by Pieter J. Friedrich
11/14/03
Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch is a hero.
At least, that's what Jessica-Lynch.com says. Indeed, according to a July 20th, 2003 Herald Dispatch editorial, Jessica Lynch is a "100 percent American hero." Singer Eric Horner even wrote a song about the pretty private's heroism.
The little blonde girl from West Virginia is no hero (or, if you prefer a sex-specific and less politically correct term, "heroine").
Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch barely even met the call of duty. She did nothing more than put the lives of a great many Special Forces troops in danger by making it necessary for them to effect a rescue.
A hero goes above and beyond the call of duty. A hero, by his very nature, is a rare find. A hero is the type of person who sees an enemy grenade fall into his group of fellow soldiers, jumps on it, and then pulls a second grenade under himself when it falls close by (that's what a still living Medal of Honor recipient did during WWII). A hero is self-sacrifice and raw courage personified.
First Lieutenant Audie Murphy was a hero. During WWII he killed over 240 German troops and captured or wounded a great many others. Read about his most heroic act:
"On a frigid January afternoon in 1945, Company B, 15th Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division, was attacked on the outskirts of Holtzwihr, France, by six tanks and an estimated 250 German infantrymen, who were determined to wrest the Bois de Riedwihr from the Americans. Certain that his decimated company could not withstand the German onslaught, First Lieutenant Audie L. Murphy ordered his men to fall back to safety deep in the forest."
"After exhausting his carbine ammunition, Murphy was preparing to fall back when the .50-caliber machine gun on the turret of the burning tank destroyer caught his eye. Soon the fire would reach the vehicles fuel and ammunition, but Murphy knew the gun was his only chance to stop the Germans. He climbed aboard the tank destroyer and began spraying the big .50-caliber at the enemy. Private First Class Anthony V. Abramski later reported, 'I saw Lt. Murphy climb on top of the burning tank destroyer while bursts of machine pistol fire from the advancing infantry battered against the hull and tread.'
"Murphy knew that the .50-caliber would have no effect on the tanks, so he concentrated his fire on the advancing infantry. 'I would not waste my ammunition on something that direct hits by 90mm shells could not slow down,' he said. 'I concentrated on the foot soldiers, believing that the tanks would not advance very far without them.'"
"Two 88mm shells slammed into the tank destroyer. The concussion and shock of the explosion threw Murphy violently against the turret, nearly knocking him to the ground....Miraculously, Murphy managed to maintain his composure and continued to fire the machine gun."
"Just as the Germans began to fall back, Murphys field telephone went dead. Exhausted and bleeding profusely, Murphy climbed off the burning tank destroyer and limped back into the forest. 'I turned from the Germans and never looked back,' he recalled. 'I was too weak from fear and exhaustion to care anymore.' Shortly after reaching the woods, Murphy heard the tank destroyer blow up, blasting off the turret on which he had been standing."
(Much of the information about Lt. Murphy was taken from "One-Man Stand at Holtzwihr" by Daniel Chamagne).
Sergeant Alvin York, the pacifist soldier who realized he had to take life to save it, was a hero.
On October 8th, at the battle of the Argonne Forest, Sgt. York killed 28 Germans, wiped out 35 machine guns, and captured 132 prisoners. He wrote in his diary:
"....there was 17 of us boys went around on the left flank to see if we couldn't put those guns out of action. So when we went around and fell in behind those guns, we first saw two Germans with Red Cross bands on their arms. So we asked them to stop and they did not. So one of the boys shot at them and they run back to our right. So we all run after them, and when we jumped across a little stream of water that was there, they was about 15 or 20 Germans jumped up and threw up their hands and said, 'Kame rad!' So the one in charge of us boys told us not to shoot; they was going to give up anyway. By this time some of the Germans from on the hill was shooting at us. Well, I was giving them the best I had, and by this time the Germans had got their machine guns turned around and fired on us. So they killed six and wounded three of us. So that just left 8, and then we got into it right by this time. So we had a hard battle for a little while, and I got hold of the German major and he told me if I wouldn't kill any more of them he would make them quit firing. So I told him all right if he would do it now. So he blew a little whistle and they quit shooting and come down and gave up. I had killed over 20 before the German major said he would make them give up. I covered him with my automatic and told him if he didn't make them stop firing I would take his head off next. And he knew I meant it. After he blew his whistle, all but one of them came off the hill with their hands up, and just before that one got to me he threw a little hand grenade which burst in the air in front of me. I had to touch him off. The rest surrendered without any more trouble. There were nearly a 100 of them. We had about 80 or 90 Germans there disarmed, and had another line of Germans to go through to get out. So I called for my men, and one of them answered from behind a big oak tree, and the others were on my right in the brush. (Except for York, all the non-commissioned officers had been killed or badly wounded, leaving York in command). So I said, 'Let's get these Germans out of here.' One of my men said, 'It is impossible.' So I said, 'No; let's get them out of here.' So when my man said that, the German major said, 'How many have you got?' And I said that, 'I have got plenty,' and pointed my pistol at him all the time. In this battle I was using a rifle and a .45 Colt automatic. So I lined the Germans up in a line of two's, and I got between the ones in front, and I had the German major before me. So I marched them straight into those other machine guns and I got them. So when I got back to my major's P.C. (post of command) I had 132 prisoners."
