Today the word ‘hero’ has been diminished, confused with ‘celebrity.’ But in my father’s generation the word meant something. Celebrities seek fame. They take actions to get attention. Most often, the actions they take have no particular moral content. Heroes are heroes because they have risked something to help others. Their actions involve courage. Often, those heroes have been indifferent to the public’s attention. But at least, the hero could understand the focus of the emotion. However he valued or devalued his own achievement, it did stand as an accomplishment. James Bradley
(Flags of Our Fathers, James Bradley, 2000)