I didn’t write anything on the heroism of retired Army LCOL Bruce Crandall, who was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor last week for his actions in Vietnam’s Ia Drang Valley. I thought that many other people had done his tale better justice than could I.
The long and the short of it was that over 22 sorties in a 14-hour fly day on the 15th of November, 1965, he risked his life over and over again, flying into a hot LZ to bring ammunition in and wounded out of the battlespace. His actions kept the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry in the fight, and brought back 70 of their wounded soldiers, many of whom would have died without his valor. The ammunition he brought quite possibly kept the battalion from being over-run and destroyed in detail. He did so even though the LZ was operationally “closed,” meaning that he had every doctrinal reason not to land and that most likely no one would have questioned him for failing to do so. He did it even though he had three machines shot up so badly as to be un-flyable.
Certainly deserving, and certainly overdue.
But in today’s WSJ (subscription only) Danniel Henninger makes a great point:
Gen. Peter Schoomaker, the Army chief of staff, spoke at the ceremony of what he called “the warrior ethos.” Look at his words and consider whether they still stand today, or whether as a matter of the nation’s broader ethos of commonly accepted beliefs, they are under challenge. Gen. Schoomaker said: “The words of the warrior ethos that we have today — I will always place the mission first; I will never accept defeat; I will never quit; and I will never leave a fallen comrade — were made real that day in the la Drang Valley.”
At issue today is the question: Is that ethos worth it, worth the inevitable sacrifice? And not only in Iraq but in whatever may lie beyond Iraq?
The secretary of the Army, Francis Harvey, went on in this vein: “The courage and fortitude of America’s soldiers in combat exemplified by these individuals is, without question, the highest level of human behavior. It demonstrates the basic goodness of mankind as well as the inherent kindness and patriotism of American soldiers.”
An American soldier in combat demonstrates “the basic goodness of mankind”? And the highest level of human behavior? This was not thought to be true at the moment Maj. Crandall was flying those choppers in Vietnam. Nor is it now.
To embrace the thoughts of Gen. Schoomaker and of Secretary Harvey is to risk being accused of defending notions of American triumphalism and an overly strong martial spirit thought inappropriate to the realities of a multilateral world. This is a debate worth having. But we are not having it. We are hiding from it.
In a less doubtful culture, Maj. Crandall’s magnificent medal would have been on every front page, if only a photograph. It was on no one’s front page Tuesday. The New York Times, the culture’s lodestar, had a photograph on its front page of President Bush addressing governors about an insurance plan. Maj. Crandall’s Medal of Honor was on page 15, in a round-up, three lines from the bottom. Other big-city dailies also ran it in their news summaries; some — the Washington Post, USA Today — ran full accounts inside.
Most school children once knew the names of the nation’s heroes in war — Ethan Allen, John Paul Jones, Stephen Decatur, the Swamp Fox Francis Marion, Ulysses S. Grant, Clara Barton, Billy Mitchell, Alvin York, Lee Ann Hester. Lee Ann who? She’s the first woman to win a Silver Star for direct combat with the enemy. Did it in a trench in Iraq. Her story should be in schools, but it won’t be.
All nations celebrate personal icons, and ours now tend to be doers of good. That’s fine. But if we suppress the martial feats of a Bruce Crandall, we distance ourselves further from our military. And in time, we will change. At some risk.
Maybe it has something to do with the “do your own thing” culture, or the growing trend towards lowest-common-denominator self-esteemism – you know, no one’s better than anyone else, you’re great! Even if you haven’t really done anything great, and have no particular plan to do so.
But when I was a kid, if you asked any one of us, “Who is your hero?” the odds are pretty good that we’d have had an unironic answer. It might have been one of the Apollo astronauts, or John F. Kennedy, or it might have been some character played by John Wayne that didn’t really represent anyone in particular but rather an aggregation within an iconic individual of the virtues we knew existed in the real world. Virtues that were worthy of emulation, that were commonly shared.
You’re almost afraid to ask the question today, the idea itself has become almost anachronistic. Our heroes now are “nurses,” or “firemen,” or even “the soldiers.” Faceless collectives and meaningless aggregations – to celebrate all of them is to celebrate none of them.
Valor, determination, honor: These are individual virtues. Recognizing them in individuals gives us something to shoot for, a stretch goal – it raises us above ourselves. It makes us better people, and it makes us a Better People.
With all the mediocrity in the world, the fact that there are heroes among us ought to be newsworthy – why do we no longer honor them?
Thank you, Lex. I will walk away from the computer and call two of my personal heroes, my mother’s parents. They are 83 and 85, and I spent yesterday with them, driving to doctor’s appts. Yet while I walked over to a uniformed soldier in the lobby of the hospital to thank him for his service, I am not sure when the last time was, that I thanked my grandparents…recently, but not recently enough.
IF I can keep it short…
They married young, and my mom was born shortly after their wedding. Both families were unhappy with them and not supportive. A second child, their only son, was born 2 1/2 years later, and Grandpa was drafted into the Navy. A farmboy who had never been out of this mountainous, landlocked county, or seen even a small lake…off he went. He rarely speaks of it, but recently told me that he was so seasick on the ship to London that they wanted to leave him there. He begged to go on, and when they got to Brussels, it was being shelled…he wished they HAD left him in London.
