Heroes

I'm going to get in trouble with this blog post because some of the things I'm going to say aren't popular.

Like most of the rest of the world, I have a Facebook account. Most of my "friends" on there are former students--young folks who get sucked into the emotions of the moment. Someone posted something on there a few days ago that I didn't read, but I think it said something about establishing a holiday to honor Vietnam veterans. And, of course, there are always posts about our "heroes" in the military--not heroes by the true definition, but heroes just because they are serving our country.

Before I make my comments, I need to establish that I am proudly from a military family, most of whom served in war time--World War II and Korea. My father and favorite uncle were career officers--Dad in the Navy; Uncle Bud in the Army. My favorite aunt was in the Coast Guard, and my brother (toward the end of the Vietnam Conflict) was in the Navy. I was a young wife when the Draft was initiated in order to support the Vietnam Conflict. It was not a popular war. Vietnam was a tiny country, half a world away, that supplied us with nothing. We promised to help them be free of Communism, which wasn't really possible because the Communist forces were being supplied by China. (There are a LOT of Chinese!) We were sending our young soldiers there to die...for what? No one was really sure. It wasn't to protect our freedoms. It was to make our government make good on a promise. It tore the country apart.

There were a lot of deferments. In the beginning, if you were in college, you were deferred. (My husband was in college.) Lots of men enrolled in college. Then, if you had a family, you were deferred. Men got married and started babies. Finally, the Selective Service (Draft) made a lottery by birthdate that would ace out deferments. The lower your number, the more likely you were to be called up. My then-husband's birthdate drew #16. Sixteen out of 365. What luck!

Then, one day, Tom (my husband) got the letter that ordered him to report to Chicago for a draft physical. I was beside myself! I called my aunt in San Diego to ask her advice. (She was the head of the Selective Service in San Diego and had to tell her own son that his number was up.) She told me/us that Tom needed to report but take any doctor's documentation with him. (Tom's eyesight was bad. He wore Coke-bottle lenses in his glasses. I think vision in one eye was 20/400.) He took the trip and had doctors' letters with him. At the very end of the physical, the doctor in charge had Tom's glasses in his hand and asked if Tom had any letters from a doctor that would explain his eyesight. Tom had to ask for his glasses back in order to find the letter in the envelope he carried! Needless to say, he was no longer a candidate for the military, but it had scared both of us.

I also need to establish that I was a teacher for 40 years. When males graduated from high school, there were a few choices: college, vocational school, a job, or the military...in that order. Since Vietnam was such an unpopular war, those who served were not always treated well when they came home. There were no "welcome home" banners or "thank you for your service" hand shakes. I think it was pretty much recognized that if you were serving, you were doing so because of the Draft more than any particular desire to save your country's freedoms (unlike WWII after Pearl Harbor). Years later, when the hue and cry went out about our forgotten Vietnam vets, my father called them "crybabies". Still, as a country, we learned to appreciate our soldiers...but I think we have gone too far the other way. Now, on Facebook, anyone who is in the military is being called a "hero".

Heroes aren't people who are merely doing their jobs. When one enlists in the military, he/she understands that there will be sacrifices. If deployed, their families will be split up for months or years. It's not as if they didn't sign up for that...

You are a hero if you do something above and beyond the call of duty. A fireman isn't a hero just because he goes to a fire. He chose to do that. His job is to put out the fire and rescue anyone who is trapped. The fireman who is a hero has gone into a fire that would threaten his life just to save someone else. In the same vein, a person who enlists in the military in order to have an income and take advantage of government benefits isn't a hero just for having done so. It would be like calling my plumber a hero for unplugging my toilet! I think we are using the word "hero" too lightly.

Coming from an "intellectual" frame of mind that venerates a college education and downplays those who can't do that, I am well aware that we NEED people who have skills that aren't intellectual in nature. My college education allowed me to teach children for a lot of years, but I can't fix my car if it breaks down, nor can I put in a new water heater. I get that. I'm just not ready to declare a special day for Vietnam veterans or lift other veterans to a pedestal that only says that they served. Let's not go overboard, folks. We already have Veteran's Day and Memorial Day to honor our service people...plus the Fourth of July. What more do we need to do? Nothing!