Bravery

Courageous acts can become obscured with time. Not so for doctor and World War II veteran Harry Messmore. The French government just presented him with its top award, the Legion of Honor, for bravery he showed in battle. "I suppose it's something to be proud of to receive an award that dates back to Napoleon," he said in a Chicago Tribune article. But that's not the only thing that makes Messmore remarkable. The story continues: "Sitting at a conference table in the library of the Loyola University Medical Center recently, recalling stories not only from the war but from his long career in medicine and medical research, it was readily apparent that there is still a lot of that young second lieutenant in this 87-year-old man. "When his own personal fog — a combination of macular degeneration and glaucoma -- rolled in five years ago, no one would have blamed Messmore for giving up. Already retired, he was still volunteering his medical expertise diagnosing difficult cases at Hines Veteran's Administration Hospital.

In the "The Outsider" episode of "Once Upon a Time," Hook is finally able to confront Rumpelstiltskin, and Belle is able to show her heroic side (twice) -- but not without a price. It all starts with Rumpelstiltskin finding a way (creating a potion) to leave the town limits without losing his memory, and a funeral. The town holds a small funeral for Archie Hopper/Jiminy Cricket, whom they believe was killed by Regina. It has hit them all pretty hard, especially Henry, who had formed a bond with him. Jiminy's death stirs in some of the group a desire to return to the Enchanted Forest, not only to escape Regina, but also to hide from those in the real world who might not understand the magic that has been released in Storybrooke.

A Marine based in Twentynine Palms is set to receive the Navy Cross today for bravery during combat in Afghanistan. Lance Cpl. Richard Weinmaster, 20, of Cozad, Neb., was part of the 2nd Battalion, 7th Regiment deployed last year to break the Taliban's hold on Helmand Province. On a July 8 foot patrol, Weinmaster's squad was ambushed. Weinmaster used his body to protect his squad leader and other Marines from the blast of an enemy grenade. Although seriously wounded, he continued to fire at the attackers, forcing them to flee.

KABUL, Afghanistan - Rahmatullah, an illiterate young man with a wispy beard and remnants of teenage acne, may represent the last, best hope for Afghanistan's national army. Wearing an old Russian-style helmet and firing an American M-16 automatic rifle, he squinted as his hissing rounds found their target on a firing range at the national training academy. At his elbow was his first cousin Azizullah, a functionally illiterate Pashtun tribesman who crouched to fire his own M-16. The cousins decided in fall to join the Afghan National Army, which for a decade has struggled to mold itself into an effective fighting force.

Roy Williams states ("Placing Courage in Social Context," letter, May 2) that "the bravery of a suicide bomber is no more in doubt than the bravery of a Sept. 11 hero." This is an insult to the truly brave. Suicide is simply an escape--from real or imagined suffering, from responsibility, from self-loathing or from prosecution for one's actions. It's also forbidden by both the Bible and the Koran. As Williams correctly notes, intentional killing of unarmed, noncombatant civilians is "evil" and considered both a crime and unethical throughout much of the world.

Ted Okuda, manager of a Lucky supermarket in Long Beach, and Tracy VanTrece, a loss prevention coordinator for Sav-On drugstores in Los Angeles, received awards from their firm's parent company, American Stores Co., for bravery and leadership during the riots. While looters were rampaging through the Long Beach store and setting fires, Okuda calmly led customers and employees to safety and then returned to put out the fires and secure the premises, the firm said.

Fullerton Police Officers Fred Casas and Kevin Scanlon have been chosen to receive awards from the local American Legion chapters for bravery in the line of duty. Casas, 28, a five-year veteran, will receive the Legion's Award of Valor for his arrest of five men after a fatal shooting.

Total Awards Through Dec. 31, 1986 Army: 2,342 Navy: 743 Marine Corps: 295 Air Force (a): 16 Unknowns: United States(b): 4 Foreign (c): 5 TOTAL: 3,406 (a) First Air Force awards made during Korean War. Prior awards to Army aviation personnel included in Army totals. (b) "Unknown soldiers" of World War I, World War II, Korea and Vietnam. (c) By special legislation to unknowns of France, Belgium, Great Britain, Italy and Romania.

Sixteen Los Angeles police officers have been chosen to receive the department's Medal of Valor for bravery in the line of duty. The civilian board that oversees the LAPD voted unanimously Tuesday to approve the department's selection of the officers, who were cited by officials for "displaying extreme courage while consciously facing imminent peril." The medal is the department's highest honor. Ten of the officers were involved in a chaotic 2005 shootout in South L.A. between the LAPD's elite SWAT unit and a deranged man who opened fire on police while holding his toddler daughter.

