Bring Out the Heroes?

“Do you think it was like on the A-Team?”

“What do you mean,” I asked as I tucked my son into bed at midnight on the Sunday.  Like many American moms and dads, I woke up my children – aged 12 and 10 – when I heard the news that Osama bin Laden was killed and in United States custody Sunday night.

Bleary eyed, they had come down the stairs in their pajamas to sit in front of the television while I tried to find the best channel to watch the ensuing history.  (I settled on ABC, after tiring of the ridiculous Geraldo Rivera on Fox and unnecessary hand-wringing about retaliation on CNN.)

As we sat in front of the television – what event causes the whole family to sit in front of the television anymore? – I explained to them that they helped, in a small way, to fight al Qaeda.  In 2005, we decided that my husband David would go to war, the kids essentially gave up having a dad at the house as he experienced life during the "Surge" in Diyala Province, Iraq. During his year-long deployment with the 2d Squadron, 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment, he earned a Bronze Star. I learned to pay the bills on time(ish) to keep the electricity on. My son learned the unpleasantness of not having a dad during the “father/son” Cub Scout events.  My daughter learned what it was like to have a vested interest in the news, politics, and current events.  We all learned about sacrificing for the greater good, though just a shadow of what many, many, many American families sacrifice.  More than 5,000 American families have paid the ultimate sacrifice since Osama bin Laden “masterminded” the 9/11 attacks, with more than 40,000 suffering wounds – some of them grevious.

So, we sat there watching the news.  Was he really dead?  Would we see his body?  What would the President say?  We stayed up just long enough to hear the President’s speech before reconciling the excitement with the sad reality that we all had to get up the next morning for school.  But as I re-tucked my ten year old son into bed, he asked me about the Navy SEALS who killed bin Laden.

“How do you think they did it?”  he asked.  My son normally is not exposed to real news.  In fact, we have our kids on a steady diet of 1980s sitcoms.  Through the miracle of Netflix, they’ve been introduced to the Cosby family, the Drummonds, and now B.A. Baracus and Hannibal on the A-Team.

The A-Team is great in part because of the funny details of life of the 1980s that you’ve almost forgotten -- the pay phones, having to “scam” to find exotic items (rather than just looking them up on Craigslist), the waterbeds, the blue eyeshadow on women who sometimes swoon when patted on the bottom.  Without fail, however, no one ever dies on the show. No matter how evil the villain or how many cars flip over in dangerous chases, the show ends with a cigar, a wink, and a victory for the good guys.

“On the A-Team,” he explained in a tired voice, “they always make a metal barrier between them and the bad guys which makes it impossible for the bullets to go through.  Do you think that’s what they did?”

“It was probably much harder and dangerous,” I said, also amazed that somehow these Navy SEALS killed Osama without any casualties on our side.

Os Guinness writes, in his book The Call, about the human tendency to seek acclaim.  He gave a few examples, including Andrew Carnegie’s life-long desire to be able to parade through the streets of his hometown to showcase his incredible wealth.  He talks about Marlene Dietrich’s habit of playing recordings of applause whenever guests came to her home, explaining when and where the applause from her performances were recorded. He also quotes a letter written by Mozart to his dad, “I am never in a good humor when I am in a town where I am quite unknown.”

“Do you think the soldiers who killed him will be on television to explain how they did it?” he asked, almost asleep.  I could tell he would dream of heroes and missions and savvy soldiers tougher than even Mr. T in the 1980s.

It had never occurred to me that we might never know who pulled the trigger.  The soldier might not get a book deal, be on a Barbara Walters special, or even get a parade through New York like Alvin C. York. After all, these guys would be painting a huge target on their backs if their names were released…  plus future missions would be compromised.

Guinness talks about how many of us are living our lives for other people’s adoration or approval -- maybe you are living your life for your wife or husband. Or maybe you’re in the stage of life where you realize you’re living life for your kids… or maybe your aging parents. Or, maybe you’ve watched Oprah so many times that you are finally living your life for yourself.

But on Sunday night, as I sat up with the kids, we had an example of soldiers we may never know – or who might be on Piers Morgan by the time this article is published.  Either way, the important lesson is that sometimes you do the right thing for, as Guinness writes, an audience of no more than One.  And this is a great opportunity to talk to our children about how vitally important that is.