Where Have All The Heroes Gone


by Benjamin Cox - Date: 2007-02-07 - Word Count: 1739 Share This!

Where have all the heroes gone?

First of all, what is a hero? A hero might be anyone that another person looks up to and admires. A father can certainly be a hero, as can a mother, brother, sister, or a grandparent, even. An army sergeant that risks his life for his platoon is certainly a hero and to a small boy on crutches, a player who scores the winning points in a football game would be his hero. Webster defines a hero as a person noted for feats of courage or nobility of purpose, especially one who has risked or sacrificed his or her life for a cause.

Here's a story that came out of Midland, Texas in 1987. One morning two three year old girls were playing in the backyard of a daycare center when a third little girl, eighteen month old Jessica McClure climbed into an eight inch iron pipe that led down to an abandoned water well and fell 22 feet to the bottom. Minutes later when the paramedics arrived, they quickly realized there was nothing they could do by themselves.

Soon people from the surrounding area began to arrive: firemen, police officers, construction workers form a nearby highway project, a doctor, people from town also other paramedics and newspaper reporters.

After analyzing the situation some of the construction workers decided to drill a second shaft parallel to the first then tunnel over to just below the area where the baby was trapped. Their idea was to cut a hole in the pipe just below the little girl and lift her out. But it wasn't that easy.

In a couple of days they had successfully dug a 3-foot diameter by 27-foot deep hole and tunneled over to where they thought the girl was trapped. But at that point they learned the well was surrounded by an 18-inch thick encasement and no amount of work seemed to be able to penetrate the 4000-pound test concrete wall. Baby Jessica had no food or water during the entire ordeal, although the fire department was able to pipe some warm air into the well to keep her warm. Those times when the drills were silent the baby girl fell asleep or they could hear her singing a Winnie the Pooh song she had learned in the day care center. Other times when the drills were running, the baby was crying.

Finally after 56 hours working around the clock, using special hardened tools and a new type of high-pressure water cutting tool, the workers were able to break through the wall and cut an 18 inch opening in the pipe to where the little girl lay. Once the hole was cut and the drills were silent, a paramedic named Robert O'Donnell was lowered into the 27-foot deep hole and worked his way over to the pipe and reached inside and attached the baby to a small board with gauze then carried her to the surface. Eight years later in 1995, the same paramedic killed himself with a single blast from a shotgun. Some said it was the result of a posttraumatic stress disorder. Was Robert O'Donnell or any of the others a hero?

On a second front, some say we have been in Iraq a long time, that almost four years is enough and most Americans and some in congress think its time to bring the troops home. But before we throw the baby out with the bathwater, let's compare the Iraqi experience with that of our own.

Six years after signing the Declaration of Independence we still didn't have a president. Washington's once proud army of 35,000 men wearing brightly colored uniforms and shinny boots had been reduced to a tiny rag tag army of just 2,000 men. And there was scarcely a day gone by without a skirmish or full-scale battle with the British. The officers and men had not been paid for months and there were daily desertions from the ranks. Mistake after mistake plagued the army.

Then one day the stakes were raised to a new level when General Washington received word that all his officers had threatened to resign. Without being paid they saw no reason to go on and Washington didn't know where the money would come from or if they would ever be paid.

Still he agreed to meet with them and when he walked into the room they were all standing there waiting for him. But they had only one thought in mind and that was to tell their commanding officer that they were going home. Washington had prepared a short speech and reached inside his pocket and began to unfold the paper. But at that moment he realized he couldn't read what he had written and began to fumble around on his person for a pair of spectacles. Seconds later, as he held the glasses in his two hands and was about to place them over his ears and across his nose, he hesitated then lifted his eyes toward the renegade officers. "You'll have to excuse me gentlemen. Serving my country has not only turned my hair gray, but I'm also blind." And all the officers began to weep. Now, tell me ladies and gentlemen. Where are all the heroes, today? Where have all the heroes gone?

Mr. Toastmaster, fellow toastmasters and welcome guests.

First of all, what is a hero? A hero might be anyone that another person looks up to and admires. A father can certainly be a hero, as can a mother, brother, sister, or a grandparent, even.

An army sergeant that risks his life for his platoon is certainly a hero and to a small boy on crutches, a player who scores the winning points in a football game would be his hero.

