Heroes (Part II)

(top left and right, Marine Corporal Jason Dunham; right, and bottom left, Navy Seal Michael Monsoor)







While looking up recent Medal of Honor winners for the previous post, and wondering why these guys never got much publicity, it occurred to me that perhaps somehow they just weren't personally appealing. That's simply not the case. The guys pictured above are two of the four Medal of Honor winners from the Iraq War.

Marine Corporal Jason Dunham, in the picture at top left, looks like a model, or an overgrown choirboy. On the right the choirboy has disappeared and he looks like a rakish hellion. Either way he was better-looking than most of today's movie stars.

Navy Seal Michael Monsoor, on the left, looks exactly like what he was, a tough, elite soldier. On the right he looks like a recruiting poster for the Navy. Or perhaps the guy the Village People had in mind when they sang of wanting to join their fellow man (though he doesn't look as if he would have reciprocated their interest). Again, better-looking than most movie stars.

It's always tragic when a young person is killed. When a noble young person is killed, it is much more tragic. And when that noble young hero also happens to be handsome, well, it seems just a touch more so.

These guys should be household names. In a sense it compounds the tragedy that they're not.