Wednesday, May 26, 2004

Seek out heroes walking among us

By RANDY GADDO
Contributing Writer

They walk among us.

To the untrained eye, they appear to be normal citizens like all the others on this earth. They go about their daily lives, same as everybody. People interact with them constantly, but have no idea who or what they are.

Only if you know what to look for will you maybe be able to discern that they are, different, somehow. It could be the way they stand, or it could be a glint in their eye at just the right moment that tells you they have something deep inside that they aren’t sharing. Something big.

They are a part of our society that has been brought to the brink of extinction, but now is making a comeback. They are American heroes; more specifically, servicemen and women who have earned the right to be called a hero.

On certain days of the year, they come out in larger numbers, gather together to pay homage to their comrades who are no longer here on earth with them. They may open up a little on these occasions, maybe. Perhaps if you’re lucky, you may glean a little information from them that will help you understand them a little better.

But be quick, because they will recede as quickly as they emerged, and it could be an entire year, or a lifetime, or never, that you get the chance again.

There are many heroes, largely unrecognized in our society. There are police and firemen and EMTs who are somebody’s hero every day. There are teachers and statesmen and women who fight for somebody’s rights and can be called a hero in somebody’s eyes.

But none are exactly like military heroes. They come from all walks of American life. They come from cities, they come from farms, they come from rich backgrounds, and they come from poor backgrounds. They’re white, black, brown and red. As a class of people they represent every era and every important milestone our relatively young country has experienced.

The thing that really makes them different is that they fought in battles that have defined the United States as a world power.

Like it or not, war happens. Nobody wants to fight, but somebody has to know how. On a global scale, what one hero did may not seem to have an impact. But, collectively, add all their heroism together and each of those individual acts now becomes an important part of a larger whole.

To define heroes in modern cyber terms, it would be like looking at a war through the Hubble telescope.

Start with the wide angle and get a picture of the whole earth. Then begin to zoom in to the Middle East, and continue to zoom in until you have Iraq in the lens. You’ll see a mass of land, but as you zoom in you begin to see structures and people. Then you see what the people are doing, but it’s still a mass of ants scurrying about.

So you zoom in closer and see a platoon of U.S. Marines engaged in battle against remnants of Saddam’s army. But all you see is gunsmoke and tracer rounds.

So you zoom in some more until you now have a squad of about a dozen Marines engaged in battle. The action is more distinct now, and you can see that the squad is numerically out-manned. As you continue to study the scene, you note that an Iraqi tank has the high ground and is pounding the heck out of the Marine position.

You also see one small dot separated from the rest, about halfway between the two fighting factions and off to the left. You zoom in and see it is a lone Marine, lance corporal by the insignia on his collar. He’s on his belly, crawling towards the tank, keeping a sand dune between him and it. The other Marines are laying down cover fire for him.

The Iraqis’ attention is on the larger force, not this lone Marine. He uses the sand dune to circle around behind the hulk. With heavy cover fire pinning down Iraqi soldiers, the Marine rushes the tank, leaps atop it, flings open the top hatch, drops a grenade in, slams it shut and is gone in the wink of an eye. The loud explosion he hears as he low-crawls back to his position is a good sound.

You have just witnessed a hero in action, but the odds are against him that history will record his actions. Not that it is important to him. What is important is that when he gets back to his unit, his squad leader gives him a thumbs up before preparing his men for a rush of the enemy. What is important is that his buddies clap him on the back and say, “Nice job, hero.” What is important is that he can look himself in the mirror and know he made a difference.

But when he gets back home, back on the block, he won’t wear a medal. He won’t have a sign around his neck that says, “This man is a hero, thank him for your freedom.” He doesn’t need that either. He knows what he knows. But he deserves the thanks.

And then there are heroes who will never again walk among us, because their acts of heroism cost them their lives, such as Marine Corporal Jason L. Dunham.

In April 2004, in Iraq, he jumped on an enemy grenade, absorbing the blast with his body to save his fellow Marines. Like those who went before him, he joins the vast ranks of fallen heroes.

But, there are lots of these heroes who still walk among us. This Memorial Day, May 31, take the time to seek them out and thank them. It doesn’t cost much, just a little time.

Come to Peachtree City’s Memorial Day Celebration. It starts early so people can celebrate the true intent of the day and still enjoy time with friends and family later.

There’s a golf cart procession from The Gathering Place starting at 7:30 a.m. and the public is invited to join in. The ceremony starts at 8 a.m. at City Hall Plaza. There are even refreshments, and music, and a precision drill exhibition, and this year a fly-over is planned, and heroes, lots of heroes, young and old.

Stop by, find some of them, and thank them.

For more information on the event, call the Recreation Department at 770-631-2542.

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