History Beyond Textbooks: The Real Heroes

One of my most treasured memories was a few years ago when I got to give a talk at a local school on Veteran’s Day. Afterwards, at an exhibit, one of the teachers had brought in a blackened piece of metal about the size of a dinner plate. It was heavy, charred, and she said it was piece of the U.S.S. Arizona. Her uncle had been aboard it and survived the attack. As a survivor, he was given a piece of the great ship.

I was allowed to touch it.

It was like touching a Holy Relic.

Touching it, all I could think of was how many untold stories that hunk of metal represented.

The irontold me that history isn’t made by the people we often find in the history books.

History is made by that guy from Kansas who rushed ashore at Normandy, just trying to keep from dying there.

History is made by that guy treading water in the Pacific after his ship was sunk out from under him or the captain of a destroyer protecting a convoy across the Atlantic.

History was made by the people slumbering in the Earth, many thousands of miles from where their homes were. Their final resting place marked by a Cross or a Star of David or simply a stone.

History was made by the people who we’re still looking for with only the waves or the forest as their grave markers.

I want to know their stories.

Stories like those Joy Kidney recorded in her books.

Stories such as those found in Last stand of the Tin Can Sailors.

Stories like those told by the Doolittle Raiders.

Stories told by Saburo Sakai.

Stories told by the people who made the history.

Not those who got the credit.