WHAT DOES A WAR HERO LOOK LIKE?

I have a strict policy about this blog not to give political opinions of mine, or allow politics to play in my writing. This is not about political thought but about simple courage and common decency of a man I truly admire.

If you are like me, you sometimes need literal definitions of terms that are thrown about in ordinary conversations. One of the terms I often hear is the word courage. It is a common word that expresses the overcoming of one’s fear, and the determination to do something about it. The drive to act is motivated by the complete belief that what you do is the right thing in your heart and mind regardless of the odds against you. Once in a while it includes the word valor.

How lucky enough I was to meet someone with a profile that fits my description of courage. If you met the man, you might think, here is a man of good moral character, who is talking to you about you, and not making any judgments in what you are saying. He is not macho, just a decent man, he is not overbearing, just listening to you talk. His name is Frank, and if he were alive today, he would be considered a hero to a lot of people who may or may not have agreed with him 40 years ago when his courage came into play. I met Frank by marrying TLW (The Little Woman); Frank is her older brother’s wife’s brother.

Frank was a man that did not believe in killing another human being. A man who had the courage and conviction to go to the mat and defend that concept of love and peace, a man who was right on time in realizing that war not only kills other men, but women and children, cultures and institutions, sensibilities and decency and ways of life. He was brave enough to face any consequence that a court of law would throw at him. He didn’t cut and run to Canada, but stayed and fought the wrongness of war. Was he afraid to defend his country? I doubt it, I think he was afraid that his country was wrong to fight in Vietnam, I think he was afraid that his country would destroy all that he was taught to love about it, and in the end, it betrayed him. But so he did defend his country.

Personally I feel that Frank did not serve time as a criminal, but as a war hero, a man, a human being trying to reach out to his fellow countrymen in his courageous way and saying: “Have we all gone mad? When will we ever learn?”

He didn’t take a popular view, and the amazing thing is his whole family as far as I knew, supported him, taking on that very same mantle of courage and conviction that he harbored, no matter what they may have felt themselves about the war. I am talking about a truly good family, with truly good and happy parents who taught their children humanity and responsibility to it. A large family that had a wedding in Pennsylvania a few years ago, and one of the sons living in Alaska bicycling down the whole way to attend!

Either you do or you don’t agree with the Vietnam War, and like today, the opinions are varied and wide, but you must recognize the insanity of war, recognize the devastation to other beings and cultures, and think: “thank God for guys like Frank, he tried to bring dignity and courage back to the human race.” He did restore respectability by his presence and protests.

A lot of good men died during that conflict, they gave their lives; Frank a good man gave his freedom so those men shouldn’t have given their lives.

Frank was a hero. Someday society may well recognize that fact.