As a military veteran, I prefer to say that I served my country.
Curmudgeon wrote:
The word hero has become cheapened over the years. If you are a firefighter or cop and are wounded or killed in the line of duty you are a brave man/woman but not a hero, you are just doing the job you were hired to do. If you exceed those duties then, and only then, are you a hero.
Medivac pilots were brave men who risked their lives every time they made a pickup but that was what they were supposed to do. They were men just doing their jobs. Medivac pilots making pickups on hot LZs were heroes, every last one of them, weather they got a medal or not. They knew the risks and went in anyway.
Ed Freeman was a hero in the truest sense of the word. He wasn't flying medivac and picking up wounded comrades was not even his job. Still he went in, time after time, rescuing the fallen.
The word hero has become cheapened over the years.... (
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