Meanwhile, Grandma, home with a toddler and an infant, and little support, faced her own difficulties. My two-year-old mother contracted polio and spent most of the next two years living in the nearest real hospital….more than 70 miles away on bad roads. She learned to call the docs and nurses Mom and Dad. She had many surgeries (one leg affected) to equalize growth in her legs……
It was a long, hard road. When my own dh was called up twice, I knew I’d have support, but not be allowed to whine…
Grandma had btdt, and so had Mom (Dad was deployed for the Bay of Pigs crisis)
Their example also has gotten me thru years of struggle with a profoundly disabled child, my only son.
Life is hard, but heroes make it not only bearable, but blessed.
doorkeeper
Come on Lex, we can’t be ruining people’s self esteem by praising individual accomplishments. If everyone can’t be a heroic helicopter pilot and get the CMH, we shouldn’t be making a big deal over LCol. Crandall.
Sorry for the sarcasm. I’m engaged to a teacher. I sometimes attend seminars with her and you wouldn’t believe some of the BS that they call education.
“With all the mediocrity in the world, the fact that there are heroes among us ought to be newsworthy – why do we no longer honor them?”
Guilt. Resentment. Fear of the effort and pain involved. Effort without external reward or recognition. Effort for its own sake, pain endured for a worthy cause. The worst is that very ordinary people can become, and usually are, the world’s real heroes. So anybody can become enobled by their deeds alone. Without the permission or veto of their ‘betters’. “Deeds, not words”. Deeds of great generosity of spirit must be suppressed –so the chattering classes aren’t upstaged. And made to look bad.
The sneering harpies of the MSM all know in their bones that Aaron Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man” was not written for them. And they hate that. Hatred is all they’ve got left.
It is not my intention to demean the tragedy of ANS, but IMHO, there’s the ulitmate expresson of the “do your own thing” culture and the result of it. And look @ the publicity that sad event has generated. It would’ve been nice if LCOL Bruce Crandall had gotten a tenth of the publicity that ANS got. Not a good commentary on where we place our values as a society.
Lex,
You’ve probably seen it but if not, enjoy this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbOcJ6kqJAA&NR
Another LtCol solidly in the “hero” column.
Speaking of self-esteem.
It seems like (not to make this too dramatic) the self esteem “movement” is out of speed and out of altitude by e surve, which says kids know when yu’re just blowing smoke andthe ones wth honest commentary are te ones who actuall do better…
New York Magazine – The Self Esteem Movement Backfires has the details. sounds like the “old school” that taught warriors like LCOL Crandall had it right after all…
Lex ?
Lex – Thank you for mentioning LCOL Crandall. And although I agree with your points and appreciate your insight, I must take issue with Mr. Henninger.
I become very upset when someone co-opts the heroics of any uncommon individual, and then tries to use that for some personal, political axe to grind…be it from the Right or Left.
The then Major Crandall’s uncommon valor has nothing to do with Iraq. Nor has it anything to do with main-stream-media. What Maj. Crandall did transcends. Let us honor that – his actions and give belated recognition please, without using him to editorialize on other unfortunate and unrelated matters.
But since Henninger brought it up . . . 42 years ago, Maj. Crandall’s action would have indeed been news, but no one wanted to hear it then. Now, I am not surprised that it wasn’t on the front page, as it’s no longer actually “news”. But to me, the real news story today – and one not reported – is why did the MOH take over four decades to be awarded? And was there an apology?
I know why the MSM reports what it does – it reports whatever gets the ratings that attract the advertising that drives the revenues. Red meat sells. It’s what today’s masses desire, unfortunately. Valor does not.
I also know why our children lack heroes – it is because the valuation of honor, integrity, and uncommon human spirit has not been adequately passed totally intact from prior generations. Advertising and mass media are not to be blamed, because they cater to us. We of free will decide. Although many blame others, most of us in the mirror are the true culprits…. except, thank God for truly extraordinary people like LCOL Crandall…who transcend us all.
But let’s keep heroism in its rightful place, and not try to co-opt it for our own personal purposes, like Henninger.
fliterman,
re- “not try to co-opt it for our own personal purposes”
I heard Lt Col Crandall speak a couple years ago. I can ASSURE you HE would approve of Mr. Henninger’s article.
While I agree 100% with your “sentiments” regarding recognizing valor I smell your motive.
b2
To Fliterman:
Lt. Col. Crandall could have gotten The Medal earlier if he hadn’t demanded that his name be taken out of consideration so that his best friend and wingman during the LZ Xray flights, Ed “Too Tall To Fly” Freeman, could be honored with The Medal first.
Yes, it’s wrong that the honors due to these men were delayed. It’s far worse that so many in this country dishonor the services we receive from such men, and all our service members, by not giving them the full support they deserve.
In my neice’s 5th grade class, they were asked to write a project about their hero. 27 of the 31 children wrote about someone who had appeared on ‘Australian Idol.’
Now there’s a real tragedy.