What Defines a Hero ?
Michael: Ironically in some respects, there has been a turnaround and a lot of us that are veterans, particularly of Vietnam, are concerned about the fact that we got people going around these days and claiming they are combat veterans and they got all kinds of medals, decorations and everything, and most of those people never served in the military. It’s hard to explain how it affects me, thinking about it, but these people during Vietnam were probably protesting what was going on.
Kind of my soapbox…I can’t stand it. And I, with my stuff, I was there, I didn’t do anything spectacular, I did my job. There were people did some really amazing and heroic things, but that’s what frustrates me about some of these people. They call it stolen valor.
Actually, it’s an interesting dynamic in a sense. I belong to the Vietnam Veterans of America, a national organization. I belong to this specific chapter here in California and so on. But the organization is open to membership for people that actually served in Vietnam, or people that served during Vietnam but may not have served in country, and they got different criteria as the membership is for either of those two groups. And we’ve had a number of people that have said that they felt guilty because they served during Vietnam but they didn’t actually go to Vietnam, and they felt guilty themselves about being a member of the organization and kind of the way I have approached it is, it wasn’t necessarily their choice. They volunteered or they got drafted, but the government, the military made the decision as where they were going to go. Some of the people that did not go to Vietnam may have the feeling that they don’t feel that they necessarily rate the respect that the people that actually served in country get or deserved and..again, when I talk to some of these people, I just try to make sure you know the message gets across, you may have wanted to go, but Uncle Sam decided, ok, instead of going to Vietnam, you had to go to the Germany or something, or you gonna go wherever or you are not going to leave the States, you got to stay in theSstates. But, that’s the decision of the military, not the individual.
To me, the idea of the people, particularly people that may have received the Medal of Honor, or you know some of the immediate lower medals, the Air Force Cross or Bronze Star, Silver Star, or something like that were, I think, the fact of those people being considered heroes is the perception of the people that witness whatever it was they did to receive those medals. I don’t think that something, particularly when, in the heat of battle or something, that’s the intent on the part of the people who got those medals. Their idea, they are doing what they need to do, to stay alive themselves, and/or protect other people who they are with, or to rescue someone, and I doubt seriously they are going out to doing that, whatever their actions may be. with the ideas of getting a medal. And as I mentioned, I think that the fact of being considered a hero , I don’t think they would consider themselves heroes. I think that’s the perception of people that observed whatever the act was.