I keep watching a lot of PBS programs about various events or squadrons, etc. during WWII. One I saw last night was about D-Day, and included interviews with veterans who'd been there and survived, and eventually went back to the cemetery at Omaha. While there, some French students (I'd say middle-school age) were there on a field trip, and were thanking them.
One veteran stood looking out over the beach and, with tears in his voice, spoke of how beautiful it was, and he wanted to remember it this way, not the way he'd remembered it all these years. I cried. I so badly wanted to give him a hug.
And what really had me crying at the end was that every single one of them denied being heroes. They felt either the ones who died were heroes (them too), or they were just doing what they had to do, or they got lucky because they survived.
I wanted to say to them: how many of those French children would be here now, if it wasn't for what all of you did? All you, literally, saved the world. If that's not heroic, then I don't know what is.
God bless all who have served or are serving, and their loved ones. You are ALL my heroes. Thank you.