An imprisoned husband and father, released after three years, finds an emotionally shifting new world upon his return home in the urban family drama "Gun Hill Road. " Set in a struggling yet tightly knit Puerto Rican community in the Bronx, writer-director Rashaad Ernesto Green's debut feature stars Esai Morales as Enrique, a hardened parolee who averts his eyes when making love to wife Angela (Judy Reyes), who had an affair while he was gone, but can only stare in confused, wounded anger at his transsexually inclined teenage son Michael (Harmony Santana)

Retired Army Col. James L. Stone Sr., who received the Medal of Honor for bravery under fire in Korea, died Friday at his home in Arlington, Texas. He was 89. The Congressional Medal of Honor Society announced his death but did not reveal the cause. There are 80 living recipients of the medal, the nation's highest award for wartime valor. Col. Stone was a 28-year-old first lieutenant when his 48-man platoon was attacked by Chinese troops on a hilltop near Sokkogae, Korea, on the night of Nov. 21, 1951.

An imprisoned husband and father, released after three years, finds an emotionally shifting new world upon his return home in the urban family drama "Gun Hill Road. " Set in a struggling yet tightly knit Puerto Rican community in the Bronx, writer-director Rashaad Ernesto Green's debut feature stars Esai Morales as Enrique, a hardened parolee who averts his eyes when making love to wife Angela (Judy Reyes), who had an affair while he was gone, but can only stare in confused, wounded anger at his transsexually inclined teenage son Michael (Harmony Santana)

Marisela Morales arrived as Mexico's first female attorney general with high marks for bravery. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton honored Morales as one of this year's "International Women of Courage," lauding her as a fearless leader in the fight to bring to justice Mexico's most dangerous criminals. But it will take more than courage if Morales is to succeed as attorney general, one of the most important figures in the government's war against violent drug-trafficking groups, which has killed nearly 40,000 people.

A group of Los Angeles police officers received the department's highest honor for bravery in the line of duty Thursday. The Medal of Valor is awarded each year to a handful of the LAPD's nearly 10,000 officers who have showed "bravery or heroism above and beyond the normal demands of police service. " As in past years, the Los Angeles Police Foundation, which raises private funds for the department, hosted a gala luncheon in Hollywood to celebrate the honorees. In a blending of reality and TV fantasy, the ceremony was hosted by Regina King, an actress who plays an LAPD detective in the drama series "Southland.

The past few days it has sounded as if fans choosing to go to Dodger Stadium deserved medals for bravery. It has a ridiculous sound to it, doesn't it? But a medal will be given Saturday to a baseball fan, Daniel Foster choosing to receive the Silver Star in a ceremony before the game with Toronto at Angel Stadium. Foster, a 22-year-old Army specialist, served 14 months in Iraq before deploying to Afghanistan, and while some might conclude he still doesn't have enough training to take on Dodger Stadium, he explains, "I'm an Angels fan. "And here's hoping the Angels kick their butts," he says, and probably not a good idea to argue.

In Japan they call them the "Faceless 50. " They are the workers at the ravaged Fukushima nuclear plant who stayed to fight the fires and keep the reactors from melting down. Watching news reports of the 50 risking everything for the common good, the Japanese see a quiet selflessness, and see themselves. "We all support them and want them to be successful," said Shinichi, 34, a banker who gave only his first name as he waited in line to buy gas for company vehicles in Tagajo, about 70 miles north of the battle to save the reactors.

It is the most revered of military commendations but also one of the least understood. Why the Medal of Honor is awarded to one, and not another, largely remains a mystery. It starts with a recommendation from those who witnessed the bravery. After that, "it disappears into the fog of bureaucracy," says Medal of Honor recipient and former U.S. senator Bob Kerrey in the top-notch documentary "Medal of Honor," which both celebrates and demystifies the blue ribbon and small hunk of metal.

Harry M. Akune's World War II experience began in the Colorado Amache Relocation Camp in 1942. It ended 54 years later at his home in Gardena when Akune learned he had been inducted into the Military Intelligence Hall of Fame. In between is an incredible story of war, almost reckless bravery and acceptance by a nation that branded him and 130,000 other Japanese Americans sent to internment camps as potential traitors. As events today remember and honor veterans, those looking for personal memories of war can find Akune's saga online at www.thedropzone.

Courageous acts can become obscured with time. Not so for doctor and World War II veteran Harry Messmore. The French government just presented him with its top award, the Legion of Honor, for bravery he showed in battle. "I suppose it's something to be proud of to receive an award that dates back to Napoleon," he said in a Chicago Tribune article. But that's not the only thing that makes Messmore remarkable. The story continues: "Sitting at a conference table in the library of the Loyola University Medical Center recently, recalling stories not only from the war but from his long career in medicine and medical research, it was readily apparent that there is still a lot of that young second lieutenant in this 87-year-old man. "When his own personal fog — a combination of macular degeneration and glaucoma -- rolled in five years ago, no one would have blamed Messmore for giving up. Already retired, he was still volunteering his medical expertise diagnosing difficult cases at Hines Veteran's Administration Hospital.

Much has been made, and rightfully so, of President Obama's Medal of Honor presentation last month to Army Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta, the first living recipient of the nation's highest military decoration since the Vietnam War. But the award also raises questions. One is why so few Medals of Honor have been awarded to those who have fought in Afghanistan and Iraq, compared with the numbers issued during previous conflicts. Another is how it is decided whether a warrior's risk and sacrifice in battle merit such decorations.