Acts of heroism are more often matters of circumstance and luck, desperate acts from individuals driven by powerful emotions, which overwhelm fear and concern for their own safety, and bring out the noblest good within them. Most have gone to war with the greatest of confidence they will come back. It will not happen to me. Life will go on forever. The world will continue to be my oyster.
War pauses little, if at all, to honor their loss.
The Academy doesn't publicize or boast of the sacrifices of its young graduates. Such actions would be crude, callous, and supremely disrespectful. Yet sacrifice in the extreme is an accepted part of life called to duty in the armed forces. West Point's Class of 1950 learned early, in Korea, the meaning of leadership on the battlefield, and its price. But the price was probably increased by an unusual set of peacetime circumstances and decisions associated with the rapid insertion of these young officers into the fight.