Yet another hero was Pvt. Edward Moskala. Moskala was K.I.A. while fighting in the Pacific during WWII. He was posthumously awarded a Congressional Medal of Honor.
His citation read:
"With utter disregard for his personal safety, he charged 40 yards through withering, grazing fire and wiped out two machinegun nests with well-aimed grenades and deadly accurate fire from his automatic rifle. When strong counterattacks and fierce enemy resistance from other positions forced his company to withdraw, he voluntarily remained behind with eight others to cover the maneuver. Fighting from a critically dangerous position for three hours, he killed more than 25 Japanese before following his surviving companions through screening smoke down the face of the ridge to a gorge where it was discovered that one of the group had been left behind, wounded.
"Unhesitatingly, Pvt. Moskala climbed the bullet-swept slope to assist in the rescue, and, returning to lower ground, volunteered to protect other wounded while the bulk of the troops quickly took up more favorable positions. He had saved another casualty and killed four enemy infiltrators when he was struck and mortally wounded himself while aiding still another disabled soldier.
"With gallant initiative, unfaltering courage, and heroic determination to destroy the enemy, Pvt. Moskala gave his life in his complete devotion to his company's mission and his comrades' well-being. His intrepid conduct provided a lasting inspiration for those with whom he served."
There was a hero in the Second Gulf War...a private named Patrick Miller. He saved the life of Pfc. Lynch and several of his comrades, was taken prisoner and rescued 21 days later, and was awarded the Silver Star for valor. A "60 Minutes" report on CBS News said:
"Miller saw a group of Iraqis setting up a mortar position in front of the dump truck. He says it could have wiped them all out.
"To prevent them from firing, Miller dove behind a horseshoe-shaped mount of dirt called a berm, across the highway from the Iraqis. But it was seven Iraqis against one American -- seven Iraqis who were in that mortar pit just 25 yards away.
"Miller hadn't fired a weapon for seven months, and he admits he wasn't the best marksman. He was an Army mechanic, and when he'd taken his first marksmanship test, he'd failed it.
"So what did he do? 'One guy, like, jumped up to where I could see him, and he had a mortar round in his hand, getting ready to drop it in the tube,' he says. 'And as he jumped up, I just raised my rifle up and shot, and he fell over.'
"It was the first shot he fired in the incident. The lousy marksman hit home.
"But after that first shot, his rifle jammed. He had to pound on it with the palm of his hand, after every shot, to get the next bullet loaded into the chamber. He kept on re-loading and shooting. 'I was kind of getting a rhythm down, count like seconds and then look up,' he explains. 'And you could see somebody else trying to load it. So, I was starting to count, and when I'd get to the number, I'd look up. And somebody else would be trying to load it, and I'd shoot. I did that probably seven times total. I counted the last time, and when I looked up, there wasn't nobody there.'"
Lynch herself denies that she is a hero. She says, "I did not shoot, not a round, nothing. When we were told to lock and load, that's when my weapon jammed...I did not shoot a single round...I went down praying to my knees. And that's the last I remember."
Why has Jessica Lynch been portrayed as such a hero...while the heroism of men like Miller has been downplayed?
Perhaps it's because in this dumbed down, egalitarian age it's politically incorrect to call attention to the fact that some people do greater things than others, some people are better than others, and some people are more courageous than others. It's politically incorrect to tell the tales of men (especially if they're men) who go above and beyond the call of duty, because we might hurt the feelings of the ordinary Joe Coward.
Or perhaps it's because Lynch is female. One of the many goals of the feminazi lesbians has been full acceptance of women in the military. Moral arguments on the subject aside, everyone with any common sense has always maintained that women are not physically capable of military service. So, when in confused battlefield reports Pfc. Lynch was reported to have fought until she ran out of ammunition, feminazis and the defenders of feminazis (and the politically correct defenders of this war) jumped on the story of an attractive female soldier who fought to the last.
What better, more emotionally-loaded argument for women in the military is there than an attractive female hero who fights to the last round?
I think it's a little bit - or a lot - of both. The bar for what it takes to be a hero has been lowered so as to cater to the lowest common denominator, and if that lowest common denominator happens to be a woman then so much the better.
The little blonde girl who got knocked out, whose gun jammed when it came time to fire, who endured imprisonment, and who may or may not have been raped...she's not a hero. The men of ages past (and ages current) who risked their lives to save lives...they're the real heroes.
