84RFK
Active member
Nobody mentioned war-heroes in specific here, they come in every shape and colour, and in any profession.
The professions including some kind of risk, firefighters, medics, soldiers and police officers would be closer to a situation calling for a hero to stand up, but they are not the only ones.
Sure, the firefighters, medics and police officers who entered the World Trade Center after the buildings were hit could easily fall into the hero-cathegory, even though some of them probably didn't have any idea of the possibility that the buildings would collapse on top of them.
But then again, who gives a moments thought about the risk they are putting themselves in?
There's plenty of people driving around without properly fastened seat-belts...
The best reason to put the seat-belts on was summed up on a poster I once saw...a typical Highway police trooper, complete with his Baden Powell hat and sunglasses, and the text: "I've never unbuckeled a dead man."
And I'd buy that statment, even though I was more or less born and raised in a Volvo, meaning that either you put the seat-belts on, or you go insane by the ticking and flashing...
I've been on wreck sites, where some truck driver has chosen to drive off a cliff rather than keeping his truck on the road and maybe kill another person, even though he must have known that the plunge into the water would mean certain death to him.
We don't decorate dead truckdrivers...
Nor do we decorate mothers who choose to make sure their child is rescued from a burning building before they try to jump into a rather uncertain safety.
My point here is, there's heroes who never fired a gun, and never was a soldier.
Being a soldier doesn't automaticly make you a hero, it only makes you more prone to end up in a situation calling for a hero.
An act of heroism calls for personal initiative, and a degree of will to sacrifice your own safety on behalf of someone else, they don't teach that in any military academy I know of.
The professions including some kind of risk, firefighters, medics, soldiers and police officers would be closer to a situation calling for a hero to stand up, but they are not the only ones.
Sure, the firefighters, medics and police officers who entered the World Trade Center after the buildings were hit could easily fall into the hero-cathegory, even though some of them probably didn't have any idea of the possibility that the buildings would collapse on top of them.
But then again, who gives a moments thought about the risk they are putting themselves in?
There's plenty of people driving around without properly fastened seat-belts...
The best reason to put the seat-belts on was summed up on a poster I once saw...a typical Highway police trooper, complete with his Baden Powell hat and sunglasses, and the text: "I've never unbuckeled a dead man."
And I'd buy that statment, even though I was more or less born and raised in a Volvo, meaning that either you put the seat-belts on, or you go insane by the ticking and flashing...
I've been on wreck sites, where some truck driver has chosen to drive off a cliff rather than keeping his truck on the road and maybe kill another person, even though he must have known that the plunge into the water would mean certain death to him.
We don't decorate dead truckdrivers...
Nor do we decorate mothers who choose to make sure their child is rescued from a burning building before they try to jump into a rather uncertain safety.
My point here is, there's heroes who never fired a gun, and never was a soldier.
Being a soldier doesn't automaticly make you a hero, it only makes you more prone to end up in a situation calling for a hero.
An act of heroism calls for personal initiative, and a degree of will to sacrifice your own safety on behalf of someone else, they don't teach that in any military academy I know of.