Mid-Willamette Fiction Writers

Current Project: A Killer Pinot Noir
Status: Chapter One

Hello everyone! I'm Deborah Wright and I'm looking forward to being part of the blog. I'm especially pleased that my first official post is today, Veterans Day. This isn't exactly about writing, but hopefully there's some inspiration to be found within.

Heroes. They're one half of the HEA equation and our stories would be awfully short without them. We bandy that word -- hero -- about pretty easily, but what is it that makes a person heroic?

A couple of weeks ago my husband and I had an unique experience. We attended an event at the Evergreen Air & Space Museum celebrating the men who served in Easy Company in World War II. In fact, it turned out to be a much bigger honor, as the dinner was actually part of their annual reunion. For those of you who don't know, Easy Company is the nickname for the 101st Airborne Division, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, E-Company -- the men depicted in the book and mini-series, Band of Brothers.

There are only a few men from Easy Company still living and not all of them were able to make it to the renunion. After the dinner, with a couple of exceptions, each man got up to say a few words. No matter their advanced age, they each stood tall behind the podium and, to a man, they all said essentially the same thing. They weren't heroes, they said, they were only doing their jobs. The real heroes were their comrades in arms who fell at Normandy and in Holland, the men they left behind in every battle. They were proud of their service, but there was no boasting or bragging, no swaggering or telling combat stories.

My husband and I had personal reasons for attending the event. We both wanted to pay honor to these men who had served our country. And in doing so, we were honoring our fathers, both gone now, who also served in WWII. My father-in-law was a paratrooper who jumped on D-Day in the same area of Normandy as Easy Company, landing amidst gunfire in Sainte-Mare-Eglise. My father served in the army in North Africa. Neither of them spoke much about their experiences, at least not to their children. Dad, if asked about the war, would invariably trot out some funny story about sandstorms and camels, nothing more, certainly nothing about the horrors he experienced nor the friends he lost.

It wasn't until after my father's death in 1994 that I learned more details of his service. We were going through his things and I came across a newspaper clipping of dad and four other young men in uniform. My mom told me they were all friends from the same small hometown in Minnesota. They'd enlisted together in September 1941 and the local newspaper had printed their picture. The thing that struck me was how young they all looked, just kids, really. Dad had just turned 19 years old that August. He was the only one in the picture to survive the war.

I learned that he served in the Minnesota National Guard, 34th Infantry Division -- the Red Bull Division. They were the first US Division deployed to Europe and my dad was on the first troop transport over, spending time in Ireland before the invasion of North Africa. I learned that he'd been a sharpshooter and had volunteered, but hadn't been chosen, to be part of a new group being formed from the 34th, nicknamed Darby's Rangers, the precursor of today's modern Army Rangers. Dad was wounded in North Africa and sent home in 1943, a first sargeant, while the rest of his Division went on to fight in Italy. He spent the remainder of the war helping train new troops.

These were quiet heroes. Men who might not have come across as "alpha" males, but probably didn't strike anyone as being "beta" either. They were men from all walks of life who did what they had to do and who came back from war wanting nothing more than to get on with their lives in peace. Much the same, I'd guess, as do all who ever return from war.

So when you're wondering what qualities to give the hero of your next story, especially if he's supposed to be heroic, try adding a touch of humility. Let us see his heroic nature, but make him blind to it. He'll be in mighty good company.

Happy Veterans Day!