NYT Essay Rips 'Cult of The Uniform'...Says Soldiers Aren't 'Heroes'

[AVRivera]

I am yet to meet a single Servicemember that likes to be called a "hero". When we deploy, we just want to do our jobs and get back to our Families. We do appreciate the USO volunteers that await for us at airports all over the country and give us coffee, sandwhiches, juice, and cookies and embarrass the hell out of us by clapping and yelling when we come out of the gates :). I believe the intent is not necessarily to call us heroes in the sense of having done something heroic, but a way of showing appreciation for our service to our Nation. Let's call it "exercising their First Ammendment Rights" :)

[G50AE]

[BC1]

Liberal rag run by liberal editors in a liberal city. I was in NYC yesterday. It's like being in a foreign country. Will the last American leaving the city please bring the flag?

[Rhino]

I am yet to meet a single Servicemember that likes to be called a "hero". When we deploy, we just want to do our jobs and get back to our Families. We do appreciate the USO volunteers that await for us at airports all over the country and give us coffee, sandwhiches, juice, and cookies and embarrass the hell out of us by clapping and yelling when we come out of the gates :). I believe the intent is not necessarily to call us heroes in the sense of having done something heroic, but a way of showing appreciation for our service to our Nation. Let's call it "exercising their First Ammendment Rights" :)

That pretty much says it for me. I've always liked being appreciated and respected for my service but I've never liked being called a hero because I've always felt it detracted from those who truly did commit heroic acts and were thus deserving of such accolades. I think the word is greatly overused in that sense, but that is in no way a sleight to military members, since I would be insulting myself if I were to do so. And my wife, and my father who was KIA, and my brother, and three of my uncles ... and cousins ... and nephews ... and .... You get the idea.

Liberal rag run by liberal editors in a liberal city. I was in NYC yesterday. It's like being in a foreign country. Will the last American leaving the city please bring the flag?

Are there any Americans left there?