A Thousand Faces

A Thousand Faces

Charles Romans

The Ashland Beacon

There have been a lot of stories written about veterans, each as valuable as the last. Many authors have focused on the trials of veterans, and others have written about the commitment of the men and women who have served our country. Some of these stories – far too many – have involved those veterans serving during wartime and the pain and horror they endured to fulfill their service. I know this because I have written a good many of those stories.

Every single story, whether during conflict or peace, brings to mind a deep feeling of gratitude and empathy for the cost of service. And these feelings are not reserved only for those who have not served their country as part of the various branches of the Armed Forces. No, veterans themselves are also grateful to others who have served, as well as empathetic to what others have endured and what they have lost. And every veteran I have interviewed makes no differentiation between those who fought in wars and those who did not.

This might seem a curious thing at first, but it is completely understandable once you have spoken to a veteran about what service means. Every veteran knows that joining the service, as I have heard many veterans say, is the equivalent of making a promise to give anything that is required, up to and including their lives. Veterans pay that price – whatever it might be – deliberately and willingly. And when they pay that price, it is with the hope that the price others pay will not be as high.

It sounds quite noble and selfless, and it is. Still, veterans seldom think of their commitment and service in those terms. The men and women who have served our country have done so with a sense of dedication and determination, of responsibility for the common welfare, and for the love of their country. And there are a great many other reasons, such as personal fulfillment and a sense of accomplishment, as well as the desire to become part of something larger than themselves. The list goes on, sometimes very similar and other times as unique as the individual veteran.

But we need to remember that none of them, not a single one, was born a hero.

No, heroes are made. Some are made in fires most will never see, forced to endure and overcome so that others might know a lasting peace. Most never speak of these things, such as the father of a friend of mine (himself a veteran), who kept a German SS dagger on the mantle of his home. This was long before the existence of commercial websites where such things could be purchased, and indeed long before the existence of the internet. The stark reality of its presence was that my friend’s father had most likely been forced to kill the dagger’s original owner.

If I recall correctly, it was tucked behind pictures of his family; most never noticed it, and he never spoke of it. But he knew it was there. Perhaps it served as a reminder to him of the cost of making that family possible. He was a religious man, so perhaps it was to remind him of the violence of which he was once capable. I truly don’t know, because, as I said, he never spoke of it. I did ask him about it once, but he quickly changed the subject, and I let him because I could see how uncomfortable it still made him after all the intervening years.

But not all heroes are made in mortal struggle. Some heroes are made when their service to their country adds to their understanding of just how important the things are that we are prepared to defend. Some discharge their active service and bring what they learned there into the civilian sector. Many become teachers and mentor young people, helping them to become better adults, using their own experiences to temper the chaos of youth and channel it along more positive pathways.

Some heroes simply go on about their lives. They work in factories, or at a bank, or some other job that might not have anything directly to do with their lives during active service. They are the woman pumping gas in a car or a man buying groceries. Plain. Mundane. Normal. We might never realize that at some point those same people we barely notice on the street as we go about our own lives were prepared to lay down their own so that we could have those lives.

Veterans are heroes, both because of what they have done and were prepared to do. The active service might have ended, but the legacy does not. Ever. And though I have never heard a veteran say they served for recognition or gratitude, they deserve both. Most will be embarrassed to receive it, but we should never be embarrassed to give it.