Is the term "hero" misused or overused?

My feeling is that the word has been cheapened by the application of it to any and every member of the military, as is often done.

I understand that people want to show their appreciation for those who serve, for all that they have done for the country, that they're all volunteers, and that serving in the armed forces is a big deal, even if combat isn't involved.

They also want to counter the disgraceful way that servicemen and women were treated and talked about during and after the Vietnam war, but "hero" is so routine now that the word is often used simply as a synonym for "serviceman" or "veteran."

DawnInVirginia said:

Is the term "hero" misused or overused in society? Do you believe everyone who wears a uniform is a hero, or should that title be reserved for those who go above and beyond their duty?

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Once a young physics grad student met Albert Einstein in the 1950s, at the peak of Einstein's celebration. The young man was awed and fumbled for something to say.

So he said, "Doctor Einstein, I carry a notebook with me at all times so that whenever I have a good idea, I can immediately write it down. What do you do?"

Einstein replied, "I've only had a couple of ideas I considered worth writing down."

Soldiers award certain very specific decorations to soldiers they think are heroes. It usually takes fellow soldiers of superior rank going to a good degree of trouble to make that happen. I'm only awed by soldiers wearing those particular decorations. Most of them deserve it.

Not everyone who wheres a uniform is a hero.

You're not automatically a hero just for becoming military, of course, I appreciate the troops.
But not all of them are heros.

Some of them, a lot of them I'd say, would turn tail and run at the first sight of combat.
Or betray their country to save their life, or to spare them pain.

So I definitely think you've got to prove yourself before I call you a hero.

Just my opinion though.

As most people who join the various military services do so for either job security, technical training or with the chance to kill someone, then I suspect that very few should be considered as heroes.

Alvin York, Desmond Doss and Audie Murphy are among those that are heroes.

Wolfe said:

Not everyone who wheres a uniform is a hero.

You're not automatically a hero just for becoming military, of course, I appreciate the troops.
But not all of them are heros.

Some of them, a lot of them I'd say, would turn tail and run at the first sight of combat.
Or betray their country to save their life, or to spare them pain.

So I definitely think you've got to prove yourself before I call you a hero.

Just my opinion though.

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Have you served? I know that Anabaptists generally are pacifists is why I ask.

I have served for a long time, and have seen combat on several occasions. Both the “wimpy” combat of being in a secure basecamp and being under mortar fire and the “real” combat of going house to house or patrolling FARC infested jungle trails in Columbia.

I have seen people pee and poop their pants, vomit their guts out and freeze up for a bit but never run away from a fight. The only coward who would betray his fellow soldiers and country I know of is the person that was kicked out of the Coast Guard after two weeks of Boot Camp for being an absolute metal nut job. Of course the Army took him in and he deserted in Afghanistan but is OK because Obama got him back.

In closing, of the thousands of fighting men and women I have known of, only one was a coward. So, unless you know something different, I would suggest changing to a smaller brush before you paint a “lot” of troops as cowards.

Aryeh Jay said:

Have you served? I know that Anabaptists generally are pacifists is why I ask.

I have served for a long time, and have seen combat on several occasions. Both the “wimpy” combat of being in a secure basecamp and being under mortar fire and the “real” combat of going house to house or patrolling FARC infested jungle trails in Columbia.

I have seen people pee and poop their pants, vomit their guts out and freeze up for a bit but never run away from a fight. The only coward who would betray his fellow soldiers and country I know of is the person that was kicked out of the Coast Guard after two weeks of Boot Camp for being an absolute metal nut job. Of course the Army took him in and he deserted in Afghanistan but is OK because Obama got him back.

In closing, of the thousands of fighting men and women I have known of, only one was a coward. So, unless you know something different, I would suggest changing to a smaller brush before you paint a “lot” of troops as cowards.

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Over a recent 8 month period I have had the privilege of looking through maybe a thousand or more Service, Medical, Psychiatric and Repatriation files of those Australians who served primarily during WW1 and with some into WW2. It seems that we are fortunate here in Australia that we were the only country to keep the approximately 3.5km of Service records for our WW1 servicemen and women, where other countries such as the US discarded these records many years back. So far about 40% of these files have been indexed so that they can be further researched and hopefully the Federal government will see fit to complete this massive project sometime in the near future.

Anyway, without taking away from your post in any way or form, having gone through the Service/combat records of many of these fine individuals who often suffered through almost unspeakable pains, for those who have had the opportunity to index these files the question sometimes arises as to what is a hero or what makes a hero; for those times that I have been involved with this question I know that even those of us who are a bit older, that we find this question very hard to answer particularly when the question is being aised by a much younger person.

So is a hero someone such as Murphy who jumped on a burning tank to fire a machine gun into the enemy, or is it even someone who determinedly and honourably slogs through maybe four years of mud and rain without ever receiving a medal for bravery but whose medical record shows them suffering from malaria, constant coughing and foot diseases? Is it someone who sees that all is lost where maybe the only option is to charge a machine gun post that has cut down his buddies, where if he had time to think about doing such a mad thing, that common sense would prevail and he would instead stay in his trench, but instead, he decides to make the charge against all reason and the odds?

