John Wayne Was My HERO Growing Up! WHO Was YOURS?

My father for saving me from myself for doing his part in Viet Nam Hill 55, Hill 63, LZ baldy, and for just being a general all around good guy ask anybody they will tell ya..

My much younger brother who on Nov 2 2007 became like my father before him
a United States Marine, never have I been disappointed by him or his actions..


and last but not least Both my grandfathers who both died this year My fathers father for well being grandpa and serving in WWII and my mothers father for teaching me about baseball when I was a little boy....( no I am not a big sports fan but I will always be a big fan of his)

Respectfully
GEO

Here's another that I respected, admired and was a hero to me, Gene Hackman.

Dave

reply to post by Solarskye


It's a topic for conversation and dialogue...... my intent is to find out what the members think and who was their HERO. The Military.Com group (all active duty and vets) are really getting into it. Their differences about John Wayne or anyone, for that matter, are individual taste.

As said before.... "When I Was Growing Up" he was my hero. Some of the things I believed was, 19 at the time, wanting to go out in a Blaze Of Glory, serving my country as my Dad had done as a Navy Pilot in WWII.

Back on topic...... WHO WAS YOUR HERO GROWING UP?

Dave



[edit on 11/15/2007 by Dave Rabbit]

My hero is my father. He is one of 13 children, 2nd from the oldest. His family was not very well off money wise. I have heard a lot of stories of my father growing up. But the one that I most think of is when he joined the Marines. He was 17 years old. Joining the Marines was not the impressive part (altough it is a big part considering his age), the part that impressed me was that he would send gifts on birthdays and Christmas time to his brothers and sisters.

He would get them new clothes, shoes and toys. His sisers and brothers did not know where the stuff came from. They figured their parents got it for them. My grandparents never told them where the gifts came from and let them assume that they got the gifts for them. My father never told them that he was the one sending the gift. But they finally figured it out. He did not want them to go through what he went through as a child. Then he was a young child, his father baught him a bicycle on store credit. When his father could no longer make the payments, they came and took the bike from my father as he was riding it. He never wanted that to happen to any of his younger siblings.

He and my mother have been married for 45+ years. There are nine siblings in my family, 8 girls and 1 boy (the boy is in the middle). My other for most of my life was a stay at home mom. My father on the other hand wasthe one to make sure that we all were clothed, fed and had a roof over our heads. He would work part-time jobs while serving in the Marines to help make ends meet.

I loved when parents came to school to eat lunch with the kids. Mind you when I was in first grade, there were 4 other siblings in school at the same time. My father would come in, dressed in his uniform and have lunch with each of us. He would not spend the whole time with one, but take the time allotted and split it between all 5 of us. Thinking back on that, I don't recall many parents coming to these events, but my father always did.

My father served two tours in Vietnam. In each tour he was wounded. Once in leg, the second to his head. I will never forget my father coming home when the war ended. The next day he took us all to the toy store, at time there was 7 of us. One was born while my father was serving his second tour.

As we grew older and started playing sports, my father never missed any of our practices or games, whether it be my brother playing football, me and my sisters playing soccer or basketball, or my other sisters who were cheerleaders. You could always look to the sidelines and know my father was right there running up and down the field with us. When the leagues had a hard time getting coaches, my father came in and coached the tams, whether it was my brothers football or our soccer teams. My mother coached the the cheerleaders. And they played no favoritism. They didn't treat us better than others on the team.

When my father retired from the Marines, he was a Master Gunnery Sgt. I didn't know what this rank was or the importance of it while he served in the Marines. He never made a big deal out of it. I remember going on to bases and my father would be saluted. I thought they only saluted officers yet he was saluted, and I'm thinking this was out of respect for him. I found out later that Master Gunnery Sgt is the highest rank one would go on the enlisted side, but living with my father you would never have known that.

After retiring from the Marines, he went to work at the post office. Working the night shift because the pay was better. My mother went to work at the local hospital. When we came home from school my father always got up to spend time with us. I never thought, did he have enough sleep? If one of us was sick and had to come home, he came and got us. Again, none of us thought of whether he got enough sleep during the day to work that night. He never complained.

If we had extra food after dinner, he would have me pack it up for him to take to work with him. I never knew what he did with all the food until recently when I ran into someone who worked with him. He didn't take the food to work for himself but for the people he worked with so that they would not go hungry.

My father is a Saint. He has always given and has never asked for anything. Even though we are all grown up and all moved out, he still gives, never asking for anything. I could go on and on about my father, he is a true HERO, not only to me but to many others whose lives he has touched.

And Dave, my father loves John Wayne, as all in my family does. We all watched his movies. I have many favorites, The Quiet Man, McClintock, The Cowboys, the lists goes on. I used to love it when they would play his movies all week long. We'd get home from school and watch John Wayne. Even my father would miss the sleep he needed to watch John Wayne.

