Some years ago, while working in the area, I maintained an apartment in Raritan, New Jersey. For anyone who's not aware of it, Raritan is the hometown of one of the great heroes of the United States Marine Corps, Gunnery Sergeant John Basilone. Gunny Basilone was the only one to be awarded both the Medal of Honor and the Navy Cross during WW2 in the Pacific. Once, when I was picking up some food in a local deli, I encountered a guy about my age who was wearing a USMC cap. "How was it," I asked him, "...when you went to boot camp and they found out where you were from?"
"They told me every day," he replied, "...that I'd damn well remember to live up to Gunny Basilone."
Heroes are people who, through their acts, through their selfless courage, should inspire us. This week, as we watch and report on the Israel/Hamas conflict, we have seen all too much of the very worst humanity has to offer.
But we're seeing some of the best, too, and we shouldn't forget that. These are people who we should remember and endeavor to live up to.
One of our own is on the list, that being Congressman Cory Mills (R-FL) who has flown to Israel to help with the evacuation of American citizens trapped there.
Congressman Cory Mills with the US citizens he evacuated from Israel
— Brendon Leslie (@BrendonLeslie) October 11, 2023
So far he’s saved 32 Americans and going back for more. Told me he won’t stop until he’s an impediment or can’t get them out pic.twitter.com/PmhrZGrYE2
This isn't the first time Congressman Mills has gone to the aid of Americans in danger.
Before being elected to the House of Representatives, Mills and a team of military contractors rescued an American family from Afghanistan during the Biden administration‘s botched 2021 withdrawal.
There are also Israelis, placed through no fault of their own in the literal line of fire, who have responded and have saved lives. One of them is Rachel Adari, who, when faced with armed Hamas terrorists, responded with the only weapon she had: Cookies.
When Hamas terrorists broke into her home early Saturday morning, Rachel Adari didn’t have any guns.
But she had another kind of weapon: cookies, which she offered to the men who held her and her husband captive for the next 15 hours, as her city of Ofakim and dozens of other towns in southern Israel faced a brutal invasion by Hamas from Gaza.
“I could see they were angry,” Adari told Israel’s Channel 12. “I asked them if they were hungry. I prepared them coffee and cookies.”
“She drove them crazy,” her husband David said. “She kept asking them if they wanted something.”
The snacks helped buy the couple enough time for their sons, both police officers, to join an operation that resulted in their liberation, a rare moment of rescue on a day marked primarily by loss.
Another is a retired Israeli general, Noam Tibon, who, while armed only with a pistol, raced to save his son and others along the way:
On Saturday, Tibon learned that his son, the journalist Amir Tibon, was trapped with his family in their home on Kibbutz Nahal Oz, a short distance from the Gaza border. He grabbed his single pistol and, with his wife, drove from Tel Aviv toward Nahal Oz.
Their journey — the stuff of action movies — has been thoroughly documented in Israeli media, including in an account by Amir Tibon. First, Tibon encountered survivors of Hamas’ attack on a rave and drove them north, away from his son. Then, he ran into soldiers with no apparent mission and convinced one of them to join him. Before getting to his son’s kibbutz, they met injured soldiers and, once again, drove in the opposite direction to take them to safety. Finally, Tibon arrived at Nahal Oz and, with a handful of soldiers, killed the Hamas attackers outside his son’s home.
Finally, there is 25-year-old Inbar Lieberman, who may have single-handedly carried out one of the greatest acts of bravery in this conflict so far — especially when you consider her likely fate should she have fallen into the hands of the attackers. On hearing incoming rockets, Inbar Lieberman reacted without hesitation:
She realized that the sounds were different than those heard during the usual rocket attacks on the kibbutz — located near Sderot and a stone’s throw from the Gaza Strip.
So Lieberman rushed to open the armory, distributed guns to the 12-member security team, and coordinated their decisive response amid the unfolding attack.
She placed her squad of kibbutzniks in strategic positions across the settlement and set up ambushes that caught the gunmen off guard and turned the tables on them during their mission to inflict mass casualties.
Lieberman killed five terrorists by herself, while the others gunned down 20 more over four hours as they turned Nir Am into an impenetrable fortress — while nearby kibbutzim suffered heavy losses, Walla News reported.
Granted, the term "hero" is often kicked around far too casually. I've always been irritated when I hear a sports figure described as a "hero." Yes, I understand that a football or basketball player can be an example for youths, but for crying out loud, find some other word for them! A sports figure is someone who is handsomely, even lavishly, compensated for playing a game. You cannot put them in the same moral frame as a 19-year-old E-4 carrying a rifle, taking the fight to an enemy. You also can't compare them to a grandmother who distracts her would-be murderers with cookies. There just isn't any comparison.
Throughout our history, we Americans have had our share of heroes, people who reacted with iron courage in terrifying circumstances. Many of them are among my personal heroes today, people like Joshua Chamberlain, Alvin York, Audie Murphy, and Dick Winters. And not all heroes are military heroes, not when you can add people like Frederick Douglass to the list, Marcus Tullius Cicero, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, or of course, my own all-time, number one personal hero — my Dad. In many cases, the heroes among us are ordinary people thrust into extraordinary circumstances: a father working to bring one more paycheck home to his family while cancer eats away at him, a young girl who finds herself caring for younger siblings after her mother passes away, or a grandmother who faces down terrorists. They are people who set the example, who lead, who inspire.
Today, you can add the people named above to that list; people who have earned respect and admiration through their courage and coolness under fire. Heroes inspire us; they set an example, an example that we should all strive to emulate. Their courage is all the more marked when you consider the cowardice of their foes, especially those who are raising rabbles while they themselves are comfortably ensconced in safe places.
Charles Dickens, under very different circumstances, wrote about London and Paris that "...it was the best of times, it was the worst of times." Now, in Israel, the Israeli people are experiencing the worst of times, but they are fortunate in that some of the best of people are standing with them. While the news out of Israel continues to rightly shock and appall us, we must remember that there are heroes here, too, and not only remember them but strive to be worthy of their example.
