DEFINITION OF A HERO

An Doan - TINO
Professor Zia
ENG99
4/4/2012

Definition of a hero

Elizabeth Berg tells the audience that her hero is someone who can reach into her inner thoughts and change the way she thinks. Throughout my life, I have also found my own definition of a hero. To me, a hero has to complete great deeds that inspire people around him to keep on moving, no matter how hard the road ahead can be. Different heroes can possess different strengths which will guide the heroes’ actions along his or her journey. After witnessing or reading about their deeds, I find a group of people that fit my definition of hero. The group consists of a fictitious character, Captain John H. Miller, a historic character, General George Smith Patton, and a close relative that I personally knew, my grandfather. These individuals went above the call of duty to fulfill their roles in life.

In the movie “Saving Private Ryan”, a squad of soldiers went on a rescue mission and gave their lives for the sake of duty; they were led by a man named John H. Miller. The movie took its stage in the bloody timeline of World War II, where brave men were not difficult to find. Captain John Miller and his squad just recently showed their courage during the ordeals on Omaha Beach, where thousands of Americans were brutally mowed down by German’s gun positions. After taking some rest, Miller was summoned by his superiors with a virtually suicide mission. Miller was informed that he was going to look for a soldier named Private James Ryan and bring him back so that Ryan could be sent home. Miller learned that out of a family of four brothers, James Ryan was the only one left. According to the Sole Survivor Policy at the time, the last sibling of a family must be brought back. Miller knew that this is a near impossible mission since James Ryan was an airborne trooper and his location was virtually unknown. Nevertheless, Miller, being an honorable soldier, accepted the task and immediately took his squad out. Along the journey, Miller and his squad braved all of the dangers and lost two of their best members due to enemies’ fires. Captain Miller had to keep his group from falling apart since the rest of the members wanted to quit this mission. Miller had to appeal to each member’s sense of honor to convince him to keep on moving with the mission. When they finally found James Ryan in a small town, they learned that a German mechanized unit was coming their way. Although heavily outgunned and outnumbered, Miller and his men decided to make a stand in order to fulfill their mission to protect Ryan. They fought bravely until every member of the group was killed. Miller was heavily wounded and was about to be executed by the German force when American reinforcement finally arrived and routed the Germans. After the mission had been accomplished, Ryan decided to have a chat with Miller. Miller pulled Ryan’s near him and, with his last breath, told Ryan that he had to earn the right to have an entire group of men sacrificed just to save him. Ryan from that point understood that he had to live an honorable and truthful life in order to pay back the deeds of his saviors. Miller and his squad laid down their lives in order to save one person, and they gave it all with pride and honor. To me, Captain John Miller is a hero because he represents the ideal soldier, going beyond the call of duty to fulfill one’s duty even though it means death. I also came to understand that Miller and his squad’s story reflected the pictures of all the heroes in World War II who had given their lives to protect the freedom that we all have today. We all must live our lives truthfully and faithfully in order to honor the men and women that gave it all in the name of freedom.

When it comes to being a hero by inspiring and leading huge armies on the battlefield, none can surpass General George Smith Patton. General Patton is today considered to be a legend whenever people speak of him. He was the type of heroic leader that leads from the front and always preferred the phrase “follow me” rather than “charge”. During World War II, he went face to face with the most efficient fighting force the world had to offer, the Wehrmacht, and beat back hard enough that the Nazis dubbed him the most dangerous man in the Allies army. During the start of his career, the American forces stationed in Africa were woefully unprepared for battle. Their performances were poor and they lacked every bit of experience needed to be soldiers. To make matters worse, they were up against German forces commanded by The Desert Fox, Erwin Rommel, one of the best generals in the German army and the leader of the dreaded Afrika Corp. Rommel beat the Americans back from Kasserine pass and threatened the entire American forces coming behind. General Patton was furious when he heard this news. He immediately stepped up to whip the Americans back to shape. He created discipline and order that today drill sergeants are still trying to learn. He boosted the Americans morale through his rough personality and his confidence. The Americans were so proud to have him on their side that they returned and beat the Afrika Corp back and trapped them in the middle of British advancing form the east and the Americans advancing from the west. Dwight Eisenhower, the commander of the American armies at the time, was so impressed that he incorporated Patton in his plan of Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily. Now Patton had his next chance to demonstrate his skill. He moved his men, the Seventh Army, so fast that the German did not even have time to prepare their defense. The only thing they could do was put their hands up high and surrender. Patton’s attitudes of constant moving and never backing down eventually caused him trouble when he slapped a soldier who was suffering from shellshock. He ordered that soldiers should be out there doing their duties, not “chickening out” under enemies’ fires. Because of this incident, he was removed from command and was sent back to Britain. Though very angry and shocked by his superiors’ decisions, Patton reluctantly obeyed and stepped down. On every single day he was in Britain, he tried to speak to his superiors into getting him on the battlefield again. But what Patton did not know was that his reputation was feared deeply by every German. The Allies used him as a decoy to make the Germans believe that the Allies were going to attack Pais de Calais, instead of Normandy. The German, fearful of Patton’s aggressive tactics and movements, immediately put most of their forces in Pais De Calais instead of Normandy, giving ways to D-Day. Without Patton’s reputation, it would be much harder for the Allies to lure Germans into their own demise. Soon, the Allies were bogged down in Normandy and the Allies desperately needed a general who could help with the break out. They immediately put Patton back in command of an army and gave him the mission. As soon as Patton set his foot on France, he began to push his men forward with great force. Patton and his Third army beat the Germans times and times again and trapped the Germans in a town called Falaise. But to Patton’s dismay, the British force was slow to exploit the advantage and allowed half of the Germans to escape. Patton jokingly said to Bradley, his superior commander, that if he was commanding the Germans in Falaise, he would have driven the British back for another Dunkirk. After the Normandy campaign, Patton and the Third Army blitzed through the French northern country side, defeating the Germans with every turn he got. The only thing that stopped him was that he had outrun his supply line and his men were short of gasoline. During the battle of the Bulge, Patton’s speed of advancement was crucial to the Allies success. The 101st airborne was trapped in Bastogne and the German forces surrounded them from all side. Outnumbered and outgunned, the 101st needed reinforcement as soon as possible. Patton was the only general with the aggressiveness to reach his fellow soldiers in time. After the winter of 1944, Patton and his men were on the move again, outmaneuvered and outperformed the Germans in every chance they got. Broken bridges did not even slow Patton down a bit, he ordered his engineers to build another bridge so that they could continue advancing. If his superiors had not held him back, Patton could have reached Berlin months before the Russian could. Patton is considered a hero to me because he has inspired me to never give up, to rise up every time I get knocked down. I am also inspired by his courage, his confidence, and his hard military discipline. I also admired him by the fact that that he is a brave leader who leads from the front, enduring the same hardship that his men were experiencing. Without his confidence and skills, the Americans would never have trusted their leader so well and made those daring advances that they did in Africa and France. I greatly admired him, a man who gave all he had to serve the army of the United States of America.

