Heroes, stories, and the guy with 3 hearts
If someone were to ask me to suggest a likely candidate for the title of War Hero, I would have to say you couldn't make a much better choice than a man with three hearts.

Inside Battery A, hunkered on a site beneath the skeletal beginnings of the unfinished Great Mosque, it?s easy to find a soldier who has taken shrapnel.


?To date, we?ve had 26 attacks,? says 1st Sgt. Stephen Smith. Three were ambushes.

The troops trained at close combat in the Kuwaiti desert in the spring, but the soldiers are still surprised their artillery battery wound up here, patrolling a wasp?s nest.

?It?s just a fluke,? Smith says.

At the risk of practically giving away a sure-fire Pultzer by putting this in the hands of the blogosphere, may I direct your attention to the following?

At the risk of sounding like Glen Reynolds, I would ask you to read the article in its entirety.

This may end up all over the internet by tomorrow. If so, then I have done my part. This is a story that deserves to be told, and one that a lot of people need to hear.

I need to caveat what I am about to say. It is not my intention or desire to belittle anyone, or to reduce the significance of their experience in this conflict. I am in no position to judge anyone's courage or valour, nor, quite frankly, are you. Courage is a very personal matter, perhaps even more so than any religious or other moral conviction.

Having said that, I have followed the reporting of events in this war in several of the Coalition nations. At present, the only heroes the public has seen from this war are a group of people who were put in a bad position because they failed to take care of their own equipment, and whom the adversary did not kill when they had the chance.

?It?s crazy around here, sir,? says Cpl. Wayne Santos, pulling guard duty out front. He pulls back his Kevlar collar to expose a bulging lozenge of a scar. ?I was lucky, because I?ve got a 1?-inch hole that goes through the back of my neck.?

The Soldiers of 4/27 Field Artillery, the subject of the article linked above, could not have reasonably expected to be thrust into the level of conflict in which they find themselves. Artillerymen don't generally engage the enemy at close range in this fashion. But because they are well trained in the basic skills required by any soldier, because they respect themselves and their commerades, and because the leadership of that battery was unwilling to accept anything less than a full effort, they are not POWs. They are standing toe to toe with the adversary in the most active kill zone in this sector (under 25 Kilometers or so from where I sit now), and they are not backing down.

[PFC Jonathan] Mayberry was restricted from normal duty for one month after his second attack, but he?s still in Iraq. Soldiers typically leave a theater after attack injuries, but Mayberry says his unit is too small and sees too much action for that.

?I wish it were that way,? Mayberry says. Then he pauses. ?But I don?t know. I?m serving my country ... maybe if I got some leave.?

He says he?d be too worried about his fellow soldiers to stay back in Germany while they fought. He says he couldn?t even stand being on restriction.

PFC Jonathan Mayberry has received the Purple Heart, probably the most famous of America's awards for Vaolur in the face of combat, twice since his arrival out here. According to the US Air Force, it is an award the American military bestows in recognition of wounds or death as result of an act of any opposing Armed Force, as a result of an international terrorist attack or as a result of military operations while serving as part of a peacekeeping force. PFC Mayberry didn't sign on for this mission to get a Purple Heart. Of the people I know that have received that award, none had made it a goal. And I would be willing to bet a month's pay that he didn't say to himself, "This is cool! Let's see if I can get another one!" As far as I have been able to determine, he hasn't called any attention to himself. But that is generally the way heroes operate. He was uninterested in leaving his team behind, even after being wounded twice.

It isn't the two Purple Hearts that makes him a hero, but the one that he brought with him to the conflict.