Or is it someone who has suffered through four years of trench warfare where their rank stays as a Private and when they come home, they refuse to speak to their families and friends, and even decades later they end up dying in a mental institution?

Edit: Grammar

Biblicist said:

...Australia that we were the only country to keep the approximately 3.5km of Service records for our WW1 servicemen and women, where other countries such as the US discarded these records many years back...

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You do know there was a fire that destroyed those records in 1973 right? They weren't discarded, they were lost. Somewhere between 16-18 million records were lost. The 1973 Fire, National Personnel Records Center

Anyway, I am certainly no hero. I did deploy to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and was indirectly fired upon, however, I was relatively safe (as compared to the ground pounders/people safe in their homes) behind the wire while turning wrenches on tactical/fighter planes that supported the heroes that did the hard work outside the wire. As a member of the US Armed Forces, I do view those who have worn body armor and carried a weapon into a hostile territory as a hero. No, they all haven't taken or returned fire. But they were willing to do so, regardless of their motives for joining (I have never met anyone who joined for the chance to kill someone, I feel that was a tasteless statement). Until you have raised your right hand and sworn (or affirmed) that you are willing to die to defend the freedom of your homeland and its people, you may want to think about what hero means.

Is it overused? As applied to myself, absolutely. Just like myself, I don't know anyone who views themselves as a hero. As applied to the military as a whole, no, it is an appropriate description.

DawnInVirginia said:

Is the term "hero" misused or overused in society?

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Hideously.

Do you believe everyone who wears a uniform is a hero, or should that title be reserved for those who go above and beyond their duty?

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It should be reserved for those who do heroic things; that may or may not be "above and beyond." Simply putting on a uniform doesn't quality. I'm retired military; I'm proud of my service, but I was not a hero.

While I agree that not everyone in a military uniform is a hero, what really offends me is the application of the word "hero" to outstanding athletes. A person is not a hero for simply doing their job and, in the case of athletes, getting extremely well paid for it.

JackRT said:

While I agree that not everyone in a military uniform is a hero, what really offends me is the application of the word "hero" to outstanding athletes. A person is not a hero for simply doing their job and, in the case of athletes, getting extremely well paid for it.

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To be fair, I think rarely is an athlete called a "hero" simply for being an athlete, at least not in the sense we're talking about. Someone might say they were the "hero" of a game, but they don't mean it in the same (far more meaningful) sense....like "he was the hero of Game 7 in the World Series." It's just a sports term with no meaning beyond that.

DawnInVirginia said:

Is the term "hero" misused or overused in society? Do you believe everyone who wears a uniform is a hero, or should that title be reserved for those who go above and beyond their duty?

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That's a very interesting point and I'm glad you bring this up. Much of my family is military, and my significant other is actually already in the Air Force. I'm in Air Force ROTC but I'm not contracted so I'm not technically a part of the AF (Yet). Anyways, back to your question.

I think everyone who wears a uniform, is brave (since they are willing to make the ultimate sacrifice if need be). Then again, I know quite a few people that are only in the military for college assistance or just to relieve their trigger finger. That being said, I think when we keep calling soldiers "heroes", we water down the term itself. If everyone is a hero, how is being a hero special? Am I a hero for taking a desk job in the military so I can get free college? Being called a hero is a sign of respect. And respect is earned, not given.

I spent 7 years in uniform. I can clearly attest that not all who wear the uniform are heroes, and not nearly as many as some think are brave just because they went thru boot camp, and those that truly are heroes do not consider themselves to be such.

Like medals given out like candy now just because someone showed up and went thru boot camp and their advanced training, the basic requirement of anyone, the "hero" termed has been cheapened quite bit.

We have even cheapened the dignity of flying flags at half mast. It happens so often that now I wonder if the latest reason is because a military dog took a dirt nap from eating bad MRE's.

My time in was when it was not a good thing for a military person to wear their uniform off base for fear of ridicule and scorn. We traveled in civilian clothes, even when done for military purposes. And many of us, when we left that behind, didn't mention military service even on our job resume's. It was a bizarre time. You just kept your mouth shut and acted like nothing happened. It was just a black hole in time. You dealt with it or you didn't. You kept inside the details and spent the rest of your life trying to come to grips with.

I fully understand the sentiment now, and many in the country don't want to make the same mistakes they did after Viet Nam. But it has gone to the extreme and the pendulum has swung wildly in the other direction now. Sure, thank a soldier, sailor, marine, airman, cop, fireman, etc for their service. Buy their lunch when you see them in a restaurant. But don't take things to extremes. It cheapens the honor that should go to those who have gone above and beyond.

There are heroes today, just as in days gone by. But they are few and far between just like in days gone by. The Jessica Lynch story is one example of taking this stuff way overboard. To her credit, she disputed the claims and refused to accept that her service was anything remotely heroic. It wasn't. But her stand against the foolishness of the media and those in power is indeed a credit to her character. It took some courage to stand against the tide. If she is to be championed, it is for being a woman of great moral character. Especially since she did stand against the falsehoods, the establishment virtually threw her under the bus. She wouldn't play the game.

Would it be so that many others had such guts. Yes, even those in uniform.