re: #178 palomino

Generals can’t be heroes? Where do you come up with this?

Washington was certainly viewed as the hero of the FIRST American Revolution. And those ticker tape parades for the returning Generals at the end of WWII? I guess we’d better let today’s octogenarians know that these guys they admired so much weren’t really heroes.

A good general doesn’t take unnecessary risks with his own life. He shouldn’t be doing things that might earn him a medal. Except. If you’re Jim Gavin and the fate of operation Market Garden is on the line at Eindhoven. If you’re Robert E. Lee and the Yankees have broken your line at what will become known as the Bloody Angle. If you’re Alexander Rodimtsev and the Nazis have penetrated to your command bunker and the whole Red Army’s ferry capability into Stalingrad collapses unless you and your HQ staff, with grenade and pistol, can regain control of the situation for long enough that the next ferryload of your guardsmen can land. wikipedia gives details