November 12, 2004 - "They went where they were sent. They did what they were told. They prayed they would survive.", Illinois American Legion Sr. Vice Commander Eugene Thompson told the folks who gathered to dedicate a new memorial to Walnut, Illinois men and women who served in the nation’s wars from the War of 1812 to the present Second Iraqi War. Those succinct three sentences described the lot of the ordinary people called upon to fight in mankind’s wars since the dawn of history. Circumstances thrust the mantle of hero upon some of them. Some failed and donned the shameful costume of coward. Each of them prayed earnestly to survive and did what they had to do.

Yesterday evening ABC television broadcast Saving Private Ryan just as it was shown in the theatres with all the blood and expletives intact. The expletives were not deleted. It was not The Sands of Iwo Jima where heroes died without bleeding as John Wayne postured for the camera. It was not The Green Berets where a sanitized war was filmed in living, not dying, color. When it first appeared in theatres those who had lived through the Normandy invasion told us that it showed war as it really was. So real a picture of war, in fact, that ABC followed it with a notice that gave a Veterans Administration telephone number should a vet need to talk about his combat experiences.

Several ABC affiliates refuse to air the film pressured by suggestions that the FCC was prepared to levy fines for the language spoken. Some critics called on ABC to scrap the showing as inappropriate for Veterans’ Day when American soldiers were at war and that American children should be spared the sight of American blood. The same critics decried the reading of the fallen soldiers’ names on Memorial Day. America should be spared the reality of war when their sons and daughters have gone where they were sent to do what they were told and were praying to survive. At least 18 have not survived the week at Fallujah while others have kept their appointments in Baghdad, in Mosul, and yes, in Samarra.

It takes courage to survive; courage to take one more step; courage to resist running away; and courage to flee from an insane battlefront and then turn to stand fast once more. There are no cowards or heroes at the face of battle – just soldiers praying to survive. That is the reality of war.