the uniform (myself not included).

I reserve the term "hero" for those who did something outstanding -- well beyond the call of duty.

I just finished watching the entire series on DVD. And it was a fantastic series (though I think they could've omitted the sex scene without affecting the movie one bit).

One thing I appreciate is that they didn't sensationalize the story. Some were shown to be heroes (Winters) and some were not. Most were just average people doing what they were told to do.