Sunday, December 27

Hero—a word that is defined so simply by Daniel Webster as somebody who is admired and looked up to for outstanding qualities or achievements. But it means so much more than that. A hero is someone who is brave even in the face of death. Someone who gave it their all even when they thought there was no longer a reason to give anything. Someone who was scared beyond all imagination but still fought bravely. I saw many heroes during my time in Vietnam who receive almost no recognition for what they have done. Here, I hope to document the heroes that require that small bit of recognition.

The first group of people that come to mind are those who carried stretchers onto the battlefields. They risked their own lives as they sprinted out in the middle of a hail of bullets in order to help their fellow soldiers. Those men were the last hope for the soldiers who had fallen in battle—wounded soldiers were carried out on stretchers so that they could be attended to later in the hospitals. Without the brave men who carried those stretchers, by the time the battle was over, there would not have been enough time to save them in the hospitals. Heroes.

There was one battle where we lost hundreds of men in five minutes. We knew that we had to slow down the fire of the Vietcong if we ever hoped to breach their walls. The only way to start the attack was to sacrifice perhaps an entire regiment of men who would lead it. Only then could we finally attack the Vietcong. We told this story to all of the men and they became scared. There was one group of men who offered to lead the attack. It was regiment 89 and every single one of those men are still heroes in my eyes. When the attack started there were 240 men. When the dust cleared and we were able to see the results of the battle, there were 19 left. Just 19 out of 240 men—that is only 7%. I cannot begin to imagine what was going through their minds as they walked onto that battlefield. I know that they were scared out of their minds. But the thing is that each and every one of those men had a duty that day. Their duty was to sacrifice themselves for the lives of hundreds of their fellow soldiers. Without them, many more innocent civilians would have been killed by the Vietcong. They gave their last breath for their country. Heroes.

Other unspoken heroes were the helicopter pilots. No matter how tough the situation. No matter how late and horrible the weather conditions were. No matter how impossible it was to get to our location. They always came to our rescue. We were in some extremely tough situations and without the helicopter pilots, I don’t think I would have survived at all. Heroes.

There are still hundreds of unsung heroes—brave men who risked their lives every day for their country. Any soldier who fought in the Vietnam War is considered a hero to me. They all gave everything they had even if it led to their deaths. They all showed courage and not just the dictionary definition of the word courage. I’m talking about Aristotle’s definition—that courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the mastering of the fear that exists. I still pray every chance I get for the men, living and dead, who bravely fought each and every day—Heroes.

Adapted from the story of William H. Dabney in Dabney, William H. “The Seige of Khe Sanh.” The Soldiers’ Story. Ed. Ron Steinman. New York: Barnes and Noble Books, 2002. 83-89. Book.