On Tuesday evening, some friends gathered at our home with my family to watch the awful news of the day and President Bush’s address to the American people.
After watching the president, we went into our backyard to look at the stars and say a silent prayer for our country and our fallen fellow Americans.
Suddenly, out of the north over Washington, a jet airplane’s rumble was heard. Living south of Ronald Reagan National Airport in Virginia, we’ve become used to hearing the sound of commercial planes landing and taking off but this noise was different and commercial flights had been canceled since the morning. It was the sound of an American military fighter. My son Andrew, an expert on such matters, told us it was an F-16. But the sound told me something else.
In the movie, “A Few Good Men,” Jack Nicholson has a memorable role as the Marine Colonel in charge of our base at Guantanamo on Cuba. Under hard cross-examination by the character portrayed by Tom Cruise, Nicholson replies, “you want me on that wall…you need me on that wall!” referring to the structure that separates Guantanamo from the rest of the island.
Last night, some young man was in that F-16, circling Washington, standing on the wall, protecting all of us, keeping us from getting hurt.
President Bush, our government and our military are on that wall. Protecting us, protecting our allies, working hard to find the perpetrators of the attack on New York City and Washington — on all of America – yesterday, and hopefully help them along to the gates of hell where they want to go and where they belong.
That young pilot, our President, the doctors, nurses, police and firefighters in New York and Washington are providing a valuable lesson that our children need to learn and other Americans may need to re-learn. They are the true heroes of our country. Because they are on that wall.
Barry Bonds may break Mark McGuire’s home run record and Michael Jordan might play pro basketball once again and Brittany Spears might make nice music, but they are entertainers. Though they are worth millions of dollars, they are not real heroes. Not to say they are not good people or capable of doing good. If they live upstanding, moral lives and set a good example for young America, then our children and our culture can benefit. But they are not our heroes.
Ronald Reagan once spoke of, “the quiet everyday hero” in a State of the Union address. For me, those quiet, everyday heroes included my father and my brother, both Syracuse firefighters — my father died of injuries suffered after a fire — both of whom I remember and cherish.
Another hero is an uncle I didn’t know, whose plane was shot down in the Pacific on his 21st birthday in January of 1945. Each of them freely chose to take a stand on the wall. And the men and women who yesterday who took their place on the wall, to defend us and protect us. They are my heroes. They are America’s heroes. Thank God they are on that wall.
Craig Shirley heads a communications firm based in northern Virginia.
LOAD-DATE: September 13, 2001
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
Copyright 2001 U.P.I.