Webster defines a hero as a person noted for feats of courage or nobility of purpose, especially one who has risked or sacrificed his or her life for a cause.

Here's a story that came out of Midland, Texas in 1987. One morning two three year old girls were playing in the backyard of a daycare center when a third little girl, eighteen month old Jessica McClure climbed into an eight inch iron pipe that led down to an abandoned water well and fell 22 feet to the bottom. Minutes later when the paramedics arrived, they quickly realized there was nothing they could do by themselves.

Soon people from the surrounding area began to arrive: firemen, police officers, construction workers form a nearby highway project, a doctor, people from town also other paramedics and newspaper reporters.

After analyzing the situation some of the construction workers decided to drill a second shaft parallel to the first then tunnel over to just below the area where the baby was trapped. Their idea was to cut a hole in the pipe just below the little girl and lift her out. But it wasn't that easy.

In a couple of days they had successfully dug a 3-foot diameter by 27-foot deep hole and tunneled over to where they thought the girl was trapped. But at that point they learned the well was surrounded by an 18-inch thick encasement and no amount of work seemed to be able to penetrate the 4000-pound test concrete wall.

Baby Jessica had no food or water during the entire ordeal, although the fire department was able to pipe some warm air into the well to keep her warm. Those times when the drills were silent the baby girl fell asleep or they could hear her singing a Winnie the Pooh song she had learned in the day care center. Other times when the drills were running, the baby was crying.

Finally after 56 hours working around the clock, using special hardened tools and a new type of high-pressure water cutting tool, the workers were able to break through the wall and cut an 18 inch opening in the pipe to where the little girl lay.

Once the hole was cut and the drills were silent, a paramedic named Robert O'Donnell was lowered into the 27-foot deep hole and worked his way over to the pipe and reached inside and attached the baby to a small board with gauze then carried her to the surface.

Eight years later in 1995, the same paramedic killed himself with a single blast from a shotgun. Some said it was the result of a posttraumatic stress disorder. Was Robert O'Donnell or any of the others a hero?

On a second front, some say we have been in Iraq a long time, that almost four years is enough and most Americans and some in congress think its time to bring the troops home. But before we throw the baby out with the bathwater, let's compare the Iraqi experience with that of our own.

Six years after signing the Declaration of Independence we still didn't have a president. Washington's once proud army of 35,000 men wearing brightly colored uniforms and shinny boots had been reduced to a tiny rag tag army of just 2,000 men. And there was scarcely a day gone by without a skirmish or full-scale battle with the British. The officers and men had not been paid for months and there were daily desertions from the ranks. Mistake after mistake plagued the army.

Then one day the stakes were raised to a new level when General Washington received word that all his officers had threatened to resign. Without being paid they saw no reason to go on and Washington didn't know where the money would come from or if they would ever be paid.

Still he agreed to meet with them and when he walked into the room they were all standing there waiting for him. But they had only one thought in mind and that was to tell their commanding officer that they were going home.

Washington had prepared a short speech and reached inside his pocket and began to unfold the paper. But at that moment he realized he couldn't read what he had written and began to fumble around on his person for a pair of spectacles.

Seconds later, as he held the glasses in his two hands and was about to place them over his ears and across his nose, he hesitated then lifted his eyes toward the renegade officers.

"You'll have to excuse me gentlemen. Serving my country has not only turned my hair gray, but I'm also blind." And all the officers began to weep.

Now, tell me Mr. toastmaster, fellow toastmasters and welcome guests. Where are all the heroes, today?


Related Tags: heroes, washington, george, midland, jessica, mcclure

Benjamin J Cox is an author, novelist, poet, speaker, writer and humorist. He has written a book, Insider Dreams, a 911 Novel. He was born on a dirt street in a Waldron, Arkansas, in 1943. He graduated from the University of Tulsa with a degree in Electrical Engineering. He is married with three children, five grandchildren. He is the President of Mayes County Writers Club, the Treasurer of Pryor Creek Investment Club and a member of Will Rogers Toastmasters Club. He is retired and lives with his wife in Pryor, Oklahoma. He like to run, enjoys big band dancing, Speaking before groups, and writes every day.

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