Well, when I was a kid I guess I never realized what a great man my father was. I was (and still am) a huge sports fan, played anything I could get into. I guess I would have had to say that certain athletes were heros.

Donald Arthur Mattingly
Mike Bossy
Tony Dorsett
Bobby Nystrom, who I later got to meet and played flag football with for 3 seasons.
Ron Guidry.

Probably not what everyone else considers heros, but were to me.

[edit on 15-11-2007 by traderonwallst]

My hero was Rick Tocchet cause he could score 40 goals a year and still kick the snot out of you...

george carlin, no question

My hero is the naturalist David Attenborough, who in the majority of his 57 years with the BBC has brought to the world some of the most influential & thought provoking TV documentaries we've ever seen.

He seems such a decent man. And there's not many of them about nowadays.

Originally posted by captainslowTG
george carlin, no question

I agree from the personality world. Carlin is king. He went a long way of breaking down a lot of barriers. As did Carrol O'Conner. He took a chance doing Archie Bunker. His career could have ended there but instead WE were accepting of this, laughed at what he had to say and it changed a LOT in society in the 70's.

As to my REAL hero, Rex, my grandfather. He went to England before Canada entered the war(WW2), he had to transfer to the Canadian forces later. He was in the Engineers, those guys were out front. Some of the things he told me were truly remarkable and some very scary. He also met my grandmother in England, good thing or I wouldn't be here. Rex and Marg(a tough woman too), years later:



He died of liver cancer 6 years ago. A day doesn't go by that I don't think of him. I've got to call mt Nan. Later.

I also cant forget Eddie Van Halen , Jim Morrision,and last but not least Andre Waters (dirty Waters).

Sifu Bruce Lee!

Thank You Master!





[edit on 17/11/07 by Souljah]

Well you'd never guess who was one of my heroes podner
Yep it was Marion Morrison himself

Pilgrum drawls & rides outta town

[edit on 17/11/2007 by Pilgrum]

My parents were my heroes...as far as celebrities go I have none.

when i was a few years younger i would have told you i had "heroes" but it depends on perspective now that ive learned things i realize i never really had heroes i was looking up to villains. however, i still look up to tupac. i used to listen to his stuff and think solely about the gangbanger aspect of it. now i can listen to it and really understand what it was he was sprinkling in there. he spoke about real politcal issues and more than just bangin and what not. i couldnt see that before but still while hes not the best hero he was mine and he still is but now for different reasons.

Maradona(argentine football player), and kurt cobain(head singer of nirvana.

Both are troubled geniuses, so thats probably why i like them alot, and maybe can relate more to them.

Maradona will always be remembered for giving it to the english(scoring the greatest soccer goal ever, and the infamous hand of god goal), against them in 1986.

Kurt cobain, took nirvana and knocked michael jackson of no1, what more can you say. Nirvana made music for normal people again, after all that fake stuff of the 80's.

As a teen, Ray Harryhausen.
Post teen, Edward Van Halen, baby!
Simply because they both thought outside of the box.

What's interesting about John Wayne is that though he never served a day in the military, he still managed to become the symbol of and for America at that time.

In fact, Joseph Stalin tried to assissinate John Wayne for this very reason.

That was back in the day when Hollywood stood behind our leaders and our country.

Truly sad and ironic that most of Hollywood would now much rather side with the enemy and undermine America's efforts instead.

Matt Dillon on Gunsmoke. No one had to worry when he was around! I also have to say Rhett Butler! He was a fine looking hero at that!

Mine was JFK, and this was a long time before I knew he was bangin Marylin Monroe and taking on the Federal Reserve by ordering that the treasury begin printing new silver backed currency!

I was raised not to embrace idolism as a child, but I still had my hero's.

Bruce lee - always fighting for the right reasons, "be like water"
Dirch passer - A Danish "old movies" comedian
Charlie Chaplin - The greatest "silence-movie" actor ever!
The Shadows - The very reason I learned to play guitar
Rockers by Choise - Danish rap band from 84"
Star Wars - who didnt want to be a jedi in the 80's?

I had many others, and I seemed to pick the funny ones, and thoose fighting for the weak... But isnt that what heros are all about? I think so...

Rolemodels are another discussion in my oppinion.

Always had something of a soft spot for the old philosophers, who in their day would probably be referred to as "Nutters" or "Lunatics" except of course in enlightened societies.

The idea of attempting to spread wisdom and knowledge regardless of public scorn strikes me as almost Archaic; and therefore worthy of my attention, in my books.

I was that kind of kid, btw - it was only until i got a little older that i realised that this particular kind of mannerism isn't just scorned upon, but alienated and demonized.

[edit on 1-3-2008 by Throbber]