What is a hero?

What is a hero?

A hero is a person that acts for the well being of others, disregarding their own safety. We tend to think of them in turn of life and death, but there are so many other ways to be a hero. Many believe whistle blowers to be in that category and many times they are. But I see them as just acting on their own selfish thoughts.

In my travels, I often asked people; what they would do if they were in a fox hole with three other close friends when a hand grenade was tossed in?

The most common answer was jump out. Then came, throw it out . . . What would you do?

Of the hundreds and hundreds I asked only one responded with, “dive on it.” A very small group has what I regard as the stuff heroes are made of.

Every family has heroes and mine is no different. One member of mine was shot down over Germany and spent many months as a guest of one of their POW Camps. And another long lost relative won the Congressional Medal of Honor during WWII, posthumously.

Two recent Congressmen shared his ranks and received the Congressional Medal of Honor, Bob Kerry and Daniel Inouye. Paul Smith won one posthumously during a battle for the Iraq Airport. And there have been nineteen individuals who won two of them. One of these died at the battle of the Little Bighorn . . . Nope, it wasn’t George, it was his brother, Thomas Custer. He won one at the battle of Namozine Church and one at the battle of Sailor’s Creek. Both were for capturing Confederate Flags.

Link to: Medal Of Honor Citations

Want to share your families stories with the world . . . email them to Dan Hanosh