There is also a hero in my own family; one with a kind and loving personality within the family but with remarkable bravery   when speaking up against oppression at his nation’s service. That hero is none other than  my grandfather. My grandfather was born into the dark days of colonialism, when Vietnam was under the control of a much more powerful nation, France. My grandfather, seeing the suffering of our people, joined a group of freedom fighters called Vietminh, the future Communist party. He worked with the group for a while, but he soon found out that there was a darker side in the Viet Minh. The deeper he went in, the more he found out about their lies and deceptions. My grandfather wasted no more time with the Viet Minh and went home to continue his education. After the victory of Dien Bien Phu, the Communist party took over Vietnam and began to exert their control all over the North of the country. My family was forced to flee down south, where there was still no communist influence. There were huge problems in the South, however. First of all, there was nearly no cultures in the South since a lot of the southern folks were mostly farmers. My grandfather took it upon himself to contribute to solving this problem. He created a group of writers called the “The Enlightening Thinkers” to shed cultural light into the Southern minds. As a teacher, my grandfather helped contributing in educating the South Vietnamese people and creating a new generation of teachers and thinkers for the people. The second problem was even bigger and it involved the Communist party. Since actual situations of the North were all blocked by the Communist party, only propagandas about their regime came down South, some people believed that the Communist party was the right answer. My grandfather, using all of his writing skills, wrote many books about the truth in the North and exposed of the Communist evil ways. Countless people the South was woken up thanks to my grandfather, and they found a new reason to defend their land. Unfortunately, the Vietnam War was lost and the South was taken over by the North. When this happened, my grandfather was sent to concentration camps to be “reeducated”. But he refused to listen to all the lies and stayed on his path. Because of his firm attitude, he served four years in prison before the International Amnesty Group heard of him and intervened for his freedom. However, as soon as he was released, he soon got himself in trouble again. Intolerant of the way the Communist government persisted in barricading the media, preventing the news about their persecution of thinkers within the nation to reach the outer world, my grandfather began to write about the truth and secretly send his works to the Vietnamese communities abroad. The communist imprisoned him again, sentenced him to 13 years in prison and he was not released until 1991. By that year, Vietnam had started its open policy and some other dissidents had followed his example to start speaking up their true opinions. Only then did my grandfather consider his mission to be accomplished and quietly put down his pen. Sponsored by my uncle, he settled down in America and returned to his loving and kind personality of a family man. Throughout his life, my grandfather’s moral has guided his footsteps. He never drinks, never smokes, and always serves as a model of the right way of thinking and living.  He teaches with his acts, not with words. He has inspired many people to continue their struggle for freedom and now he is loved by his family, friends and readers. He is truly one of the Vietnamese national heroes and my personal hero, as well.

Everyone has their own heroes, each with different aspects and personalities. They all possess great attributions that guide them through their tasks. I have my own heroes; Captain John H. Miller, General George Smith Patton Jr. and my grandfather are the few people I always look up to. Now, the definitions of heroes may be changing, but in the end, we all come back to a common point: heroes are those who help us through our daily lives and set a fine example for the future generations.