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Discovering what makes a hero

Jun-16-2005 » Filed Under: 1/25 SBCT

Features soldiers of the 2nd Battalion, 8th Field Artillery

Link to Full Article
By Patrick Dickson and Sandra Jontz, Stars and Stripes

Their stories are like those of the soldiers, Marines, sailors and airmen who came before them:

Flying where anti-aircraft gunners can take a pop at you. Racing through a hail of bullets to pull a wounded friend to safety. Just staying with someone in what might be their last moments on Earth.

Are they heroes? What is a hero?

Servicemembers in the field had a lot of definitions to offer, but a recurring theme was not needing or wanting praise. [...]

“A hero is someone who does the right thing in spite of adversity,” said Spc. Ian Johnson, a medic with 2nd Battalion, 8th Field Artillery, 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division out of Fort Lewis, Wash.

“It’s doing what is right when everything is against you, doing what is morally right in spite of peer pressure.

“If we had more people like that in the Army, stuff like Abu Ghraib would never have happened.”

One night while conducting a traffic control point in the flatlands south of Mosul, a couple of soldiers from Battery C, 2nd Battalion, 8th Field Artillery, 1st Brigade, 25 Infantry Division offered a few insights on heroism.

Many felt that volunteering to do their job makes them heroes.

“I think every soldier makes a hero,” said Spc. Nathan Meyers, 24. “From private E-1 all the way up to ‘General Whoever-It-Might-Be.’ We volunteered to give up so many things to do what we are doing, friends, family, free time.”

Other than his absence, it’s a sacrifice that won’t directly affect his wife, Amanda, for example, he said. “We’re trying to stabilize this country, get rid of terrorists from afar and local terrorists. I don’t feel we’re out here to protect the United States. Everything we’re doing, we’re doing for this country.

“It’s an unselfish act.”

Pfc. Damian Pete, 23, wasn’t as sure.

“Good question. What the hell is a hero? I just know that I’ve never met one.”

Pete and Meyers, both field artillery crewmembers, get to talking a little to pass time in the darkened desert. They talk of the $82 billion funding supplemental, and whether Pete will be able to get a new flak vest instead of wearing one that not only is a hand-me-down, but held together in one spot with string.

They speak of the hellhole that is this part of Iraq.

“This sucks,” Pete said. “I want to go home. I have a son.”

His 2-year-old son, Camree, lives on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in South Dakota with his great-grandmother, abandoned by his mother.

“I can’t wait to get back to make up for lost time,” Pete said. He wants custody of Camree and to bring him back to his home base of Fort Lewis.

“You’re gonna be a single dad — in the Army?” Meyers asks, incredulous. “See now, that’s a hero right there.” [...]


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