The highest honour
It seems not everyone is supportive of the idea of bestowing the Victoria Cross on Canada's Unknown Soldier:
I find myself in disagreement with this sentiment, because I believe the Unknown Soldier should be awarded the VC.
One of the most common themes speaking with those who have been decorated for valour is that they don't see themselves as special. They'd have you believe that any of their mates would have done the same thing in a similar situation.
And as yesterday's story about Private Peterson and his anonymous rescuer shows, many of those mates actually have performed extraordinary deeds in obscurity. Often great heroism goes unwitnessed and unrecognized because those who performed such acts and those who saw them didn't survive. Imagine too the veteran who doesn't talk about the war because it's too painful to remember how he raced through withering fire in a moment of exquisite selflessness and bravery, only to find it wasn't enough to save his comrades.
If the men who are decorated don't believe they're much elevated from their brethren, and if valiant efforts on the battlefield are all too often performed without any remaining alive to testify about them, then I'd suggest recognizing the Unknown Soldier with our nation's highest honour is entirely appropriate.
It not only recognizes the unknown dead, it also recognizes the unacknowledged act. I can't think of a better way to salute our veterans, living or dead, than to tell them that even if the circumstances will forever remain shrouded, we know they're all heroes.
In a letter published in Tuesday's Globe, Dominion president of the Legion John Frost contends that "placed in a sacred tomb... the Unknown Soldier needs no other honour to emphasize his status as a hero among heroes."
Veterans also don't want the Unknown Soldier to be perceived as anything different than the ordinary service members he is meant to represent, Legion spokesman Bob Butt told the newspaper, nor do they want the value of the medal to be undermined.
I find myself in disagreement with this sentiment, because I believe the Unknown Soldier should be awarded the VC.
One of the most common themes speaking with those who have been decorated for valour is that they don't see themselves as special. They'd have you believe that any of their mates would have done the same thing in a similar situation.
And as yesterday's story about Private Peterson and his anonymous rescuer shows, many of those mates actually have performed extraordinary deeds in obscurity. Often great heroism goes unwitnessed and unrecognized because those who performed such acts and those who saw them didn't survive. Imagine too the veteran who doesn't talk about the war because it's too painful to remember how he raced through withering fire in a moment of exquisite selflessness and bravery, only to find it wasn't enough to save his comrades.
If the men who are decorated don't believe they're much elevated from their brethren, and if valiant efforts on the battlefield are all too often performed without any remaining alive to testify about them, then I'd suggest recognizing the Unknown Soldier with our nation's highest honour is entirely appropriate.
It not only recognizes the unknown dead, it also recognizes the unacknowledged act. I can't think of a better way to salute our veterans, living or dead, than to tell them that even if the circumstances will forever remain shrouded, we know they're all heroes.
posted by Babbling Brooks at 12:19 p.m.
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